Roses and Thorns

Chapter 22~The code

They spent the whole afternoon and evening reading the journals. Ivelle hadn't felt that tired for a very long time, including her days as Merikh's prisoner. Being mentally tired was very different from physically.

"You got anything?" she asked putting down the journal and leaning back.

"No." said Adrastos rubbing his eyes "Naturally, it would be easier if the majority of the texts weren't written in some kind of a code," he said sarcastically and rubbed his face. He stood up and started pacing up and down. He was visibly frustrated.

"Maybe we just need a good night's sleep." she stood up "At least I need one."

"You're kidding, right? You slept nearly the whole morning..."

"I don't care. I'm tired so I'll go to sleep. If you want to you can sleep in my Gran's room."

Ivelle woke up in the middle of the night. She knew that the language her mother used were familiar to her. She quickly got up and went to the living room. The lights were turned on but seemingly Adrastos had fallen asleep while studying the journals. She walked up to him silently and shook his shoulders gently.

"Adrastos?" she whispered. Adrastos opened his eyes and sat up so suddenly that he nearly headbutted Ivelle. At the same time, he pulled out his dagger and pressed it against her throat.

"Easy, easy." she said feeling his heart pounding in her throat "I think I know the key."

"Instincts." he said apologetically "What's the key?"

"It's easy, so easy!" she started speaking very fast "We used it as a game when I was young. I've already forgotten it, but now I can remember-"

"Ivelle." said Adrastos calmly.

"Hm?"

"What's the code? "

"Umm... yes." she grabbed a paper and a pen and opened the first journal that had writings in the code language "So... there's the word 'dfetcpeplca', which can be barely called a word. Now you mirror it... " she started writing down the word. Abrastos watched curiously.

" 'Aclpepctefd' still sounds meaningless to me. " he commented raising his eyebrow.

" Sure, because it means nothing. "

" So? "

" There's a flower on the first page of the journal..." she turned to the first page.

"Yes, a Lily."

"To be precise it's a Lily of the Valley." she said matter-of-factly.

"Does it matter?" his voice was pressing.

"A lot. If we don't know the exact type of the flower we won't be able to read the message." she started writing down the alphabet "Now, in flower language, Lily of the Valley means 'trustworthy'. Trustworthy is 11 letters. So you have to go back 11 letters in the alphabet, which means, that 'a' will be 'p', 'c' will be 'r', and so on and so on..." she counted back the other letters too. "What does 'praeteritus' mean? " she looked up at Adrastos.

"Past." he said simply with a wondering look on his face. Ivelle started laughing. "What?"

"You should see your face." she laughed.

"You're like a child." he rolled his eyes "Give me a journal and let's translate the rest of them. Ivelle groaned but handed one to Adrastos anyway. She examined his face for a while then stood up walked into her room and came back with a book. She put it in front of Adrastos.

"Flower language?" he asked raising an eyebrow.

"You'll need it." she said opening a journal "It has pictures too."

After hours and hours of translating they finally finished with the last journal. It was already bright outside and the city started to be more and more lively.

"Most of this looks like some kind of amphigouri... Or my Latin is not as good as I thought before." Adrastos took the paper from her and examined it.

"Both." he said finally "'Custodio' means 'to guard' or 'keep safe'.

" But still. " Ivelle took the paper back from him "'The Sisters guard in the past what is taken from the Dark One'. It doesn't make any sense. "

Adrastos sat back and stared at the table.

"But what if it does?" he said sitting up "The Dark One must be my dear father. " he said with a grimace "And what is taken from him is the blade, right? " Ivelle nodded.

" But in the past?"

" There are some spells that allow us to open portals to the past. Although as far as I know they are prohibited. " Ivelle opened her mouth but closed it immediately. That was insane. Her mother hid a powerful weapon in the past when she was just a few months old. "So all we have to do is find out is who the Sisters are. "

" Maybe some kind of order? "

" Possibly, but all of the orders were destroyed or dissolved during the War." he stood up and paced around "So it would've been pointless to hide the Blade with them. Erebos most probably would've found it." silence fell upon the room. Adrastos was still pacing around thinking. Ivelle sat back and watched him. She still wasn't sure whether she could trust him or not.

" Are you sure, that all of them were destroyed? "

" As far as I know, yes. " he finally stopped. " But it's a good starting point."

"I say let's grab something to eat. I'm starving and I'm sure that you're hungry too." she walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge "Well...there's nothing in here...at least nothing edible...most of the food is rotten..." she walked to the door and put on her coat.

"What are you doing?"

"There's a bakery down the street. I go and grab something to eat."

"No, you don't."

"We can't starve just because we are hiding. I'll be back in ten minutes." Adrastos raised an eyebrow "You can't go since you know nothing about our word, at least not in this century."

"Fine."

"That's what I thought." she gave him a weak smile and left.

On her way to the bakery and back, she had that very strange feeling that someone had been watching her. She brushed off the feeling, thinking that she was just being paranoid. When she entered the flat Adrastos was standing at the window scanning the street.

"You know, I had that feeling that I was being watched." she put down the bag of croissants and the two coffees "I thought that I was paranoid, but now I can see that it was you..." Adrastos didn't turn around.

"You were right. I had that feeling too." he waved her to stand next to him and pointed at a figure on the other side of the road "I don't know who he is, but he has been standing there since you left. He's been watching the flat." Ivelle frowned.

"Do you know who he is?"

"I just said that I don't."

"Right, sorry." she looked away "What are we going to do now?"

"We'll need a safe place." he said "We can't stay here." he drew the curtains and walked to the couch. "Any ideas?"

"Nothing. They are most probably watching my mother's house too."

"That's very possible." he frowned "We'll wait until it's dark and then leave. I'll try to figure out something until then." Ivelle nodded and sat down across him. Things were getting just better and better.