Chains of Nect: Obsidian's Obsession

Chapter 8

Sid's stomach churned as she waited for Damian in the study room. She'd eaten too much for breakfast--the food was like a rock weighing her down. Or maybe it was just the excitement that she'd finally learn the letters inscribed on her gate.

Damian slipped through the door, carrying two books. The one on the bottom was clearly the precepts. Too much to hope that he'd spare her the suffering of reading that thing two days in a row. But the one on top was smaller, and the entire cover and spine was filled with the ancient script.

Finally.

He placed both books on the table.

She reached for the one on top.

"Wait," Damian said.

The book was under her hand, so tempting, so close. But his tone was stern, and she still needed to watch herself. She'd made too many mistakes already since she'd gotten here. Still now, she felt the yearning from the portal in the courtyard.

"What is the first precept?"

Sid swallowed, a nearly impossible feat since the rock seemed to have moved into her throat. He couldn't know--she was sure he hadn't seen her. "No one shall touch the gates without permission." A precept everyone in Nect knew since the time they could speak and understand. He shouldn't have needed to ask it.

She looked up at him, hand still resting on the book, but she couldn't read his face. So even, so expressionless. Damned Guardian face.

After allowing the seconds to stretch, he offered a curt nod and motioned to the book. "By all means. But it's back to precepts this afternoon."

She snatched the book and opened it. That wouldn't be a problem--she'd have this memorized far before then. How hard was it to learn an alphabet?

Damian settled across from her, not even hiding behind a book of his own this time, openly staring at her.

Every part of her wanted to ask him what his problem was, to challenge his gawking, but she couldn't risk having him take this book away from her. No, not now, when she finally had it in her hands.

She looked at the first page, and the stone shifted back down into her abdomen. It wasn't as easy as a letter in the Nectinian language matching up with a letter in the Portal language. Each combination of script represented a different sound, letter, meaning, full word. The complexity of it all astounded her.

So, she poured over the pages, trying to make sense of it all. But for the little bit of understanding she thought she'd gained, she'd flip to another page and that knowledge would be shattered, uprooted by yet another layer.

At this rate, she'd never find what was written above her gate. And even though the exact ruins were etched into her head as surely as they were on the portal, she couldn't ask Damian. Then he'd know about the gate, and not only would she be in trouble, so would her entire family.

Sid looked up at him. Had he even blinked the whole time he sat watching her? "You knew this would happen. That's why you're just staring at me waiting."

Almost, she thought she almost saw the corner of his mouth twitch. "Knew what?"

Jerk. "That I wouldn't be able to understand any of this."

Damian sighed. "It's a rather complicated language. It would be no good if any commoner could decipher it. So, the Portal Creators made sure it would take a lot of knowledge to read it. And to do so, a Guardian who already knows it needs to teach the dedicants. Even then, some dedicants aren't ever able to piece it together, to cohesively see the script and puzzle out what it says."