Elmer dragged the bedside table over in hopes that he would be able to use it a bit more comfortably from where he was seated on the edge of the bunk frame.

He had knelt, stood, and laid on the floor just so he could get to this moment—just so he could finally get the translation done—and that had no doubt taken him all the time he had had with whatever little sleep he’d managed to spare in two days.

His eyes were heavy and his body weak, but he could not afford to fall asleep now—that he would do after he’d gone through all the translated words of the journal he had penned down in his paperback book.

A drop of water fell from the tip of his hair and onto his bare chest, causing Elmer to give off a weak grunt as he pushed himself to his feet. He trudged to the other side of the room to once again put his towel to use on his head, trusting that it would dry out all the water which was hiding just above his scalp this time.

After he was done with the towel, he dipped his fingers into the spiky brown bushes he had for a hair, and ruffled it. The dampness still lingered, though it had become a lot less than its prior self. He was quite satisfied with that. As long as nothing would drop from his head and wet his book, then all was fine.

He took a moment to stare up at the full moon while listening to the faint whispers of the whistling wind and the occasional chirping of crickets—the only sounds which currently existed in the narrow world that was Tooth and Nails.

It was most likely way past 11:00 P.M., he surmised based on what he had heard about the curfew.

Emperor Uriel Fitzroy had wished to curb the barrage of crimes that were overtaking the empire of Fitzroy, so he had imposed an empire-wide curfew stating that no one should be seen on the streets an hour before midnight, or they would be duly punished by the higher authorities.

Elmer could now see why the licensing for bounty hunters had been put in place. For people with the kind of powers Ascenders were stated to have, mere police officials would probably not have the abilities to punish them for going against the law.

The supposed good ones certified by the Church would do no harm, but if they somehow lost their minds and ways as he had been told Ascenders did by the store owner, Reynold Dickinson, then that was were revoking their licenses would prop from, putting them all on something of a hit list of the Church, Elmer speculated.

It was hypocritical in truth, seeing as those with the power to curb crimes were criminals as well, partaking in some of the most heinous acts known to man, such as: bribery, kidnapping, and violence. The latter two he and Mabel had been victims of.

Elmer could feel the corruption that gradually filthed him from his current stream of actions, but he could not be any less bothered.

This was the way the world he had wandered into operated—it was nothing like what Meadbray had been to him. Despite that, as long as the knowledge to help Mabel was buried deep somewhere within this filth, he would continue to plunge into it like a pig into mud, until he took hold of what he wanted.

But through all this thinking Elmer had wallowed into, something caressed his curiosity. It was probably common sense that not all Ascenders would become bounty hunters, and out of those, quite a lot would have gone down the illegal route as well. How were they ever to be punished for any misdeeds they might have committed or would commit if they were not bound by the emperor’s and the Synod of Church’s licensing?

The answer to that was obviously not written on the silvery moon he gazed at. It was just a waste of time thinking about it, and it would only make him more tired.

And just then, he yawned, proving his suspicion correct.

Elmer sighed and smacked his lips, then turned away from the raised shutter of his window and went back to his initial position on the edge of the bed bunk’s frame.

He pulled the small candle holder closer, giving rise to the flame flickering on its sprouted halfway melted candle to cast a good enough glow on his paperback, and bring into his view the words he had translated from the Enochian journal.

1st page

Testing, testing, one, two, Col Fitzroy here. Heh, Alicent’s shenanigans with her microphone are slipping into me. She needs to tune down the volume of that thing.

Wait! Oh my, blimey me. I forgot to start with the date. I’ll just put it here then. Ah, am I going to have to do this every time I write on a new day? I hate remembering the date, it only makes me notice that I’m growing old. No, I can’t. But since this is the first page, I’ll put a date here as the honorable man I am, and just because it’s my birthday.

25th of January, Year 507.

There. That’s it for dates.

Oh, yes. The purpose of this journal? I have none. It just seems like fun. But writing in these weird symbols is making it hard to enjoy. I know I’m going to learn it soon enough though, after all, I just stole the book from Raph. Father got it for him as a gift from Baron Gregor’s museum.

I wonder why Raph had requested for a translating book for a language we know nothing about?

Yes, I smell a mystery. That young man never does anything without a reason. He must be hiding something and I’m going to find out what.

…

Elmer’s eyebrows creased as he got to the end of the first page. He had suspected from the journal’s outlook that it dated a long time back, but he had not been expecting it to be this far back.

Year 507? The year was currently 1543, which made the journal to be more than a thousand years old.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

How did it survive until now? Its faded ink and lost pages were surely not enough for how long it had lived. It should have been weathered more.

Maybe someone had preserved it? Elmer shook his head. For a person to do such, they would have to be immortal, and that was in no way possible. Probably passing it down through family lineage? Then how did it end up in a bookstore? The store owner seemed to have no knowledge of it so he obviously wasn’t from the family that might have kept the book alive—if there was even one.

Elmer’s head pounded from all his thinking, causing him to give up then and there. He always knew when the answers he sought would never come just from his reasoning, and this was one of those times. Moreover, he was even too tired to push himself.

He flipped to the next page.

2nd page

Raph’s found out! He’s found out I took his translation book. Now I’ll have to quickly copy out the translations somewhere so I can return his book.

But he’s not the only one who’s found out something. I caught him going into one of the castle’s basement and peeped on him. He’s doing some kind of weird research or experiment. Lots of things I haven’t seen before were in the basement.

Is my younger brother running mad? Does father know about his son’s mental state?

I’m going to keep watching over him as the honorable, elder brother I am. Once I notice his eyes glowing red from beneath those round lenses of his like the fictional monsters from the stories mother used to read to me, I’m going to be his savior. Then he will owe me.

Oh, I almost forgot to write this. He calls the language Enochian. Funny name. I’m also a bit better at writing in these symbols now. Simple sentences have become easy, now onto the complex ones.

…

Round lenses… Elmer tugged at his, before rubbing his tired eyes and taking them to the next page.

3rd page

My mood is sullied. Father called me for the first time to the empire’s parliament meeting and announced me as the next emperor.

I knew it would happen. I have been expecting it since I was the eldest, but still, couldn’t he have picked Raph instead? I hate politics, and Raph’s smarter than me. Maybe if I can convince my brother to do it, father will leave me be.

Yes. I’ll convince Raph.

Raph said no, now my mood is worsened. I’m going to go and bother Alicent.

…

Leave the poor girl be… Elmer felt like he was reading a storybook, and even though he was sort of enjoying it, he was hoping that by the time he got to the last available page he had translated something that could help him in his own life would pop up. If not, then he would have just wasted days of his life translating that of another from a thousand years back. It would leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

He turned the page over.

4th page

Quickly putting this here before we leave.

Father says I’m going to be anointed as the next emperor by the Pontiff of the Great Cathedral today. Raph’s coming too. Maybe if I cause a scene and recommend Raph as the better candidate for emperor, the Pontiff would be blessed with some divine premonition from the Creator of all and anoint Raph instead.

Plausible, yes, plausible.

I’ll fill in the rest when I return.

…

Creator of all…? Elmer had never heard of that term before.

He knew of the Great Cathedral in the Capital city where the emperor was housed, but he knew it as a place where anyone could gather to pray to whichever God they worshiped. To Elmer, the journal was implying that the Great Cathedral was a place of worship to this Creator of all. Or was he mistaking things?

Elmer read through the page again, and shook his head after he was done. There was no mistake in what it meant. And since that was the case, who was this Creator of all?

His eyes beneath knitted brows quickly flew to the original journal written in Enochian, and he pulled it close to himself. He glanced over it, but just like before, it was there the page ended. The rest of the words had long faded.

Elmer sighed and returned the journal to the edge of the table, then put his eyes upon the next page.

5th page

I attended the parliament meeting as the anointed successor today, and I was nothing but sleepy. I really hate politics.

But something interesting was mentioned. There were talks about war.

The lord of Wyndham said his seafarers were attacked by humans with fishlike bodies. Till now, I still think he was drunk, but father and the rest of the members believed him.

Am I the only sensible person left in this castle? How could humans have gills and fins and sprout from the waters?

The lord also said that they had left one seafarer alive to return and tell him of their coming to take over the empire of Fitzroy as a start to their conquering campaign. And that from Fitzroy they would push on their conquest to the other kingdoms of Galeg, Olossus, and Wyrm.

None of these kingdoms have I ever heard of, but father did not look one bit confused or surprised, instead he told me that these fishlike people were from the kingdom of Lemur, an ancient underwater kingdom, and that Fitzroy would begin to prepare for war.

They also talked about something crazier that almost made me laugh; something about these fishlike people having some sort of abilities that we ‘mere’ humans don’t, something of the magical abilities to control the waves of the seas.

Magic? Really? Was father not seeing the absurdity of this?

I have never been more confused in my life. Is this sort of thing what I am going to deal with as emperor? I have to submit to the madness of the members of the parliament?

I’m going to tell Raph. He would surely be as surprised as I was to hear all these. Here’s to hoping he has not gone fully mad as well in that basement of his.

…

What kingdoms are these…? Elmer had edged forward while reading. The journal was seeming more and more like a storybook, but he knew it was not.

He had never been one with an inkling for history while he had been learning at the orphanage, so he was not sure who exactly this Col Fitzroy was, but his last name and the things mentioned accredited the fact that the journal had definitely been written by someone who had lived in this world.

The truth of his statements could not be confirmed, but Elmer chose to believe it regardless—after all, he had spent nights on this.

Still, as it had been for the Creator of all, he had never heard of these kingdoms, and… fishlike people with magical abilities? He would have been surprised at that as well if it had been five years ago he had come across such a thing, but he had seen and heard a lot now for him to feel the way Col might have felt.

And because he believed that such people did exist, that caused another question to grow in his head, adding to the countless that already lived in there:

Were there other kingdoms or empires with the sort of powers Ascenders were claimed to have?