Piv grabbed the book from Maya’s hands,
“Which one is your grandmother?”
“Well, all of them, I think.”
Spanner snatched the book from Piv and scanned for the names, as her face scrunched up.
“How can your gran, be four different people?”
“She’s not- I mean, she wasn’t. It’s like a code. Look here at the symbols. Each one that’s got that weird outline, from all the names. Put those together and you get Evelyn Alhern. That’s my grandmother. She’s been here.”
Piv snatched the book back from Spanner.
“Well it makes sense, if your grandpa was a hazemaker, but why would she hide her name? Are you sure it’s not a coincidence?”
“Definitely, the haze sort moved the scripts together. It’s like it was meant to be translated and the haze automatically translated it.”
“I thought it was specifically Misvan?”
“Yeah, that’s what the label said. But, remember what the book says about the effect of intent. Maybe my gran was the hazemaker!”
“I don’t know about this. I think maybe you’re looking for things. I don’t mean offence, but if your gran is a published hazemaker in Misvir, that would mean… Well, I don’t really know what that would mean. It just seems unlikely.”
“No more unlikely than any of this! I’m going to read as much as I can before the haze wears off. Maybe there are more secrets.”
Maya plonked herself on the cushions and motioned for Piv to hand the book back. He held it for a second, looking Maya in the eyes.
“You know, if this is true, and your grandmother did write this book. Then there’s every chance that Ashta will know of her, and your grandpa.”
“I did think that, but for now I need make use of this haze, please?”
Piv handed Maya the book, and turned to Spanner.
“It’s been about a week, and we haven’t left this house. I’ll admit, I am starting to feel a little caged.”
“Me too fluff face, but unless we are willing to find out what the Fylguard actually want with us, and what they’ll do if they find us, we don’t have much choice. Mikus is working on that though. He’s got a couple of hierarch contacts keeping ears to the ground. No word as to why they’re so desperate yet, but they’ve definitely lost us. It’s apparently causing a lot of friction between the Principal and the Fylguard. The Fylguard aren’t so out in the open in the last few days, but I wouldn’t take it to mean they’re not about.”
“So, how is it you know all this?”
Spanner smirked, “That Annabelle’s not quite so naive as she likes to portray. Sometimes I get the impression that she’s running things more than Mikus.”
Maya cleared her throat, looking up at the pair with a sheepish grin. She poked at the book gently, before Piv got the hint.
“Maybe, we could go and chat to Annabelle now? Leave Maya to her study?”
Spanner threw her head back, “Ohh, yeah sure thing. See ya later bookworm.”
As the pair left, Maya shifted, nestling further into the cushions, and refocused on the page in front of her. The temptation to jump straight to recipes was huge, but with the newfound knowledge of her grandmother’s involvement, she started at the beginning. Initially, the sensation of the script warping and jumbling into English, made Maya light headed, and she paused after every few paragraphs. Within a few pages though, the translations happened quicker, and more comfortably, to the point of not noticing. Interestingly, Maya found herself understanding the meaning and intent of words that she was certain she didn’t actually know, even in English.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Not only could she read the pages, she couldn’t help but understand them. She understood the words, the meanings, the implications, and even the reasoning behind the choice to write them in the first place. This haze gave her insight, not only into the literal translation of the message, but into the mind of the person behind it, and it was a mind she already knew. Maya was not clutching at straws. This was written by her grandmother, and it was written for someone she loved.
Maya continued reading throughout the night, stopping only when nudged by Spanner or Piv for food, drink, or comfort. Every now and again, she would pause for a second to appreciate the fact that the haze was still working, and then carried on. Small gasps, chuckles, and groans of realisation peppered the silence in which she read, and by the following evening, she was done.
She closed the book, and let out a huge sigh. “I can do this. I can make them.”
Piv and Spanner snapped alert and turned their attentions to Maya.
“I get it. Like really get it. I could make the ones in here, for sure. Maybe, even more?”
Piv smiled, “Was anything else in there, hidden?”
“Erm, not as such. There are hints at more, like that feeling of reading between the lines. That’s why I think I could make others. I sort of, know why the recipes are like that, like how the ingredients interact, and why some are different. The thing is, I’m worried I’ll lose it when the haze wears off. I think the reason this is happening like it is, is because my grandmother wrote the book and made the haze. Her intent was understanding, but its more than that. I don’t think if I read another book in Misvan, I’d get the same level of insight from it. I’d understand, as well as I’d understand it in English, my language. But, nothing extra. Does that make sense?”
“Well, in a way, I suppose, but not really.”
“When a hazemaker breathes a part of themselves into their hazes, it matters. They are unique to that person. Lots of people might make the same hazes, but they’re not exactly the same. It’s weird. I’m just glad I finished the book, before the haze was gone.”
“Well you didn’t exactly hang around!”
Maya leaned back against the wall, “No, I didn’t.” She breathed for a few seconds, taking note of the breath, before Spanner interrupted the moment of calm.
“So, kiddo. What do you need?”
Maya’s eyes lit up. “Right! Erm, so I was thinking we go for refraction first. If we can be harder to see, we can move around more safely, right? Then we can work towards the others.”
Piv nodded enthusiastically.
“So, for that I need some quartz, a plant called banisilis; I need the leaves. I also need some pine cones and some matches.” She glanced at the equipment on the desks. “Everything else is already there. I should probably say though, I don’t think this will make one as strong as the one I’ve got. It’ll be more like we’re translucent, we’ll shimmer a bit though if it’s daylight.”
Spanner quickly scratched the list down. “This shouldn’t be too hard, but I’ve never heard of banisilis. Let me see if Annabelle knows about it.”
She spun on her heels, and made to leave. Halting at the foot of the steps, Spanner turned back. “How much?”
Maya cringed slightly, “Probably quite a lot, in case I get something wrong.”
“Yeah but what is quite a lot.” Spanner waved her hands around as if cupping bowls of various sizes.
“Like five pieces of quartz-“ Maya estimated the size of a piece with her fingers, “-maybe one satchel of leaves-“ she pointed at Piv’s satchel, “-ten pine cones and one box of matches. Is that ok?”
“Doesn’t matter, if it’s what you need then we’ll work it out.”
Maya offered her usual grateful smile, and nodded once. She turned to Piv, “It feels so strange, to have this book. Do you think Mikus will let me keep it?”
“I’d assume so, although we don’t actually know where he got it. We don’t know a lot about his business contacts. I know he’s helping us, and we are being fed and kept safe, but we don’t really know much about all this. I say keep it in your grandpa’s bag for now. Anyway, I want to know more about what you’ve learned. You said you thought you might be able to make more? What else do you think you could make?”
“No, what I meant was, I think I get how it all goes together. The hazemaker, the breathing, and the equipment and ingredients. I think I know how I could put the ingredients together to make slightly different hazes. Like the healing one, its for general healing, but I reckon I could tweak it and make one for being really good at cuts, or burns, or whatever, specifically. Or the sensory ones, for example. In the book it tells you the recipe for a hearing boost, and one for seeing. I think I could do one that does both. Stuff like that.”
“You also said about thinking you’d lose this understanding when gor tyrat buhsuin tanjagar rohshahat clydesti o managh?”
Tired, and slightly frazzled from the study, Maya blinked a few times and turned her head to look directly at Piv. “What did you say?”
His face dropped, before settling into a resigned smile, with sad eyes. He motioned to his ears, and pointed at Maya shrugging. He spoke gibberish once more, and Maya suddenly grasped what had happened.