The elder brought them over to a wooden house by the north side of the village, while the young farmer brought the barrel along with them at the old man’s beckoning.
“This is their house.” the old man said. “It’s been abandoned since Erika left a week ago.”
Domeron frowned. “Why did you bring us here? I thought you were going to let us talk to the girl.”
“Aye, I will.” The elder nodded. “But first, I need to show ye somethin'.”
The old man opened the door to the wooden house and waved at them to go inside.
Domeron and Red exchanged glances. The youth couldn’t sense anyone inside the house, but given what they knew of the imperials, they couldn’t let their guards down.
The swordsman looked back at the elder. “You first.”
“Bah, suit yerself!” The elder entered the house with no hesitation.
The young farmer followed close behind, with Domeron and Red going next, in that order. The youth still wasn’t comfortable giving his back to the swordsman, after all.
“What do you want to…” Domeron was about to ask something, before he trailed off.
The room they entered to look just about what one would expect of a peasant’s village home - a modest place with very little other than a wooden table, some chairs, a furnace, and a lot of wooden appliances. What caught the duo’s attention, however, was what was on the top of the table.
Lines and lines of words written in an incomprehensible language were carved into the wooden surface. For a second, Domeron and Red were at a loss.
“What’s this supposed to be?” Domeron asked.
“We were hopin' ye would know.” the elder said. “I found this after Erika disappeared. We asked her girl, and she told us her mum was doin' this the day before she up and walked away.”
The swordsman frowned. “Was Erika a foreigner?”
Domeron asked this, of course, because he couldn’t understand the words written on the table. The characters were all familiar, a part of the common alphabet of the continent, but the words just didn’t make sense to either of them.
“Nay.” The elder shook his head. “She was a local through and through. Didn’t know how to read or write either, which left us even more confused.”
Domeron looked over at Red. “Any input?”
Red frowned. “What do you want me to say?”
Domeron smiled. “I thought you were supposed to be the smart one, kid. Can’t you decipher the meaning of these words or something?”
“How could I possibly accomplish that on a whim?”
“Can’t you at least take a look at it?” Domeron asked. “It might be some kind of secret message.”
Red sighed. “I won’t promise you anything.”
He approached the table and looked over the writings. The truth was that there were not many languages spoken in today’s world, and the most popular one was called Common, spread since the days of the Crystal Sky Sect’s war against the beasts. Most other human languages died after those times, becoming relics of an ancient past, and the others were only spoken in isolated lands, such as the barbarian’s forest up north.
Even then, languages other than Common also used different alphabets, which meant Domeron was probably not too far on his guess. This might have been some kind of secret message, or at least a variant language that some organizations were likely to come up with.
This, however, didn’t mean the task of deciphering these words became more manageable. Endeavors like this took time, careful examination, and a lot of guessing - all with more than a single sample of writing too. Even then, the accuracy of such translations was debatable at best - this was the difficulty of trying to decipher something like this without enough points of reference.
As of right now, Red couldn’t even begin to imagine how to start deciphering this text. Besides, who was to say this wasn’t some nonsense that the woman wrote?
Aurelia’s voice reached his ear. “This looks like a sect’s secret language.”
Red pause, waiting for the woman to continue. Even after a few seconds had passed, though, she didn’t say anything else, causing the youth to frown.
He cleared his throat to catch her attention.
“Is there a problem?” the elder asked.
“It’s nothing.” Red shook his head. “I’m just thinking to myself.”
“Oh, what else do you want to know?” Aurelia asked in a smug tone.
Red’s frown deepened, but he didn’t say anything.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Well, I already told you all that I know.” Aurelia said. “We had a similar language in our sect that we learned once we became inner disciples. However, each sect obviously had their own system for secret messages with all kinds of complexities and loops to make it harder to recognize by outsiders. Suffice it to say, I don’t really know from which sect this is from or what it says, but the pattern is all there… Of course, this could be the language from another big faction too, but your guess is as good as mine.”
Red frowned, many possibilities crossing his mind. At first, he thought that the woman had been possessed to some degree, compelled to write in some unknown language, but there was also the possibility she was completely aware of what she was writing, leaving a secret message for other people to find later. It was quite possible there was a bit of truth to both of these options.
The youth looked back at Domeron. “I can’t really tell what it says, but… You are probably right in your guess. It’s hard to assess more than that, though.”
The swordsman nodded before looking back at the elder. “Is this the only thing you found here?”
The old man nodded. “We flipped the house upside down, but found nothin’ else. You’re free to search, though.”
Domeron nodded. “We will do that if it’s all the same to you.”
The duo then started to look through the house, a search that didn’t take very long considering the house only had three rooms. Red applied everything he learned from Rimold in his years on the sect, looking for hidden compartments in the floorboards or in cupboards, now aware of the possibility this woman could have been the spy to some organization. Unfortunately, he found no such thing, so either she was very good at what she did, or she was just a common peasant.
Red was starting to lean more towards the latter.
Both he and Domeron returned to the main room, finding the elder looking at them with some eagerness beneath his rotting features. Red had to hold his defensive reflexes back every time the old man directed his gaze towards him.
“Anythin'?” the elder asked.
“Nothing.” Domeron shook his head. “Did Erika do anything else here in the village?”
“Nay, she just helped take care of the children in the village.” the elder said. “Gavin was the one out there workin' the crops.”
Domeron sighed. It was a dead end.
“Can we speak with the girl now?” the swordsman asked.
“I’m here!” a childish voice came from right outside the door.
“Damn brat!” The elder glared at her. “I told ye to wait in the square!”
Said girl came running through the door and entered the room with a valiant pose. The moment Red laid eyes on her rotting appearance, he felt his stomach begin to turn in an uncharacteristic manner, and looked away in a hurry. No one seemed to notice this, thankfully.
No one other than Aurelia, that is. “What is wrong with you right now? You have been acting strangely since we got to the village. If something is going on, you need to tell me as soon as possible!”
Red, of course, didn’t respond.
“It’s fine.” Domeron held his hand up to stop the elder from berating the girl. “We wanted to speak with her in any case.”
The elder seemed reluctant, but he looked back at the girl and nodded. “Fine, but ye have to listen to me, understood?”
“I listened to you old fart and now me mum’s gone!” The girl didn’t back down.
The old looked incensed, but Domeron interjected before he could do anything.
“What is your name?” the swordsman asked.
“It’s Elisabeth.” the girl said. “Are you here to find me mum and dad?”
Domeron hesitated, but still nodded. “We will try our best, but we can’t guarantee you anything.”
The man’s honesty seemed to take the others by surprise, but the girl didn’t look too affected.
“That’s fine.” she nodded. “At least you aren’t lying like the others. Are you cultivators?”
“Something of the kind.” Domeron nodded. “Can we make you a few questions? Anything new we learn can help us in finding your parents.”
“Ask me anything!” The girl nodded. “I have lots to tell, but the old fart never wants to listen!”
Domeron raised his eyebrows in curiosity, eyeing the elder from the side. “Can you tell us about your father’s disappearance? We were led to believe he was having visions. Is that right?”
“Aye.” She nodded. “He said he was hearing voices. Then later he said he saw someone in the woods. Me and mum thought he was going crazy, but he kept saying it was all real… It just kept getting worse.”
“Did he say what the woman looked like?” Red interjected, avoiding eye contact with the woman.
The girl’s gaze lingered on him in complete silence. Red felt her fluctuation tremble as she regarded him with a strange silent fixation that made the youth feel extremely uncomfortable.
Red cleared his throat to get her attention.
“Ah-” The girl snapped out of her daze. “Aye, he told us a bit. Said the woman had white hair and a black dress.”
Red frowned. He only saw one person with white hair before, that being Aurelia in her banshee form. That being said, she didn’t have a black dress as far as he could tell, and hair color was hardly something to establish a definite connection over.
That being said, the youth knew for certain that white hair was often a trademark of undead creatures, which reinforced his earlier theories about the nature of this phenomenon. Domeron clearly thought as much as he looked at the girl with a thoughtful expression.
“Was there anything else you could tell us about your dad?” the swordsman asked. “Did he say anything to you that stood out? Did you yourself notice anything else?”
“Nay.” The girl shook her head with a disappointed expression. “He was normal, other than the visions and nightmares. Never spoke much about it, either. I think he was scared, and my mum didn’t want us talking about it.”
“It’s bad luck to talk about nightmares.” the elder said. “Well, since there’s nothin' else to talk about we can-”
“Wait!” The girl interjected. “Me pa didn’t say anything, but I know something about me mum!”
“Damn ye brat!” The elder glared at her. “Don’t waste their time with-”
“Enough!” Domeron interrupted him with a stern voice. “Let the girl speak.”
Both the elder and his helping hand looked at the man with fearful expressions. None of their earlier bravado was present as soon as they were pressed by someone with a degree of confidence and authority. This attitude, of course, immediately put into question his earlier story about sending the other mercenaries away with a threat, but Red didn’t bring it up right now.
Domeron looked back at the girl. “Go ahead.”
She nodded. “I heard me mum speak with someone.”
The swordsman frowned. “Who?”
“Well, there was no one there.” The girl shook her head. “B-but she was talking by herself, like as if someone was there. Does that make sense?”
Domeron hesitated. “What did she say?”
“She was asking after me pa. Asking if he was safe. She looked happy, so I think the person she was talking said yes. Then she started asking about where she was meant to go… I don’t remember this part too well. I felt me head ache after that.”
As the girl got to this part, Red felt the fluctuations of the elder and the young farmer change in nervousness.
Domeron gave her a comforting smile. “Anything you can tell us will help.”
The girl nodded. “They were talking about a cave, I think. Somewhere in the forest up north. She kept repeating a strange word after that… ‘Where the Moon meets the earth.’ Something like that, I think.”
As Red heard these words, he immediately felt a shiver run up his spine.