She found herself dreaming again, and remained relatively indifferent to the place around her. Tara stayed on the ground, keeping her eyes closed to see if falling asleep in the dream would actually wake her up. Itzun never confirmed or denied the theory, instead insisting on talking the entire time to keep her from being able to do anything but listen.

“Communicate, little one,” Itzun said somewhat impatiently. “If you’re annoyed, then say it.”

“You made me sleep half the trip,” Tara muttered. “We’re an hour away from being home and you’re talking to me again.”

“I can’t help it if I get a bit lonely,” Itzun replied, shrugging. “I’m barely conscious when you’re awake. ‘Things’ like me can’t really stay in the mortal realm for long.”

“Go bother someone else, then. I never asked for you.”

Itzun laughed. “Well, true, Tara might not have asked for me, but… Hm.”

He paused for a minute—for that time, Tara actually thought he might’ve decided he had something better to do than interrupt her. He proved her wrong when she made the mistake of opening her eyes, and he stood right in front of her.

She let out a kind of squeak and shuffled back as far as she could. Oddly enough, Itzun didn’t give her any smug or teasing looks—he apparently wanted to share something else.

“I know you find it boring,” he said, “But I think it’s worth discussing that little legend your brother found. That gravestone, the words on it—even that woman who came to the restaurant asking for an omyn.”

Tara frowned, but stayed where she was.

“I’m not interested,” she replied simply.

Itzun smiled despite giving a threat. “I’ll keep you here until you entertain conversation with me. Like you said, there’s only an hour before you and your brother are back at San Asari—any time after that and you’ll either be stuck on the train or the poor guy will have to carry you. Neither of you want that.”

Unwillingly, she sighed and sat up, giving him as dull of a look as she could manage. Itzun didn’t seem to mind.

“What do you find ‘interesting?’” Tara asked with feigned enthusiasm.

Itzun immediately cheered up, respectfully giving her some space now that he had her compliance.

“Well, I just think it’s good to point out,” he said, smiling in a way she hated, “That you were both drawn to the gravestone and recognized that woman from earlier. Am I right?”

“You don’t need to ask clarification—you know my thoughts here as well as I do.”

“Of course, of course. I’m just talking, little one—you don’t need to be so sharp with me.” He paused for a second, then began pacing. “There really isn’t that much to it. I know what the text on the gravestone reads; you would, in your weird do-but-don’t way, since we share basic knowledge. You just need to let me use your eyes for a little bit.”

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Good luck with that,” Tara murmured, looking away from him. “And while I can understand why you think the gravestone is odd, I don’t get your point with me recognizing the woman. She could’ve been or looked like anyone.”

“Honestly, that’s a bit more of a curiosity to me,” Itzun admitted. He walked back over to her and bent down, but kept a mostly respectable distance from her. “I knew you would react to the gravestone. I didn’t know you could recognize people you haven’t seen in over a decade.”

“What?”

Itzun stood up again, partly dodging the question.

“That woman was an old caretaker of yours—or something like it, anyway. One of the people that let you wander off and attach yourself to the Dakari-Horize family. You wouldn’t logically remember her, yet you recognized her. Maybe it’s related to the girl’s influence—the same reason you can graduate school early.”

Tara began some kind of question, but he smiled at her.

“Well, would you look at that! A waking hour’s passed already. I’ll let you go now, but please consider this for tonight; let me know if your brother finds anything. I’m interested to see if either of you come up with theories.”

——

Matteo worried that Tara would still be asleep by the time they got to San Asari, but she woke up and checked her things shortly before the train stopped. He did the same and they got off once the train arrived.

First order of business was to put their stuff away at home, then tell Adelinde and Rene they were back. Neither were the house, so Matteo headed back out while Tara opted to stay inside. The clouds implied rain, sooner or later, and she must prefer to be inside and alone than outside and wet.

He found Adelinde wrapping up a piano lesson with one of her friends’ kids, and she went back home as soon as he told her Tara was there. Rene, apparently, had a slightly-out-of-town job, but she’d be back in time for dinner and for them to share the details of their trip.

Matteo, with everything else decided, made sure he had that piece of paper with the first island text. Once he knew where it was, he went to the Qrian house to look for a book to translate it.

The rain started when he got there, albeit only a light drizzle compared to the harder downpour it would be later in the month. Matteo accepted it as background noise—otherwise the place had a tendency of being too quiet—and went to the library. He sat the paper on the desk and looked through the shelves until he found what he needed.

Matteo never bothered rearranging the library, book-wise; Aurik had a pretty good system and Matteo didn’t think he could do better, so it and the bedrooms were the only things that were exactly the same as when Aurik lived here. All the books were all in clear places, with an entire bookshelf devoted to just…legends and fairytales, mostly about the first island. Anything used against him during his trials were in a tiny lockbox in a corner; Matteo wasn’t interested enough to look or ask for a key, since if it wasn’t in the house then Adelinde or Mark probably had it somewhere.

It took him a few attempts to actually find the translating book, which was hidden among random stuff from Dakari of all places. Once he got it, though, he took it out and brought it back to the desk.

Matteo worked on it for an hour or so before heading back home. He could come back tomorrow to make more progress.