Fortunately, Itzun must’ve told Tara something overnight; she was already awake when Matteo went to check on her in the morning, and she seemed somewhat determined. They went out to eat breakfast and confirmed plans to head back to the memorial once they finished.

Sunlight helped only to make the place look a little less somber; some clouds kept the light from being too much, fortunately, but it did bring the concern of snow with it. It was cold enough as it is.

Tara stood in front of the stones for a second before looking back at Matteo and Hannah.

“I’m going to look around,” she said half-confidently. “You two can help if you want, just…be gentle.”

Both of them murmured some agreement, although only Matteo helped Tara. Hannah observed the area for an extra minute before walking over.

“Do you have any ideas on what might be here?” Matteo asked Tara.

She actually seemed a bit self-conscious about brushing off the stones or digging around them; he couldn’t tell if it was a kind of reverence, fear of being questioned, or both. Hannah had no such reservations once she joined them, and for his part Matteo would rather be considered weird and make progress than waste time worrying.

Still, Tara shook her head and replied a bit quieter.

“Just that it can’t be too hidden.”

“Did your parents put you on an elaborate search for something?” Hannah asked, partly curious and partly unbelieving. Matteo couldn’t blame her.

Tara took a second before she answered. “A family friend put this together for them. He enlisted the help of a local stranger for Sólstaður’s part.”

“I assume this friend had some connections to the first island, too?”

“He has a…special interest in the place. Honestly, if my parents had known his plans, they wouldn’t have put me into his scheme.”

It was an oversimplification, but Matteo couldn’t put it any other way that he knew Tara would be okay with. At least she found a way to kind of talk about it without saying the whole situation.

“They probably didn’t think you’d end up here,” Hannah mused. “Although I have to give them props for trying. Not every parent does.”

Matteo tried not to comment on Aurik—it would just bring down the mood. He tried to shake it off and bent down to brush off one of the stones.

“Anyway.” It sounded like an awkward attempt at conversation. Tara’s little wince served as her apology. “It would be nice to have a distraction from the cold, so does anyone have something we can talk about?”

Tara bent down near the stone with Chizuru’s name on it, sighing.

“…I don’t think anything I could say would be productive. Haven’t had the chance to read since we came here.”

“Does it get tiring to draw so much?” Hannah asked, maintaining her usual tone she put on when asked to hold a conversation.

Tara shook her head. “Not really. As long as I stretch a bit it’s fine.”

“It was your main communication method for a while, so that makes sense,” Matteo noted. He walked around to the back of the nearest stone and shifted through the snow a bit. “Have you written anything recently, by the way? You were a fledgling novelist for a year or two.”

His sister let out something like a partly self deprecating, partly embarrassed chuckle.

Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

“No,” Tara replied bluntly. “It’s…hard for me to write unless I’m in my room. Too many distractions, too many anxieties. I prefer to draw, besides.”

“I’m curious what counts as ‘fledgling novelist,’” Hannah said with a bit of teasing.

“A full page riddled with errors that I hate but Adelinde and Rene think is beautiful. I’m better at drawing—writing with a pen is a pain and it’s so hard to avoid mistakes when you’re typing.”

“I still think you could make your own illustrated novel,” Matteo maintained, looking up at her for a second.

Tara did scoff that time. “About what? A girl who's so scared of rain that she needs someone to keep her company?”

“What about a girl who manages her fears?” Hannah suggested.

“Yeah! And she does an awesome job overcoming them, even,” Matteo agreed. “No one will stay scared of things forever—she’s no different. And she’ll form friendships and lifelong memories in the process.”

When he glanced over at her again, Tara almost sported a smile.

“…It would need refining. But I can consider it.”

Matteo beamed in response, and everyone went back to looking around the memorial. A minute or two passed; Hannah seemed ready to speak up again when Tara let out a little noise.

“See something?” Matteo asked.

“There’s some text,” Tara replied. “Near the bottom, under the snow.”

“Sounds like what you kids might be looking for,” Hannah noted.

Matteo dug around the snow near his stone for a second, noticing some stone engraving in the same place Tara found it on hers.

”There’s more here,” he announced. “I have a little notebook with me—I can write it all down once we find it, then talk it over someplace warm.”

Tara murmured some agreement, hesitantly leaving the stone with Chizuru’s name to uncover the others with Hannah’s help.

…

They went back to the inn once he jotted it on to paper, Hannah and Tara patiently waiting while he went back up to his room to get the translating book he brought with him. The other two were at a table when he came back.

“It’s a weird mix of first island text and Sólstaðuric,” Matteo said, explaining the larger book in addition to the one he had the script written in. He put the smaller book in the center before sitting down with the translating book, then looked at Hannah. “You can read the Sólstaðuric, right?”

“I should be able to read it well enough,” Hannah replied with a shrug. “As long as it’s not super old or obscure, it should be good.”

Matteo nodded. “Can you translate that for us, then? I’ll start working on the first island text.”

Hannah picked up the pen as her answer. She finished before Matteo even found the first one, so she briefly left before coming back with some food. Another departure and return bore hot chocolate—or glorified hot water, if he was honest, since he couldn’t actually taste anything else.

It took the better part of half an hour before he finished, made a little longer by periodic breaks to eat and comment accordingly. Tara scribbled on a torn-out page of his notebook while she waited, whereas Hannah just observed the people around them.

“Okay,” Matteo said once he finished. With all of the text in words he could actually read, he took a better look; the other two did, as well. “The Sólstaðuric part had ‘travel,’ ‘of,’ and ‘changed.’ The first island’s text had ‘city,’ ‘royalty,’ and ‘fate.’”

Tara let out a little yawn, shaking it off after a second.

“…This might be it?”

She rearranged the words in a way that made a little more sense: Travel, city, royalty, of, changed, fates.

Hannah leaned back in her chair and let out a thoughtful hum.

“Travel to a city, maybe, but the rest is vague,” she said.

Matteo perked up a little. “Considering who made this”—both Itzun and Hylli—“maybe it means Byen Roken? That’s where the eastern kingdom’s royalty went after the island’s fall—where their fates changed, in a sense.”

“That seems right,” Tara replied after a second. She looked at Hannah. “When do you think we could leave?”

“Tomorrow or the day after, if we’re lucky,” Hannah said. “It’s still the capital and is the largest inner city—trains run pretty frequently towards it.”

“We’ll head there next,” Matteo decided. “It wouldn’t hurt to try, at least.”

Tara nodded and Hannah didn’t seem to mind. With their next course of action set, he put aside the books to fully focus on eating.