Huda was taken aback by the set.

The symbol of the star used to resemble an asterisk with lines going in all directions, but now it’s just two lines crossing evenly with smaller triangles on the left and top. The symbols seemed to have been reduced to simple lines and triangles, no longer resembling the original pictographs.

“Now, look at Late Babylonian compared to this.” He placed the paper next to the metal book and stepped to the side as Huda stood and came around to his side.

“Good lords.” Huda breathed in shock.

While there was a noticeable similarity between the characters, the symbols on the metal book differed in shape, with curves and circles instead of triangles, and the lines had slight curves at the ends, unlike the straight and ridged Late Babylonian script.

“You said that the book is a copy of one from the first century.” Vigo spoke as she stared down at the two languages. “Late Babylonian was used from 600 B.C. to 100 A.D., so the language here could very well have been based on Late Babylonian.”

Huda’s eyes went back and forth between the two before pointing out, “Wait, the sentence structure isn’t right, though. These symbols are all rotated clockwise at 90 degrees.”

Vigo nodded in agreement. “Exactly. Not only that, but Late Babylonian - and, well, most of the Akkadian languages - are written left to right. In this format, the symbols aren’t creating words. However,” He reached for the metal book and turned it to the left. When he did, the symbols appeared in even columns running from the spine to the edge of the page, “if you move it this way, the characters line up to make somewhat cohesive structures, but in a reading format that is more aligned with the column structure of the early Sumerian pictographs.”

Huda remained silent for a few moments, then whispered almost reverently. “Can you read it?”

It felt as though the request had been unearthed from the depths of her soul. Her passion for history and longing to forge connections with forgotten people and places uplifted her and instilled an unusual sense of hope.

Vigo hung his head. “Parts of it, but it would take a bit to decipher. Babylonian script used anywhere from 600 to 1,000 individual characters in their written language, so translating normal cuneiform isn’t exactly a quick job, much less trying to figure out some unnatural version of it - if that’s what this is.”

His nose crinkled as other thoughts bubbled to the surface. “I mean, this could also just be me projecting my knowledge of dead languages onto what amounts to ancient gibberish. My brain is wired to pick up on patterns - it’s part of the reason I study etymology - but I’m basing this assumption through the lens of my own knowledge. This could have fallen off a spaceship for all I know, or just the random doodles of a madman.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

‘I know I’d probably go insane to if I lived forever,’ he thought to himself, chagrined.

Huda shook her head in disbelief, trying to process the overwhelming amount of new information. “You’re wild guess is probably the closest any of us have come to cracking this. This thing has always remained a mystery and so odd for its time frame. Bound books like this one didn’t come around until the Romans, so how did they create one like this, let alone one made of metal?”

Vigo’s eyes scanned the countless ancient texts, his expression turning serious. “That reminds me of something else I find odd.”

“What?”

“Well, you said that there were some crazy things happening with the Arisen, so there aren’t a lot of records before the Middle Ages. I didn’t realize it until you mentioned this little fact earlier, but none of the journal entries or anything talk about things during the Iron Age. Like, literally nothing. No historical documents, no journals, no lists, no letters, nothing. I mean, even historical journals from us normal folk will mention visiting old areas or some kind of lore from a bygone time. There isn’t any of that. It’s like history really began for the Arisen during the Early Middle Ages and everything before that is nonexistent.”

Shaking her head, Huda denied the statement. “That cannot be true. We have items like this, don’t we?” She gestured down at the metal book, which had become both a source of wonder and frustration.

Vigo turned and slowly picked up the piece of paper where he’d drawn the Sumerian language. “But you can’t read it. The only things in this library are from the Early Middle Ages and first-century artifacts you can’t read. There’s a 500-year gap left unaccounted for with no information - and what information we have before that is a mystery.”

The Chosen, despite their long lives, were oblivious to the events of their past as he observed the artifacts.

Circa 505 AD here.

490 AD there.

512 AD is mentioned in a journal over there.

Before that?

Nothing. Not even a stray thought.

The omission of historical information in the records was strikingly precise.

He shifted his serious gaze towards her. “What happened to you guys that 500 years of history is gone? For people that can live hundreds of years, there ought to be something, but there isn’t. It’s like your race just vanished for five centuries, only to turn up like nothing had happened.”

Huda’s eyes widened as she stared at him, then she glanced down at the metal book, feeling a sense of trepidation that made her stomach knot.

Licking suddenly dry lips, she intoned, “Political and socioeconomic conflict can result in the lose of a lot of our history. Take the Library of Alexandria, for example. One fire and thousands of years of knowledge were lost. Do I know what happened between this gap in history? No, but one only needs to look at the rest of history to see the strife and disorder at the time of the gap.”

Vigo’s frustration grew as he ran his hand through his hair, realizing he still didn’t have all the puzzle pieces. “But we still have statues and other artifacts for regular human history. for the Arisen, it’s all gone. Something must have gone down. Something big enough to whip the slate clean and for you guys to start-”

A sudden blaring alarm from a hidden speaker interrupted him, causing Huda to shriek in pain as they both covered their ears.

“Holy… What’s going on?” Vigo grunted as he looked around for where the sound was coming from.

Huda’s face had turned white as she stood frozen in place, her mouth opening with a fearful gasp as she breathed out, “Imminent attack.”