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The next few weeks were a blur.
Ian spent all of his free time locked up in his room, researching the transcript in his papers.
"It's called ancient Pyrenic", he told Echo. "Apparently it's uncommon enough that there aren't many books about it."
"Except for the one you're reading?"
"This is about a bunch of different ancient languages. Pyrenic is just one of them."
"And I assume it doesn't contain instructions on how to translate it, right? That would be way too easy."
"Nope. But it does contain little excerpts from other Pyrenic texts, and what scholars think it means."
"And you think you can reverse engineer it from just that? That sounds really hard."
Ian smiled proudly. "It is."
---
Lena's voice called out from the kitchen.
"Echo, can you come here for a moment?"
Echo cautiously peeked around the corner. "Uh, am I in trouble?"
"What? No."
"Oh, okay." She breathed a sigh of relief. "You just sounded so serious."
"Hah. No, no, it's not about you. It's about Ian."
"Oh shoot, is HE in trouble?"
"No one's in trouble! Listen." Lena sat down on the chair in front of her. Even like this, Echo had to tilt her head back to look up at her. "I'm just worried about him, that's all."
"Oh, because of the whole research thing?"
"Yes. I don't mind that he's found something he enjoys doing, it's just that... it seems like he's doing nothing ELSE lately."
"Well, you know Ian. That's just what he does."
"Yeah, I do. I took him in back when he was very small." Lena sighed. "He's been... hard."
"Hard?" Echo tilted her head. "I thought I was the problematic one."
"You're hard to deal with in a different way. Which, by the way, you could learn a thing or two from him about not getting into trouble." She smiled down at Echo. "Ian is just... so difficult to read."
"Well, have you tried, you know, talking to him?"
"Of course I have. So many times. He says everything is fine."
"Maybe everything is fine then! You could believe him for a change."
"Just..." She sighed again, looking up at the ceiling. "Fine. Okay. Maybe he's fine. But can you at least make sure he's eating properly and taking his medicine?"
"Huh? Why me?"
"Because you spend more time with him than I do. Plus, he trusts you more than me."
"Right, I see." Echo crossed her arms. "I think you're underselling yourself, but... okay. I can do that."
"Thanks, kid." Lena stood up and pulled Echo up into a big hug. Even Echo's incredible strength wasn't enough to break free of the tight grip of Lena's arms.
"Mmmmf!"
Lena put her back down on the ground, smiling down at her. "Oh, and just so you know, you're underselling youself too. You're not 'the problematic one'."
Echo huffed, her cheeks still a bit red from the effort. "But still hard to deal with, huh?"
"Gods yes. Teenagers are a nightmare."
She chuckled. "So I've heard."
---
"How's it going?" Echo asked.
There was no response. Ian didn't even turn around.
"Uh, Ian?" She walked closer. Still no response.
Finally, she tapped on his shoulder, and he turned his head.
"Oh, hey!" Ian quickly drew a complicated squiggle in the air with his fingertip, and a soft glow enveloped his ears for a brief moment.
"Heh, you finally learned how to do a sound blocking spell?"
"Finally. It's such a blessing." He spun his chair around. "Did you need anything?"
"Just checking up. Have you taken your meds?"
"Huh?" He looked out the window. "Oh wow, it's darker than I thought." He reached into the pouch on his desk, took out a small vial, uncorked it and quickly gulped down the contents.
"That's what I thought."
"Listen. This stuff is really interesting."
Echo sat down on the bed by his side. "Made any progress yet?"
"Yes I have! Look."
He pointed at the papers scattered across his desk. They were full of messily scribbled notes, and some ink stains.
Echo squinted. "I hope you don't expect me to be able to read any of that."
"Okay, okay, short version: I've been able to decipher a few words, but a lot of it is still a mystery."
"What words?"
"Well, for example, this here." He pointed at a set of strange symbols. Two of them were underlined. "I think this one means 'temple'. As in, the place where we found the writing. But it can also mean other places of spiritual significance, like an 'altar' or even a natural structure."
Echo nodded.
"And this one here's the name of the deity: Oneiros."
"Do you know what kind of deity it is?"
"No clue. But I know what their name is written like now! And that's a pretty big step."
"Heh. So nothing about me, I assume?"
"Not yet, no, a lot of the words I can read are just about Oneiros or the rituals conducted in the temple. But there is this one here that doesn't fit."
"This one?" Echo pointed at another underlined symbol.
"That means 'child'. I think. And it doesn't seem like children are mentioned elsewhere in the rituals, so maybe you are the child it's talking about?"
"I'm not a child, you know."
"Well, maybe you were when this was written!"
"Ian, this is ancient text. How old do you think I am?"
"Okay, true. Well, maybe it was a prophecy of some sort about you as a child?"
Echo crossed her arms. "Hmmmm. It could be anything if all you have is one word."
"Yeah, it's all speculation right now. But just you wait, I'm making good progress."
"Heheh. I'm counting on you, Ian."
Echo put up her hand, and he gave her a high-five.