(DISCONTINUED) Skyfall /// Beyblade Burst Fanfiction

Chapter 6: The Language of War

He stroked the blade.

"What is that?" a golden-eyed hunter asked.

"The tanakar lunera."

"The Blade of Life," Ashtem translated.

The king tried to hide his shock. "What?"

"It is the Blade of Life. The translation of tanakar lunera."

"He is correct."

The king's son was watching from above. His voice called down. "That is the translation."

"Why are you up there?" the king snapped. "You have no permission to eavesdrop."

The boy shrugged. "I was passing by. Heard about it in a book."

"Indeed," Ashtem said. "That was the language of war."

. . .

Not very long after the gods had founded the kingdoms, a small, secret revolution was brought to life.

They preferred independent work and privacy, which was impossible when the gods were watching their every move. Resentment grew in their hearts... and the need to attack.

But the gods knew of their every move. After all, they could perfectly understand their kingdoms. The revolution was brought to the surface in many parts, and the gods destroyed them all.

A small branch of the revolution in the Kage Kingdom remained alive. They communed to the other kingdoms while the gods were sleeping, and revived the revolution again.

They realized to hide from the gods, the gods must not understand what they were saying. Some debated forming a code, or a cipher, but ultimately, it was agreed that ciphers and codes were too easy to crack, and the harder version to crack could only be in the written word, a form of communication too slow for the fast minds of the gods and the quick paced plans of the revolution.

They needed a language. A new language.

Months turned in years. Years turned to decades.

The language was forming. Slowly, but quick enough the gods would never catch them.

Debates formed about how to write the written form of their new language. They decided to write in a new form of language completely, in almost no way similar to the language the gods created.

This new language was called  shepwar nevrdan— the language of war.

With this new language, the revolution could now hide the fact they were a revolution at all. They gave themselves a name eerily similar to the language the gods spoke— for good reason. It hide them perfectly.

Swordfight. But their name was not referring to the pretend battles the kingdoms sometimes held. Sword was a reference to the war language word sor— meaning fight. Fight, however, had a meaning in war language that was utterly different. It was flitz, meaning flight or run. Their name Swordfight meant fight and flight, referring to the gods to hide when the humans fought.

But the revolution wouldn't let the gods crack the code easily. Whenever the word Swordfight was written, beside it was drawn four symbols. There was a vertical rectangle, except its bottom line was drawn in the center horizontally. Next was three horizontal lines, each the same length, with a single vertical line drawn straight through their center, starting at the first line and ending at the third. The third symbol was an oval with two lines sticking diagonally out of the bottom. The right line pointed towards the right, and the left line pointed towards the left. Finally, the fourth symbol was akin to the second, but without the center horizontal line.

It was a diversion. It worked perfectly.

So many citizens who suspected Swordfight thought that figuring out what the four strange symbols meant was the key. But it wasn't. They would not understand the revolution's language. Although they would understand they were a revolution, many of them were clever and respected and could lie their way out.

Their language and symbols were not broken until the god of the skies came for the first time...

"The god of the skies is Fafnir," Free said, reading over Shu's shoulder.

The younger prince jumped. "What are you doing here?"

Free smiled wryly. "You aren't the only one who overheard Ashtem and your father's conversation. I was looking around to see what it meant. And to see whether I could find you."

"Me?" Shu echoed, surprised.

"Yes," Free answered. "You confirmed Ashtem's translation."

Shu dropped his gaze. "Guess I did."

"Care to explain?" Lui snapped. The white tyrant had followed Free into the room, hoping to catch the Hikari prince off guard. Curiosity got the better of him.

"There's a list of important phrases in the language of war in a book I found a week ago," Shu mumbled. "I found it there."

"Oh."

Free didn't look utterly convinced, but he let the matter drop. He would pry more out of Shu later, when Lui was gone.

An awkward silence settled. Lui didn't show any signs of leaving any time soon. Free sighed. He gave in, leaving the white tyrant and the Kaen prince in the library for whatever Lui wanted to ask Shu about.

This is going to be a long day.

He found his best friend, Kristina, staring out at the gardens. "Hey."

Kristina didn't even look at him. She's gotten good at keeping up her guard. Free still remembered when she would jump every time he started a conversation with her. "Hi Free."

The seventeen-year-old girl played with her hands. "I'm turning eighteen in a month and a half," she admitted. The winter was dying and giving way the spring. With it, the Anzen School Kristina had lived in most of her life was giving way to camp. After three years of camp, she would have to face the real world. And she would almost never see her best friend again.

"You're leaving to camp next winter," Free pointed out. "Not this one."

"You were too busy sleeping to hear the news, weren't you?" Kristina laughed. "It isn't the same anymore. At the end of every month, they take in the kids who turned eighteen that month and bring them to camp. It keeps a steady flow of those in camp. They've decided too many to-be-warriors were killed every year."

Free was at a loss for words.

Kristina's eyes were steely. "It's funny how your birthday is after mine. It just means after I leave you'll never see me again."

"But..."

"Keep your cool, Free. It's what you do best." The words weren't spiteful. They weren't meant to be. A light tease.

"Okay," Free said.

Kristina smiled. "Ile."

And then she was gone.