Synectica

Chapter 13

         As a couple weeks went on, Netta began to get better at training and she could just about establish a telepathic communication link. Her powers were getting stronger as she trained with the rest of QO once or twice a week, and she was less afraid of defending herself physically. During one of their practices, she actually landed a punch firmly in Ryan's jaw and knocked him off balance for a split second, which was long enough to gather in enough energy to create an energy barrier which she wrapped around his ankles, pulling his feet out from under him. She was even able to knock Alice off balance once by avoiding one of her attacks and then sending her attack back at her in a matter of seconds. Combat training felt unnatural to her, but she soon got the hang of that as well.

        Sophie and Ryan were great about letting her spar with them. Sometimes they would even pull a sneak attack on her while she was in the band room or walking down the hallway after school. Alice had begun to teach her the code that they used to communicate to each other. It translated like English, but each letter had a different symbol that she had to memorize. It looked strange and ancient, like something you might see in Mayan or Greek ruins. According to Alice, there wasn't a particular spoken language that coordinated with the script since different provinces touched different countries and so the provinces usually adopted whatever language was closest to them. However, most knew some Latin, which is the base for many of the world's languages, and so they could communicate well enough for diplomacy and trade.

        "So," Netta asked Alice one day when they were looking through some books she kept on Quacistrian history, "if someone were to go to Quacistria, they really would have no way of knowing what language they would hear in any given part of the country?"

        "Not exactly, I suppose," said Alice, musing over the large map of Quacistria that took up one of the walls. "But then it's hard to determine which parts touch exactly which countries because no one knows exactly where it is. The spell that hides it from all humans is quite good and so as far as anyone knows, it's probably just unused countryside or something; again, I'm not sure which countries it touches so I can't say for sure."

         "But if you had to make a guess, say, about which countries speak roughly which dialect, what would you say?" Netta pressed.

        "Well," said Alice reluctantly and as she did, she stood and crossed the room to the map to stand in front of it. "this part here," she said, pointing to Castia, "is probably closer to the Slavic languages. And here," she pointed to Alit, "they probably speak something closer to Spanish or Italian. Most of Thilas speaks something like the Germanic languages, but in Syrinom," she said, pointing to the oddly shaped outline of the town, "is kind of the wild card town. Because people come from all over to get medical treatment and many then stay, the language varies some. As well, people from Syrinom sometimes have a mix of powers, though one is usually more dominant than the other."

        "You skipped Lon," Netta said, noticing the small province on the very edge of Garsilia."

        "Ah, Lon," Alice said. "Lon just kind of does their own thing. I think they speak something close to Greek but goodness only knows what goes on in that weird little province. I heard they even dress like the ancient Greeks. They're a very old-school kind of people and they're sometimes hard to tolerate." Alice wrinkled her nose in disgust. "They're not very down-to-earth people and they often have difficulty focusing on tasks at hand. They tend to let their minds wander and float away, often quite literally since they can levitate." Again, Alice seemed very put out.

        "Have you ever known anyone from Lon?" Netta asked. It seemed that Alice's animosity was very personal.

        "Goodness, no! I've never even been to Quacistria!" she said with a laugh.