Claws of Eternity ✔️

Chapter 27: The scale is tipped

GISELLE

Anton's study was deep underground, beneath the great hall of Bran Castle. Giselle had to climb down what seemed to be a thousand steps until eventually she found herself amidst a circular room. Candles flickered around her as she watched the walls covered with books that spread infinitely above her head. Right across the room, another door led somewhere and Giselle followed the murmurs she heard.

"Of course Vlad would keep books in an underground fortress." She said out loud, mostly to herself and was surprised when she got an answer.

"Well, my dear, nothing is more powerful than a man armed with knowledge." Codrin walked past her to the other room on the other side. He carried books.

"A man armed with a sword might disagree." Giselle answered and followed him.

The other room had a round table in the middle and a bed in the corner, but the walls were covered in books as well. Giselle was surprised to find Jorge sitting at the table with Anton next to him. Jorge was writing something when he lifted his gaze towards Giselle and smiled widely.

"Rose found other roses." He said.

"Yes, yes, Rose, we write Rose now." Anton grabbed Jorge's hand and led it to the paper.

"He's illiterate." Giselle commented, confused. But Jorge scribbled something on the paper and Giselle couldn't resist the urge to go read it.

"He does not know our letters, but he's far from illiterate." Anton murmured while he watched closely what Jorge wrote and then copied it in his own little book.

"What is he doing? And where did you find Jorge?" Giselle asked Codrin who sat next to Anton and gestured towards the chair opposite of him. Giselle sat.

"Anton and I fetched him while he was running around the castle. We wanted to learn how he managed to bring your dead body to this place, but we learnt something far more interesting." Codrin took out five pieces of paper and placed them in front of Giselle.

She recognised the writings, it was those poems her mother left for them to figure out. Giselle looked at them closely, remembering how she thought that one of those might have been for Devan. Codrin's translation was written right next to the original writings.

"Have you translated something else?" Giselle asked.

"Only the Daemon Tongue. The other one was written in Old Witches' Tongue and that one we had no luck with. But the last one... do you remember the last one? Anton said he had never seen a language like that, but apparently, Jorge did." Codrin leaned towards Giselle, a fiery gleam in his eye.

"What?" Giselle's eyes widened in surprise.

"Jorge can write this last language. We do not know whether he can speak it. Anton is creating an alphabet." Codrin smiled proudly and Giselle looked at Jorge. He seemed happy.

"Alright, Jorge, what else can you tell me?" Anton asked and Jorge smiled broadly and caught Giselle's gaze.

"The right trade will buy you time." He said slowly and Giselle stopped breathing for a moment. Anton looked at her confused and then back at Jorge. Finally, she realised, not even Jorge was a coincidence. She always knew he wasn't just a broken minded boy as Leona referred to him.

"You're doing wonders. I can barely get a few words out of him." Anton murmured. "Can we write that down, Jorge? Can we write down 'time?'"

"This is beginning to creep me out." Giselle said to Codrin.

"You can imagine what it's been like for us. Anton knows every language that ever existed, he's in utter shock." Codrin smiled and then pointed to the poems. "We need to discuss this, we need to figure out what Leona wanted, you, me and Anton."