Tablet Trouble Part 1

-Special Experiments Room-

Wearing her green-and-gold outfit with Argent Gloves and Adaptable Armor, Leona walked into the Special Experiments Room with the stone tablet she had recovered from the Crimson Sashes prior to being promoted to Guild Ace. All she remembered about it was that it was a stone tablet with writing she had never seen before. After testing the effects of the Aggression Pack a few days ago, she felt that the time was right to revisit the stone tablet her old friends Whitney and Erica had brought to her and she had stolen back from the Crimson Sashes. Leona strode into the middle of the room, which had a simple wooden desk on the first floor with a pen and some paper for making notes plus a simple wooden chair to sit in. Also in the middle of the room was a square wooden table for sitting the tablet on.

Leona set the tablet on the table and walked back over to the desk. She grabbed the pen and paper and began to make notes on the tablet's physical characteristics. She jotted down that it had three even sides and a rounded top like a tombstone, that the writing surface was smooth, and that it was gray in color. It also featured odd angular letters that were not either Court Heiromesh or Secret Heiromesh. The letters looked like they had been chiseled into the tablet with care and precision by a master scribe.

After writing those characteristics down Leona set down the notes at the wooden desk and walked over to the table. She picked up the tablet to take a close look at it and saw something that she had never seen before. The letters inscribed on the stone began to glow bright silver, which was the color of her magical energy. Leona was excited by this discovery and jogged to the desk to make a note of this intriguing property. Once that property had been recorded for posterity she walked over to the table and took the tablet into her hands again.

The letters began to glow and Leona began to try to decipher them again. The second attempt to make sense of the language was as successful as the first, which was to say that it was a failure. Leona simply did not know the language that was inscribed on the tablet, but she knew three people who might know the language.

The first was Professor Rosetta. Leona's Court Heiromesh teacher was a professor emeritus from Crocus Magicka University and had taught language courses there for roughly forty years, so his credentials were never an issue. What was an issue was his availability... he was in high demand as a guest lecturer for Crocus Magicka University and as a private tutor. Professor Rosetta might be unavailable to help with this project.

The second was Dr. N. D. Anna, the archaeologist who had just made a major discovery in the Forgotten Deserts thanks to Leona's help. She had traveled widely and had written for a few scholarly journals plus had devoted and able assistants and the backing of a university. However, Leona had read that Dr. Anna was still busy in the Forgotten Deserts cataloguing and transporting the artifacts from the Lestreki temple Leona had explored and had completed the Three Trials in. That left Leona with only one viable option... Sophia Jarnefeldt.

[Word Count: 572]
[Total Word Count: 572/500]

Leona was more than a little concerned about involving her mother in the project. Sophia was Nebdoui's head scribe and was familiar with major languages of Desierto, so she was well-qualified to help... on paper. Leona's reservations stemmed from personal issues.

Sophia had pushed Leona to follow in the former's footsteps, but the latter wanted to be a traveling merchant like her father Samuel. Leona disagreed with training to be a scribe and instead embraced the life of a traveling mage when she was exiled at sixteen. Leona was fairly certain that there was still something of a rift between them because of her choice, but Sophia had not voiced her disapproval... at least overtly.

Instead Leona's mother chose to harp on the issue of grandchildren. Sophia wanted grandchildren from both of her children and she wanted them yesterday. Leona was not ready to settle down and she might never be ready to trade the life of a wandering mage for a domestic life with husband and children. That was a constant source of friction between mother and daughter and the issue was certain to come up again if Leona took the tablet to Nebdoui and requested her mother's help.

However, Leona had no choice in the matter. She would have to go to Desierto and request her mother's help with deciphering the tablet. If Sophia herself could not decipher it, maybe she knew someone in the Tri-Council City who could. There was a library there with centuries of old books kept there, so even if the staff did not know the language Leona could find a book that would be helpful in translating the writing.

Then a new set of issues came up.

Leona was a mage who was famous across Earthland and a mage who was especially famous in Desierto. The moment she set foot in the Tri-Council City and the sultan heard about the artifact she was carrying, he would claim it for his collection and there would be nothing she could do to stop it. Resisting him would be foolish and would result in her village being wiped from the face of Earthland.

Leona would just have to take that chance and take it to Desierto because deciphering the writing was beyond her abilities. She would have to swallow her pride and ask for help with this project. Leona looked over the tablet one last time to see if she had missed any special features during her first examination of the object. Nothing new appeared, so she turned back to the table, gathered up her meager notes, and then took the artifact into her arms. She would place it back in the guild vault for protection and would take the notes to her office, where she would then visit the guild library and see if it had anything that could help her.

If she could find a book in the guild library, she would not have to go to Desierto and deal with the issues that lay in wait for her there. Leona would make one last attempt to solve the riddle herself before seeking help from her mother. With that plan in mind Leona left the Special Experiments Room and returned to the guild hall to set her plan into motion.

[Word Count: 555]
[Total Word Count: 1,127/500]