A Possible Breakthrough

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 85662

Naturally there was great joy in Aqualaria when their princess returned to them, and that was even greater when they learnt that the dragon was dead. Checkers and Fred were feted as heroes. Checkers was taken aback and rather embarrassed when the queen insisted on conferring the title of countess on her.

The following few months were busy ones for Checkers. Her account of her long journey from the Dolomite Range to the Shreken was almost finished. At Astra's insistence, she had also included the story of what had happened thereafter. "Modesty is all very well," Astra had said, "but the saga - for that is what it amounts to - would be incomplete without it."

Checkers' work of translating those parts of the book that were written in Old High Dolomite [38944 and possibly also earlier episodes] was still in the early stages. It was a big volume, and she had had many other calls on her time. Astra had told her of what she had learnt from Minestus concerning the likelihood that at least some of the contents of the book that were written in that language, though apparently poems, might also function as spells, so she was careful not to recite any of them out loud, especially as it seemed that Minestus had also thought that she must have some aptitude for magic. At the request of the court archivist, she had first made a copy of the Old High Dolomite portions without translating them, using a colour ink that both she and humans could see. This copy would be kept under lock and key, although the risk of anyone managing to cast a spell by reciting from it was remote, since apart from Checkers herself no-one within the realm had any idea of how to pronounce the Old High Dolomite correctly. Then she had begun her main task of translation. Though she was doing a good job, retaining much of the beauty of the original poems, what she wrote of course possessed no magical power.

The rightful owners of the great majority of the valuables that had been removed from the caves under the Shreken could not be traced. The Aqualarian share was now safely lodged in the royal treasury. The share earmarked for the Dolomite League (including the Red Dolomite League coins) was also currently stored there for safe keeping. In the spring, when there was less risk of storms, it would be loaded on a ship for the first leg of its long journey. Checkers would accompany it, and Astra and Fred had also expressed an interest in making the journey.

Checkers' wing had healed well, but the muscles of both wings had naturally suffered from the period when she had been unable to fly. She had been building them up with early morning flights in the palace grounds, staying up a little longer each day. This had naturally attracted a great deal of attention from the palace staff at first, but to her relief the novelty had soon faded and she was now generally left in peace.

The queen had viewed Fred favourably as a suitor for her daughter. Not only had he demonstrated his bravery and his devotion to Astra, but he was also the son of a duke and thus a fitting match for a princess. They were not yet formally betrothed, but it seemed to be only a matter of time.


Something about the folio had been puzzling Checkers for some time. If some, or possibly all, of the poems would function as spells, then why was no information provided about what they did? The reader - or rather the reciter - could surely hardly be expected to proceed by trial and error. Had there been a separate document, now lost, detailing what each poem/spell did?

On this particular morning, as usual she was in the palace library working on her translation, when an idea occurred to her. Her experiences with Fred's map and her own had shown her that humans and gliders quite literally saw things differently. She had been assuming that she could see all of the writing in the folio, but supposing that was not true? She could surely see all of the Old High Dolomite portions, for those must surely have been written by gliders, but what if there was a contents list at the front of the book written by some human collaborator in the common tongue? There was certainly enough apparently empty space at the start of the book. Or there could be a title at the start of each poem or an index at the end of the volume.

She went over to the archivist with the book and asked him if he could see any writing in likely, but apprently blank, locations.

  1. He could! Perhaps for some reason the original compiler of the book had only wanted the Old High Dolomite spells to be useable by someone who had human assistance?
  2. He could not.

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JH

2/10/2009 1:45:01 PM

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