The Library of Riddles
Nalaea screamed in frustration and punched the wall over and over. Of course they wouldn't be in Elven or any human language. She knew that. Of course they wouldn't even be in Dwarven runes, or even Old Dwarven, or not even Imperial Orcish. She knew that. But why did it have to be a writing system nobody could even hope to decipher? Was this pictograms?
"Captain, you had to have known none of this would be readable." Jhaan said, trying to reason with Nalaea.
"Fuck!" Nalaea screamed, punching the wall again. "It's not fair! We have an entire fucking library and we can't read it! This isn't fair! I earned it!"
Nalaea raged for long minutes, the Rangers wisely keeping their distance and walking through the library. Every book seemed to be in the same indecipherable language, each character made up of a dozen or more strokes. Eventually, as Nalaea ran out of steam and had to stop and think, she had an idea.
"What if I just take the knowledge directly from the books? I can do that right?" Nalaea said, laughing slightly as she reached for the nearest book. Focusing, she stared at the pages while Jhaan and Arryn watched, Jhaan in particular having an amused look on his normally tired face.
"It's not going to work, you know." Jhaan whispered quietly to Arryn.
"FUCK!" Nalaea screamed suddenly, throwing the book hard at the bookshelf.
"See?" Jhaan said, nudging Arryn, who also slightly smiled for a brief moment.
"Yes what is it now Captain?" Jhaan asked, coming over to hold Nalaea in a bear hug. "Call me a hypocrite but you need to calm down."
"I don't know this language!" Nalaea yelled, spit and blood flying out of her mouth. "I got all the knowledge of the book in an instant but it's still not in Elven or Gilnan!"
Arryn and Sinah looked each other when Nalaea said this, Sinah's lips quivering as he tried to hold in laughter. It was as if their Goddess was simply pranking Nalaea. While Jhaan punched Nalaea in the kidneys several times to get her to stop screaming so much, Sinah investigated one of the books.
"Fuck you!" Nalaea spat, kicking her feet as the much taller Jhaan kept holding her. "I'll fucking kill you!"
"I doubt it." Jhaan said, holding her firmly. "Sinah, can you shed any light on these books?"
"Looks like a constructed alphabet to me." Sinah said, studying the book. "They were trying too hard. Which means that if the alphabet is constructed, the language probably was too."
"Meaning?" Arryn asked.
"Meaning I can break the code." Sinah said, flashing a grin.
Nalaea stopped kicking and stared Sinah in the eyes, as if trying to tell him something. Sinah just winked and went back to staring at the book. For nearly five hours the rest of the rangers opted to just watch as Sinah silently poured over dozens of books, not making a single sound beyond turning the pages of the books. Books lay in piles around him as he wordlessly pointed at books on shelves and the other rangers brought them to him. At last, he was satisfied, and nodded.
Nalaea crouched down in front of him and again locked eyes with him. She raised an eyebrow, and this time he smiled in response.
"It's all up here, Captain." Sinah said, tapping his head. "Use that fancy power of yours on me this time."
Nalaea nodded, and grabbed Sinah's head. Staring him directly in the eyes, her gaze was so intense it felt like she was trying to drill a hole in his head with her eyes. After a few minutes, she released her hold, shouting in triumph.
"Aha!" She shouted. "Sinah you wonderful man! I see it all now! The Library's secrets laid bare!"
"Sinah you actually did it? I figured you were just stalling." Jhaan said quietly as Nalaea ran off deep into the library.
"Far from it. I was once a translator and code breaker. This was like child's play in comparison."
Deep in the library, Nalaea scanned the stacks. She was looking for hints on geography, to figure out where they were. Vordea had only told her they were still on the same planet, and nothing else. However, these book titles were just nonsense and didn't match what was inside the books. She was sure there had to be some kind of pattern, but hadn't spotted it yet. She read and tossed aside books at a supernatural speed, sucking down the information in mere seconds as she rifled through the pages faster than you could even see her turn them.
"Yes yes I see now!" Nalaea shouted, laughing maniacally as she tore through hundreds of books. "The Umbral Keep will bend to my will! Cleyix will bend to my will!"