Then, he’d written a long list of the most difficult ones to pronounce. Brela had now written her own hints next to his words. Such precise and perfect lettering to help him learn a few more translations.
Serill grabbed another sheet of paper and returned to the book, creating a more organized list now that he had an understanding of the words.
Seim veis, chaseil?What are you, child?
Vi os syq.I don’t know.
That was helpful to translate a few more words in the book, using those clues to understand more prefixes and roots.
Olei,son.Feim, fire.Som, who.Oglim,night.
Sofych, stupid. That one was Brela’s favorite.
Alei so’nim.Daughter of… a word that was still a mystery.
Serill frowned at the book of shadow magic. Brela had claimed thatso’nimwasn’t a typical word in their language. Not one to describe the wall, obsidian, nor her circumstance of having a shard in her collarbone.
Still, he flipped open the book and looked at all of the words. He picked out the ones that he recognized, trying to use context to figure out the other ones. He scoured the pages for any sort of idea or lead to translate that foreign word, but came up short.
After too long of staring at a different language, he was no closer to an answer than he was before. He was significantly closer to a headache, though. His eyes fogged, words blending together until new ones formed.
Serill jolted upright.
So’nimdidn’t exist in the shadow language because it wasn’t a word.
It was an entirely new one. Made up by the celvusa.
And it wasn’t just one word.
He flipped to the children’s book. The only consistent word with a prefix ofso’was shadow.So’nei. When referring to the shadow wolf, it was alwayseisoqeiorso’nei eisoqei.
But in the book on shadow magic, near the command section, the celvusa was not mentioned as either of those terms.
It was a completely new word.
So’noqei.
A combination of the prefix shadow and root of wolf. Not shadow wolf, but shadowwolf.
So’nimwas a blend of two words—words that had never been combined before.
How the hells had Brela planned for this when she hadn’t heard that word until the Crystal Desert? Could it be dumb luck that her prank had lead him to searching for the answer to who she was?
Actually, that sounded about right. She was good, but notthatgood.
Serill leapt off the couch and snagged another sheet of paper as he spread the books over the table. He found all the words with the prefixso,so’, andso’n.
And then he got to work. Every combination of root he could find that might make sense. Over and over, he wrote the words and worked through the translations.
Daughter whodoessomething, issomething. Daughter stupid… no, not that.
Daughter of shadows… but something else as well. He scanned the pages again.
“Four hells,” he breathed, stumbling back. He actually stumbled back, nearly tripping over the couch in his surprise. His legs shook as he sat on the arm, blinking at the paper in his hand.
At the translation.
The answers to every question she’d voiced since the desert became clear. The shadow wolf being drawn to her, what the shard in her collarbone was doing… The celvusa knew what she was, and it knew what was coming.
