learning the long arc

I knew it. Jerry was an idiot.

The first two pages were filled with the praise professor Gerard had received. If Jerry had prepared the notebook after meeting me, that would be something else. He had clearly readied the notebook long before I even left home. All this showed was Jerry's pompousness.

He escaped at some point, without catching my notice. I was alone in the office with his notebook. I hated him for leaving me nothing to scoff at.

"Such flowery letters," I commented at his handwriting. "Such a waste of ink and time. Definitely an idiot."

I couldn't keep from appreciating the neatness when looking at the long arc character set, however.

Jerry was the first to discover the runes and decipher the character set. He was also who named it long arc. It was foolish expecting more from him.

I started with his notes.

"The characters of long arc seem to be an amalgamation of sub-characters. Sub-characters represent syllables, the smallest constructs. But they cannot be found individually anywhere in the runes. Rather, it is their amalgamation that represent a single, complete unit of an idea. And the the Faery runes seem to be constructed with these unit ideas. In that way, Faery runes are very similar to elemental runes."

Elemental runes. They were the one branch of runes I hadn't learned. Truth be told, I wanted to learn a language of elemental runes next. Even if only to verify my theory.

There was more notes, but I skipped past and went straight to the long arc character set.

After an hour of staring at the pages with the characters listed separately, I was seeing nothing. I don't know why I keep trying it. It never works. I never can learn runes the academic way.

Madam Rosza wrote everyone has their song.

I flipped pages until I found a few lines of Faery runes with the translation into common tongue underneath. And my eyes shone.

It was something I realised while studying Vikari runes. Vikari runes were descriptive and high on detail. Vikari was also a civilisation that stressed heavily on culture and literature. Academics and artists experimented greatly on expression without restraints on account of structure and length. And so, what could be expressed in, maybe, ten words, the Vikari said in forty or fifty. Vikari runes were no different.

To me, Vikari runes were beautiful art. So very easy to read and understand once I got the hang of it. They also offered the most room for application and extension. It was where I birthed my theory.

Reading a few lines of Faery runes, I started to get the hang of it.

"Draw a parallel, and read from that parallel," madam Rosza wrote.

That was exactly what I did.

I drew a parallel in Vikari. After the first few lines, I was reading Faery in Vikari. Faery runes were built on representation of ideas. Vikari allowed for expression of everything. Wasn't long before I wasn't merely reading but writing the Faery ideas in Vikari freeform.

I needed my notebook. I needed to write. I was reading in Faery and writing in Vikari. I was thankful there was enough Faery runes in the notebook to complete the parallel. Then, I hated Jerry for being so miserly. There wasn't nearly enough to complete the Faery long arc character set. I needed so much more.

I was spent when I closed the notebooks. My eyes hurt like there were needles stabbing into them. Pushing aside the notebooks to make space, I rested my head on the table and shut my eyes.

When I woke, it was clearly evening. A sandwich sat on a paper plate a foot from my face. Jerry and the twins were in the office, pouring over the notebooks.

"What are you doing?"

The twins didn't hear me. Jerry looked up, nodded slightly.

"The sandwich's gone cold," he said. "Won't kill you. Eat."

I glared at him, but Jerry was back in the notebooks. I picked up the sandwich and took a bite. It was cold. The cheese was as hard as the bread. And the tomatoes were soggy. There was nothing else. I could see Jerry relishing the tomato and cheese sandwich. Not me. I threw out the tomatoes and the cheese, and gulped the dry bread. Licking my fingers clean, I looked at them.

Why were they staring so intently at my notebook?

"Do any of you know Vikari?"

The question finally got their attention. Clearly, no one did.

"What are you doing then," I asked without waiting for them to answer. "Jerry, I can understand. An excited idiot has no idea what he's doing. Maybe Dia. She is Jerry's family. What are you doing Pratt?"

Pratt cleared his throat as he pushed the notebook into Dia's hands.

"I was trying to see what got them so excited."

Dia looked at the three of us. Me confused. Pratt embarrassed. Jerry stunned. And she burst out laughing.

"I have to ask. Who are you?"

"I'm no one," I answered automatically.

"So, you're really no one. But, Dia's right. We gotta ask. You're just too weird. And too damn smart."

Jerry had enough of the meaningless conversation.

"Get your heads on right, please," he said staring hard at Pratt and Dia who weren't the slightest afraid.

I remembered him saying that he was scary. He was definitely lying.

Staring at me, even harder, Jerry asked.

"You can really read Faery?"

The answer wasn't as simple as the question. I needed a moment.

"All that's in your notebook I can read. I'll need a lot more of Faery runes. You said Faery runes are elemental runes. I'll need pictures of the environment they were found in. I'd like to verify my theory. But, yeah, with enough runes I could read Faery runes. But only in Vikari. It's a lot more complicated in common tongue."

"There's definitely more than enough in the library back home," Jerry said excitedly.

The twins looked just as excited. They were nodding vigorously.

There was just one thing to do before we left.

"About the classes."

Jerry wasn't the slightest confused.

"No need to bother about them," he said nonchalantly.

Grabbing my hand, he pulled me along as he rushed out. I wanted to scream that I could walk fine by myself. Before I could find my voice, I found the twins pushing me along. And I felt like a beauty abducted by lustful bandits.