Etzos, ‘The City of Stones’ is a fortress against the encroachment of Immortal domination of Idalos. Founded on the backs of mortals driven to seek their own destiny independent of the Immortals, the city has carved itself out of the very rock of the land. Scourged by terrible wars of extermination, they've begun to grow again, and with an eye toward expansion, optimism is on the rise.
Inali glanced at the page, noting the cipher than Jonah had brought to class. The key face down on the desk next to the encoded letter. This cipher was rather old, and no one of any importance used it. As such the Old Guard allowed it to be used for lessons in Cryptography for promising students in the Etzos Academy. The cipher was moderately complex and would serve to test whether Jonah had study as much as he claimed. The eidisi gestured at the page and spoke,
“What do you notice?”
Jonah examined the page for a half bit and responded, as he knew that rushing to a conclusion in cryptography was a surefire way to run yourself in circles. He spoke softly and his eyes continued to track the length of the page while he responded,
“It’s in Common or Rakahi though I can’t tell which quite yet. There are no unusual smudges of ink or other signifiers. The core words are difficult to understand. It feels like there are too few – maybe they substituted them with other words, or omitted them completely?”
The last sentence was uttered with a hint of apprehension, though there was no need for the boy to lack confidence. Inali had hoped he would pick up on that oddity – it was one of the key features of the cipher.
“And how does that effect our analysis?”
He mused for a second before replying,
“We can’t utilize them to start making a key.”
Inali nodded and then added,
“There’s more to it than simply starting a key to decode the cipher – without those words like ‘I’, ‘or’, and ‘he’ we’re left with a mess of words that are equal in length. This cipher was designed to give up us a difficult time, but it can be solved.”
Books were hard to obtain, especially for a foreign Avriel with little Nel to his name. Poxis had read the note book his more scholarly mother had left him but there wasn’t much theory or mystery to it, just simple experiments he could try. Poxis had already made plenty of messes with vinegar and baking soda and his tests with more combustive elements had drawn unwanted attention. The curious Avriel needed something to keep his interest, and without his mother giving him his daily lessons he was at a loss.
While wondering around the city to get his bearings and maybe find some way of making money he stumbled upon the Etzos Academy. Poxis narrowed his obsidian eyes into a scowl as he witnessed all manner of snooty people of varying ages casually walk into its massive doors as they discussed what he could only assume was pretentious drivel. while he would never admit it he was jealous of their privilege. There likely wasn’t a single Avriel enrolled and the idea of one being hired to teach young minds was even more preposterous.
The wise decision would be to continue walking but Poxis had other plans. He slipped as casually as he could into the shadows and when he was sure no one was looking he outstretched his wings and took to the skies. He clumsily glided from tree to tree until he spotted an open window. From a shady perch, Poxis could see no signs of life so he flew up to the window cil and squeezed through the frame. He slowly put one of his clawed feet onto the pristine floor and crept as softly as he could to keep his talons from clicking on the tiles. The Avriel got to the teachers desk and looked at a few of the papers on the desk, but didn’t recognize the language. Before moving on he eyed a container of ink quills and grinned before posing it over.
He popped his head into the hall and saw no one, so he crept down it until he heard voices and treaded all the more carefully. His heart beat fast and beads of sweat were forming on his face but he moved next to a door that was open a crack and listened to the voices inside. Poxis couldn’t hear them very well and leaned in, only to stumble and cling to the door fo balance.
Shit shit shit shit
He quickly recovered and shot back back to the wall in a panic. He held his breath and hoped no one saw or heard his blunder. He could practically feel his heart beating in his throat and the beads of sweat began to stream down his face.
Inali nodded and decided to point out the positives that they had in their favor. Cryptography was a skill she rarely taught, but Jonah’s parents were paying her enough nels to make it impossible to refuse. Most novice cryptographers would learn enough to crack basic ciphers and be contented with that. Diving into encrypted messages that utilized symbols and numbers would test their resolve and many would find any other pursuit to occupy their time.
“So, we don’t have our common one and two letter words. We still have spaces between the words. There’s no punctuation, but that shouldn’t prove too difficult. The most important thing to notice here is that we do have all the letters of the Common alphabet. Now, there are techniques to trick us, but most people won’t bother to obscure the most common letters. As such, we need to write down every letter and record the number of times it occurs in the message.
Jonah smiled slightly and Inali noticed the telltale sign of determination light up the boy’s face and demeanor. His grip on his ink pen tightened and his began notating the letters along the left margin of the page. While he worked, Inali took a few trills to think about her own journey into cryptography. She hadn’t been immune to the tedium or frustration, though she liked to pretend she had avoided it altogether. Multiple seasons passed before she bothered to decrypt a complicated cipher and she was happier for it. The time away from the letters and symbols gave her time to pursue her forgery and exploration of the wilderness. During that blessed reprieve, she didn’t go to sleep each night wishing that she had completed more of the key.
A muffled thump shook the eidisi out of her reverie and she stood up and pivoted to peer at the classroom door. It moved slightly, then stopped. Night Mother, if one of these stodgy old men is having a heart attack outside my classroom… It took only a few trills to cross the distance and look into the hallway beyond. Her eyes narrowed when she spotted a light blue skinned avriel. This angered her more than his obvious eavesdropping. He looked similar enough to an eidisi, if her people grew wings, feathers, and talons.
“And who are you?”
Her tone was scathing, but she didn’t move to alert the guards that were posted at the far end of hallways. She wanted to know exactly why he had chosen her classroom. Was he a spy? An infiltrator? Inali’s eyes narrowed at the thought and she drummed her fingers against the door frame as she awaited a reply.
The footsteps got louder as they counted down his demise but Poxis legs were frozen stiff. His dark eyes darted around looking for any place to conceal himself, literally anything would do but nothing. The Avriel could almost picture the filthy cell he would inhabit and the cold metal shackles that would hold his battered legs and wrists. He’d probably have his wings torn off too, left forever marked for a silly moment of curiosity and defiance. The young Avriel’s blood was lit like gasoline filling his body with a burning rage as he readied his claws for a fight.
Then the women appeared at the door, Poxis was stunned to find that she had the same blue skin and cloudy white eyes that his mother had. While the Avriel’s mother wasn’t a pure bred Edisi nor was she the same age as the one standing before him they both were too similar for him to ignore. When the Edisi glared at him with judgement and distaste he couldn’t help but feel caught in a memory of himself as a child being scolded by his mother. His rage subsided and he could feel the sudden tickle in his sinuses and eyes as the new emotion washed over him.
“I’m uh..” Poxis mumbled like a dumb kid with his eyes towards the floor in guilt. He fiddled with his sweaty fingers as he tried to think of a good lie but his mind was grasping at straws and sinking fast.
“My name is Poxis and I just broke in cause I’m bored…okay!” He blurted out bluntly. “If you promise not to call the guards I’ll be on my way and you can finish your word puzzle or whatever you are doing in there.” Poxis folded his arms tightly, furrowed his brow and bit his lip like he did when he was told not to do something fun. He was ready to bolt for the empty room he snuck into the second the Edisi made a fuss but deep down he hoped she’d be cool and let him off with a warning or at least give him a head start.
