Now this was truly odd.

Apparently Elvish was a completely different language from whatever the lowfolk spoke ... no, that couldn't be right, because we had been talking all this time and could obviously understand each other.  Maybe Elvish was written in a different alphabet?  I racked my brains trying to remember if I had ever read a lowfolk book, and recalled that Percy le Gobelet's seditious publication had been fully intelligible to me, as well as Rebecca's journal which I was holding right now.  Burnside also had been able to read all of the journal except the "lorem ipsum" passages.  So, a cipher alphabet couldn't be the answer either ... unless this was a different type of magickal screen, like the lorem ipsum text.

How common was this lorem ipsum encryption, anyway?  I had never seen it outside the scry tower library, until now.  My experience with it showed that certain passages would become un-encrypted as the reader's knowledge base expanded to enable comprehension.  But ... if Rebecca thought it said "lorem ipsum" and had copied it down as such, why could I read fragments of an astrological guide there?  This meant that text could be copied even though the copyist had no idea what it actually said.  This could be very bad.  Ciphers were theoretically crackable, especially this one which unlocked itself if you knew enough about the subject, and I didn't like the idea of a bunch of Elvish books circulating among the lowfolk.  If, for example, they learned the breeding techniques from the Fuma Sutra, this knowledge coupled with their natural vitality would cause their numbers to overwhelm the world!

Then I realized with a sudden shock that Rebecca was reading an Elvish book right now.  The Foxspell I had given her was partly cloaked with "lorem ipsum" but the rest was apparently legible to her.  She was turning pages and laughing at something, and I doubted that even she was crazy enough to be that amused by page after page of incomprehensible gibberish.  Why would a copy of the Foxspell from the Vulpitanian Embassy be written in the alphabet that lowfolk could read, instead of in the coded Elvish alphabet?

Then again, was I really certain it had come from the Embassy?  I had apported it seemingly from nowhere, and had given it to Rebecca to read.  Perhaps my permission had unlocked parts of it for her ... or perhaps I had magickally created this book from thin air.  Was it possible to do that?  I recalled what Estvan had told me, about elfly powers being stronger in the lowfolk world than they were in Faerie.  Perhaps I wouldn't be able to perform such feats at home.  I made a mental note to test this hypothesis when I had time to go through the Gate.

Meanwhile, I needed to do something about this loose book situation.  I summoned a squad of Ixies for a special mission.

"Reporting for duty, Sire!" they exclaimed, with a snappy salute.

"Oh hey," I said.  "I remember you.  Angela, isn't it?"

"OMG U REMEMBERED!!1!!!" she squealed excitedly.

"I haven't seen you in a while," I continued.  "Where have you been?"

"Ive been following Ash Marten," Angela explained.

"Oho!" I chortled.  "Despite all the gambling and bickering, this generation of Ixies shows the most promise!  Good initiative there, Angela!  That old scoundrel probably didn't even know I had anybody spying on him."

"Im sneaky & sly, Sire," she beamed proudly.  "Ash nevar suspected a thing."

"Excellent, excellent, using the Vulpitanians' own tricks against them.  This is good!  So, what intel were you able to gather?"

"Oh, I learned that he is Super Dreamy & Pretty Hot 4 a portly older gent.  That bad boy act he puts on is like TEH SMEX 4 realz, LOL but he has his Sensitive Unseelie side 2.  He has a different cravat 4 every day of teh week.  He collects soggy old books & teeth of people who owe him money.  He likes wry toast with black current jam & a fried egg 4 breakfast.  ZOMG!!!1!  I just realized that with Adler & Adoyret Sam & now Ash, my love triangle is now a love rectangle!  Or a love square!  Or a love parallelogram!  Love trapezoid!  Ooooh sisters, how many shapes have 4 corners??"

"There is also a rhombus," one of the other Ixies added glumly as Angela twirled in the air and foamed at the mouth.  "Come on back to the hive, Weakflit.  Thou hast done enough espionage this day."

"Have her report back to me after she's been thoroughly debriefed," I ordered.  "The rest of you have a mission to track down all of the Elvish books left behind by the Duchess of Daisies, and destroy them."

"Oh my delightfully wicked lord," Rebecca called from the other side of the clearing.  "When you're done parlaying with your insect-devil servitors, I have come across part of the Overspell.  You wanted me to stop and consult you when that happened."

PREV http://www.patreon.com/posts/61395770

NEXT http://www.patreon.com/posts/62045373