79 The East I (2/2)

Early on into the night, while Li looked at the fields that Old Thane had managed to plough over despite his hangover, Sylvie came.

Li was kneeling on the dirt, thanking the Myrmeke that hummed underground for helping Old Thane. If the old man had to actually get out there and manually dig up all the dirt while having to tear out each and every empty wheat husk, then Li was sure the old man would never have managed it in the span of a single day.

But because Li had directed the Myrmeke to follow Old Thane's bidding, all the old man had to do was lead the ant where he wanted to upturn the earth like some kind of advanced tractor. The soil was now fresh and rich again, smelling deeply of moist earth that had never felt the harsh light of the sun.

”Easy now,” said Li to Zagan as the demon stiffened up beside him, sensing Sylvie's presence.

Sylvie stood several meters away from Zagan, feeling obvious unease at the demon's aura.

Li looked back to Sylvie and waved her closer. ”He doesn't bite. Unless you make him.”

As if on cue, Zagan sighed before lying down, eyes closing in a lazy stupor. Sylvie took this as a good sign and approached. She also knelt at the dirt, right beside Li.

”It is incredible how much passion you have for this,” said Sylvie as she picked up a handful of dirt, letting it sift through her fingers in wonder.

”Sometimes, a simple life is best.,” said Li. ”And here you go.”

Li had expected her to come, and he had carried with him the bag of scrolls and manuals she had given him. He returned it to her, and she hugged it dearly to her chest like it was a bag of precious gold.

”How much could you decipher?” she said, ever curious.

”All of it.”

Sylvie sighed in relief. ”Did they maybe awaken some of your memory? I would be so very happy to know they helped you in any way.”

Li shook his head. ”Like I said, maybe it's better I don't remember.”

”Still, if there is any way I can help-”

Li raised a hand to stop her. ”You shouldn't worry about me. Let's talk about what I found. First off, let me ask you, how much of these could you read?”

Sylvie cocked her head. ”The scrolls, I was able to mostly decipher. There is an eastern novel, the Journey to the Sun, that holds an Eldenian translation. I was able to learn much of the language through it. The manuals, however, seem to be of a different language, or at the least, the writing form is significantly different.”

”Impressive,” said Li. She had managed to learn an entire language from using a novel as a sort of Rosetta stone, speaking volumes of her effort and passion. Full time linguists would have difficulty doing that over a decade, and she had functionally managed to learn an entirely foreign language in the span of what must have been just a few years.

Sylvie smiled and perked up at the compliment. ”Thank you.”

Li nodded. ”You're also right: the manuals are written in a different language.”

Though Allspeak meant he could read and write universally, he could still tell when a writing system was different from another. The scrolls had characters that were small and easily written, each character indicating a vowel or consonant sound. In contrast, the manuals had few but elaborate characters where each one represented not merely a sound, but also an entire concept.

”I thought so!” Sylvie nodded with understanding. ”Both languages seem to write in ink and bark-based paper, so their cultures shared land, and yet were distinct. Quite interesting. I must note that down for when I meet them. It would be awful to not recognize differences among the people in Xia.”

”That's a topic I wanted to approach.” Li knew he was going to essentially crush her dreams, but there was no way to delicately say this. ”There is no East anymore. Or at the least, not like you think it. Where did you find the scrolls and manuals?”

”I bought them at an auction in Trieste,” said Sylvie, concern gracing her brows. ”Sailors found them locked within a box floating at sea, far east, right where the Whirling Oceans and their impassable tempests begin.”

”Figures. That box was a kind of final message. The manuals have notes in them talking about the end of the empire. About widescale collapse and irreversible destruction. If they got desperate enough to send some of their culture out just so that someone might remember it, then it's pretty reasonable to say that the vision of the east you have in your mind is no longer.

I know your dream was to visit the east, but there is no east anymore to see.”