Chapter 10

Amy eyed the red twenty-sided die and looked down her two lists of topics and locations. It had taken her two days to find twenty places that had public access computers connected to the internet. Her topic list was sitting at sixteen items, but she had decided she would re-roll if she hit an unused topic.

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered as she made a roll.

Twelve. She looked at her list of locations. The central library it would be to start her day. She packed up her notebook, leaving her new computer behind, and checked the forecast before heading out into the cool autumn weather. At least it had stopped raining.

It took her twenty minutes to get to the library and another fifteen to get online. She flipped through her notes and started an anonymous browser session, since the computer would not allow her to connect the small thumb drive with its VPN software. She opened her notebook and pulled out the damned die again.

Three. Congresswoman Samuelson’s Federal Election Commission financial reports would be her first search. She typed the search into the browser and then drilled into the congresswoman’s reelection contributions. The selection and filtering options were daunting, but she typed and drilled-in until she had the list of contributors by individual donations as well as PAC contributions. She also had the summary report for the last two elections. She printed out the reports, closed the browser, and went to the service desk to pay for her printouts after rolling for her next location.

Amy shook her head as she exited the building’s main doors and headed for the subway. Research was going to take forever at this pace.

“I need to talk to the tech folks,” she said to no one as she walked. A strong VPN and a dedicated, cheap laptop were what she needed. She could then roam to various hot-spots and keep some history of her work in an electronic format. Finn would not like the increased risk, but she needed to work faster and smarter. Instead of heading down into the subway, she turned left and walked down 6th Avenue toward an electronics store she had used before.

I know how to set up Unix on a plain box, now, she thought. How hard can it be to get wireless working on one?

Fall seven times, get up eight, Elara thought, thinking about one of her novice lessons. Her teachers at the temple would never let them sit and feel sorry for themselves. Action was the sign of trying. Trying was what teachers expected novices to do. Stand up and try.

Resolved, she rose from the couch. “I need to learn more about this world if I’m to complete my quest. I need you to spend some time helping me learn your language.”

Finn looked up in shock.

“What do you mean? You can understand me just fine, and I, you.”

Elara shook her head. “I can interpret your thoughts as you vocalize words, but I don’t know your language.”

“You can read my mind?” he was incredulous.

“No. When you speak, it’s more that I can understand you. Priestesses must be able to talk to everyone, so it is part of the gift my goddess gives, but we don’t have to read every language. I need you to teach me your letters and words, so I can start searching some on my own.”

“But I need...”

Elara waved his protest away and marched over to him at the table in his kitchen area. “No. You need to help me. The sooner you start, the sooner I’ll be able to proceed on my own, but I need your help to take the first steps.”

Finn took a deep breath, either to protest or agree, but Elara did not give him a choice. She pushed the lid of his laptop closed. He let out a breath, not quite sighing, and nodded. Instead of arguing, he stood, guided her into his chair, and grabbed a sheet of paper.

“This is our alphabet,” he said as he neatly printed the upper- and lower-case letters. Once each was written, he began telling her the sounds they made. Soon, she knew the long and short vowel sounds, and the individual consonants as well. Finn then began forming simple words from the letters and having her sound them out.

“Good,” he said encouragingly. “Let’s try some longer words.”

He grabbed a thick book from his bookshelf and flipped it open to a random page. His finger stabbed down at a collection of letters. “What’s that word?” he asked.

“May-keye-tosh”, she tried.

Finn smiled at her and nodded. “Close, but this is ‘mah-kin-tosh’. When you see an ‘I’ after a ‘c’, it is often an indication of a soft ‘k’ sound. When I say the word ‘Macintosh’, what do you think I mean?”

“Either an apple, or one of your computer machines.”

Finn laughed. “Perfect. It is both, a specific type of apple, and the name of a computer built by a company called Apple Computers.”

“Why isn’t it spelled more simply?” Elara asked. “M-A-K-I-N-T-O-S-H would be more clear, wouldn’t it?”

“It would, but English, is an amalgamation of several older languages that have been combined over the centuries. If I were to speak in my native tongue, ‘twould be as foreign as the stars to your ears.” He added in a heavily accented voice.

“I could understand you just fine, but I doubt I could read that if you wrote it out. Is that how you learned to speak?”

“Is féidir le mèarúdach éan-nàis agam Gaeilge agus Béarla a chur siad ar fad,” he replied.

Elara smiled. “So, you learned both Gaelic and English as a child. I think the Gaelic sounds more enchanting, though again, I doubt I could read it either.”

They settled into a slow back and forth of Finn pointing at words and her sounding them out and discerning their meaning when he would use them in a sentence or elaborate on the meaning and nuance of various words. Soon she progressed enough to sound out simple words for objects around the apartment. They made a game of it for a couple of hours and then returned to using books, sitting side-by-side hunched over the table.

The afternoon faded into evening before Finn called for a break. “That’s enough for today. Tomorrow, we can go out and find a library with some easier books for you to work with.”

Finn stood up from the table, stretching before reaching out to take her hand and help her rise. Her muscles, which should have been smooth and strong, bunched in protest. Their fingers entwined, and a surge of energy passed between them, leaving Elara breathless and disoriented. She grasped his hand, pulling herself up, wanting to hug him in thanks, but then she paused and kept her composure. He was helping her from the kindness of his heart. She refused to let her feelings cloud her judgment with any sign of intimacy. Besides, she knew that she had been soiled by the magician and his geas.

Instead, she executed a graceful curtsy, allowing her fingers to barely touch his palm. “Thank you, kind sir, for all your assistance today.”

Finn’s smile seemed to indicate that she had made the right decision.

Finn knew Elara’s sadness. She had seemed brighter, less concerned while they studied yesterday, then she had closed herself off once more, bowing to him and thanking him for his instruction. It was as if the room had dimmed, and not just from the coming night. He wanted to see that light once more. He couldn’t let her slip into despair. “Let’s go out and pick up some food,” he said. “We need to get a simple book or two as well.” He glanced at her, still wearing some of his old shorts and t-shirt. “Maybe we should pick up a few more outfits for you as well.”

Elara gave him a sad smile. “Normally, I weave moonbeams to suit the occasion, but it’s harder now, in your world or from my failure.”

Finn nodded. “Which doesn’t make sense if your magic is a quantum entangled effect. Distance and time should have no bearing on things. Maybe you’re just feeling a little down or caught a bug that isn’t native to your home. I’m sure things will sort themselves out. Meanwhile, if you feel up to it, let’s go down to the square and pick up some things.”

Elara nodded, went back into the bedroom. A few moments later, she returned once again wearing the indistinctive, unassuming clothes from their prior journey out. Even in the drab pants and plaid shirt, she moved with elegance and grace. She tucked her shining silver hair up under his old ball cap and stopped at the end of the hallway, looking at him.

“What?” she asked.

Finn shook himself. He could not say what he was thinking; that she looked better in the secondhand clothes than he ever could. She was too beautiful for his feeble words. A spectacular dawn over the ocean, promising a wondrous new day filled with possibilities and positive portents would be easier for him to describe.

“Sorry, I’m just not used to having people around. I was thinking how nice you look, even in such plain clothes. I can’t image seeing you in something fancy. If you were dressed up, you would have no problem getting close to some of these powerful men and women.”