Spring 70th, 506 A.V.
Loken had never had any reason to swim. That was not due to any fear or misgivings about the sea, but he'd not had any reason to learn to swim since he was a child forced to meditate on a raft by the Ano Cult. One could say, that even though he had no fear of the sea, those experiences kept him from seeking out any reason that would require him to swim. So naturally, navigating around The Sunken Conundrum was quite the hassle for Loken to deal with.
He had just stepped across the event horizon of water that made up the libraries doorway, beset upon by the constant pressure of water that quickly engulfed him. Loken's logic always dictated that he simply continue walking, but as he took one step forward, his entire body started to float upward due to buoyancy. The Ano Cultist quickly started to float three inches off of the floor, which caused him to wave his arms around in a circle towards each of his sides.
The head librarian Hinrane Morcer hovered in the water a few feet away from him, her brow raised as she watched the man slowly spin in a circle. Loken twirled about three times before he managed to grow accustomed to the whole situation. It was not the first time he had been to the Conundrum, but it still always managed to earn its namesake.
He reached out with one of his arms to scoop at the water with a closed fingered palm. The act causing him to be propelled forward through the water. He repeated the process with his other arm, allowing his body to float upwards as he started to kick his feet too maintain his momentum. He tried his best to maintain some amount of dignity, but ended up preforming what most people would call a 'doggy paddle', on his way towards the bookshelves.
Upon reaching one of the shelves, he quickly gripped the top most shelf to hold himself steady as he looked over each one on the shelves. He slowly guided himself along until he spotted a book that seemed interesting. It was a worn, black leather spine of a book that read Keeping the Word by Q.V. Abernathy. Loken removed it from the shelf to skim through its contents, his body floating down to the ground as he used both hands to hold the book. His fingers flipped through the pages as he read, reading what appeared to be a solid page of nonsensical phrases, numbers, and various sting of letters. "What is this?" He mused aloud to himself, forcing himself to read the first page of the book rather than skim through its middle.
What he found was a book detailing the practice of Cryptography and he had opened it up on a chapter filled with examples of codes. "That makes far more sense." The book had caught enough of his interest to halt his search for any other book. He reached out at the water again, pulling at it as if he were grabbing something, then pulled at the water, causing him to fling forward into a slow glide.
It took him a chime or two to fumble his way over to a desk area in the library, then waved is hands above his head to force himself to stand fully on the ground. As he pulled off his backpack to set it on the desk, he felt like he was a stationary man again but still underwater. He ignore the randomness of the building since he wanted to read the new book, and pulled out the chair to sit down.
Loken opened the book up to its first chapter as he also removed his own personal journal from his backpack, knowing full well that he was going to want to take notes. When he uncorked his vial of ink, Loken was always shocked to find that the ink never leaked out or mixed with the water. Naturally, he soon retrieved his quill then began the long process of actually reading the book. Loken was shocked to learn that the book had a heavy focus on basic mathematics.
'okd + sxq - sc × pyb (ofob) = iyxo'
The above is a basic Shift code, hidden under the pretext of being a math problem. When removed from its hiding place, it reads 'Okdsxq sc pyb ofobiyxo'. A shift code is made by transitioning a letter down a set numerical value. In this case, all letters have been shifted ten spaces meaning A = K. In this example the first letter means E = O. When solved, the above reads 'Eating is for everyone'.
Now that you know what a shift is, you now know that its Conceptual Key is the information used to decipher a code. In the above case, the creator of the code could share A + 10 = K with someone else so they would know how to solve the code. A Conceptual Key is considered 'keyless' while other codes that require a physical item to proceed with deciphering them make those 'Keyed Codes'.
Loken carefully took notes extremely detailed notes. He was starting to understand how effective the use of simply changing one letter for another could be when dealing with keeping secrets. "So, If I just shift the letters eleven times, then 'A' would equal 'L'." He set the quill to the ink to write down his own personal code as practice.
As the quill tip scratched along the page of his journal, he wrote the phrase: "Alvadas at the Gaping Maw" It then took him a moment to mentally count each letter to then write out what it would be if it were a Keyless code.
"Lwglold le esp Rlatyr Xlh"
Nano WC: 959
