Closed Spark of Interest (Leila)

[Erekez]

The reason that Erekez had originally bought the gloves was the same reason he returned it to its original position on his hand: She was going to stare. Whilst he didn't get the impression that Leila was the kind of person to be intentionally rude, human curiosity was very subtle. There was always an urge to observe anything that was different, you weren't even aware you were doing it some times. A desire to understand usually followed, speculations and theories, further removing a person from the conversation. Take away the source of curiosity, remove the chance of wasted breath. Needless to say, she asked a question. It deserved an answer. "My mark is the first mark of Eyris," Erekez replied. "She blessed me with Lykata on my passing through Lhavit last Spring. I'm not the perfect representation of a follower of Eyris. In truth, we had a few disagreements when I first met her, but she understood my reasoning for my actions when I explained them. Seems she thought highly enough of me to carry her mark." Eyris had said she'd be interested in seeing how he would use her mark. Erekez didn't know what she meant by that, and was unsure if how he had been using it was what she had expected of him. Tracking down animals and people, scouting out common threats to the area, getting an idea of an individual's personality, finding hints with his cryptography. Oh yea, I've still got work I should be doing. "My current Lykata shows me pieces of information about anyone or anything that has come into contact with an item. Unfortunately, it has a limited number of uses per item." He waved the piece of paper that Leila had given him. "For example, I now know that an Alicia Taron and Corin Kalgor might have had something to do with this little joke. I don't know exactly what, that is where my Lykata's help ends." Folding the piece of paper up, Erekez placed the note in a pocket on the inside of his cloak. Anyone could see the ladder was broken now, so anyone who was still going to use it would disregard a new sign anyway. "Lykata's use has proven helpful a number of times, even in some cases of my cryptography I've been able to work out the key from a single use alone. Unfortunately, when the other person gets a bit paranoid and starts changing the key halfway through, its limited uses becomes an annoyance. Anyway, I digress. I'm sorry to leave you, but I've been battling a problem for a while now and would like to get it cracked before I finish for the day. So, before I take my leave, is there any further help I can offer you or any further questions?" Honestly, before he had finished his words, Erekez considered asking Leila for help. His current list of keys had been set out as a puzzle. It was frustrating that the answer was right in front of your face and you didn't know if it was longer to solve the puzzle or to use a direct method. Perhaps Leila could help.

[Leila]

Leila listened intently, wide eyed as he spoke. He'd actually met a god, in person, and had been blessed with some sort of magical gift. It was astounding. She knew the gods to be real, but she didn't know they met with mortals. She guessed you'd have to be an extraordinary person to pique their interest. This Lykata thing seemed to be extremely useful to his type of person, one who researched and dealt with codes as he said. But it certainly didn't seem the sort of thing that would suit her. Maybe that's how the gods worked, blessing people based on their strengths and personalities more than anything else. Ever since she left home last season, she'd been wanting to learn more about the gods. Her parents weren't religious people, her dad apathetic and her mother saying it a waste of time for a lady. But this was proof the gods were here, and here to help the lives of everyone. She promised herself that after this, she'd visit the temples in the city, to at least learn more about these gods. Who knows, maybe she'd see one some day, although she doubted it. She was just an aspiring herbalist after all. "I don't think so, but thank you so much for helping me. Is there anything I can do for you? I feel like I must, you've saved me and taught me so much, there must be some way I can help you, in anything." Maybe he'd like a nice home cooked meal or something, she always loved to cook for people.

[Erekez]

"With any luck, you might be able to, if you don't mind." Sitting in his seat around from her, Erekez adjusted his quill, ink and paper, tidying it all again after the sudden action of jumping out of his chair earlier. No ink had been spilt, which was thankful, but he had knocked a few things from their place and across the table. Settling into his seat, Erekez turned the new book towards Leila and brought the old book alongside it. There was a great contrast between the colour of the pages within the new and old books, and even more in the condition of the paper that made each of them up. Old and tattered alongside new and pristine. Age came to all things, and the knowledge held in the books would always last longer than the paper and ink that recorded it. What wasn't coded in the old book was faded from age or other damage. Next to it, in the new book, was exactly what was written in the old, but in a way that people could read. "I've been working on this book for most of the morning now. The majority of cryptography is easy, getting the real message from the code. The problem is trying to find the key." Erekez tapped the nib of the quill at the top of the page in the coded book, highlighting the four words that had been messily scribbled above all the text that followed it. "Whoever coded this book has set out finding the key as a puzzle. You have these four words written at the top of the page; sand, blowing, spy, and worker. The idea is to find a word that links the four of them together. The word you find to solve the puzzle also is the key to solve the code. It's a creative method, but I'm having troubles with this one. Would you happen to have any ideas?" If not, he was getting tired of this key. Erekez decided he'd try a direct method. It might take longer, but at least he'd be making some sort of visible progress.

[Leila]

Leila smiled as soon as he'd said he could use her help. Leila watched intently as he showed her the two books, not really understanding it all. But she gathered the old book was in code, and the new one was what it said when not in code. Then he told her about the four things; sand, blowing, spy, and worker. Leila wasn't sure right away what that could mean, but she was determined to help her companion. She took a length of hair in a hand, twirling it around a finger, as she thought. She started with the first word, sand. In Zeltiva, sand was only common around the beaches, so she started with that line of thought. Beach, how did that connect with the other words? Blowing could be wind, which did have to do with the beach. But neither of them really had to do with spy or worker. So she restarted the process, the length of hair now in her mouth, sucking lightly while lost in thought. Sand, to worker. She didn't know of any workers off hand at the beach. Wait, beach wasn't the word, sand was. She remembered a trip where her dad had taken her to the beach. She saw a young man there gathering sand in barrels and carrying them back into town. When she asked, her father said that he was a glassmaker, that they could turn sand into glass. So there was a connection for sand to worker. And she remember him telling her that the proper term for their workers was a glass...blower! Blowing! That was three of the words! Now how did glass involve with spy? "Well I've got a connection with three of them. Sand is made into glass by a glass blower, which is a worker. I don't know how spy and glass come together though. Spy... glass..." Leila was frustrated that she couldn't make the last connection, but she wondered if glass was the word, even if she didn't know it. "I'm sorry, I couldn't figure it out. I tried."