Chapter Four: On the Quest for Answers
"It's no use! There is simply not enough information left about this subject, Gasan. What shall we do? It has been two entire days since we began looking for information and we have naught!" Tehan exclaimed in frustration, putting down yet another dusty old book on the old, greasy library desk.
"I wouldn't be so impatient, Tehan. There are thousands of books we have yet to look through. Besides, I think I may have already found a significant clue in this book here." Gasan stated smugly, casually flipping through an old recipe book.
"Gasan, I know the University adores you for being so young and so capable, but what you are looking at is nothing more than a crusty old cooking book with recipes of our ancestors!" Tehan grumbled impatiently.
"What do you know about cooking?" he said, not looking up from his dusty yellowed pages.
"I know about as much as any scholar would – close to nothing." Tehan admitted shyly.
"Did you know that Warlo root and Gartka dust should never be mixed together when making a simple meat sauce?"
"No. Why is that?"
"It's highly poisonous."
Tehan's eyes widened in surprise as Gasan put the book down onto the creaking desk, his finger pointed at a part of the sauce recipe that calls for "2 notches of Warlo root and 3 shakes of Gartka dust". Tehan had no words for his surprise. His jaw dropped wide open and he could only gawk at the recipe, then at Gasan.
"Another thing: Jertum base isn't used when baking desserts; it is an extremely sour substance used for the preservation of meat found in certain types of hard-plated plants." Gasan pointed out a recipe for Pourty Berry cake that called for "3 slivers of Jertum base". "Besides that, 3 slivers of Jertum base is far to much to put on anything less than fifteen pounds of meat. Otherwise, the sour taste of the Jertum would overpower the flavor of whatever it is mixed with. That being so, I figure, this is obviously not a cooking book; this is a book of codes used by some organization – an organization that had to hide messages in something as simple as a cooking book. It must have something to do with the former religious councils. I have a good feeling about this." Gasan asserted confidently.
"Th-that's….b-brilliant…" Tehan stared in awe. He had never dreamed that secrets would be hidden so cleverly.
"Yes. I know. Let's have less gawking and more code breaking, shall we?" Gasan said impatiently.
Tehan sat at once and began puzzling over the book with Gasan. He was overwhelmed by the mention of elements he had little or no knowledge of such as "Pourty berries" and "Remina twigs". He couldn't hope to break a code he could barely understand. He realized that his time would be better spent researching from another angle, though Gasan had opened his eyes to information potentially being hidden in other places. He was determined to recheck all the books he had looked at to see if he had overlooked something. He discreetly excused himself from the desk where Gasan was busily scribbling notes and flipping through the pages of his recipe book. Tehan sat at the desk where he had been piling the books he had not been able to find anything and quickly began the task of rechecking all of those books.
Gasan carefully looked through the book's ridiculously impossible recipes and wrote out all the ingredients that had been used, the amounts, what type of dish the ingredients were supposedly for, and the types of materials each ingredient would be found in. He hoped that he would be able to deduce more information from these charts. As he was working on the charts, he noticed something truly unusual – none of the recipes involved a scrap of meat. Despite there being recipes for meat sauces as well as materials that would be normally used with meats, there was no mention of how to actually cook the meat or prepare the meat in any dish. If this were to be disguised as an ancient recipe book, there would have to be meat recipes as those were one of the few foods available to the ancient people of the city. What was the significance of excluding meat from a recipe code book? The thought baffled him. He took note of this and diligently worked on his charts.
The cherubs Dara, Ismene, Ahara, and Merari quietly fluttered into the dusty library in which Tehan and Gasan were busily reading and taking meticulous notes, puzzling over what could be significant. They watched the two work away in the dim, cluttered, dusty library. The cherubs looked thoughtfully at one another and fluttered away to find the books that would do best to aid these two in their search for answers. Ismene found a book in Tehan's pile that she remembered being filled with information. She curiously looked at Tehan, sweating nervously while flipping through old yellowed pages to find answers. She wondered to herself how he had overlooked such an important book. She pulled the book from the pile as carefully as she could and threw it away from the rest. The book landed with a moldy clap on the hard stone floor. Tehan and Gasan looked up with a start. Tehan looked over at Gasan in a mixture of shock, exhaustion, and confusion.
"There is no need for these childish games, Tehan. If you didn't find that book useful, there is no need to throw it." Gasan scoffed, wrinkling his nose in annoyance. He sighed loudly and went back to his notes.
Tehan looked around for a possible cause of the book suddenly flying out from the pile as he bent over from his chair to pick it up. He opened the book and flipped through to discover this had the biographies of the members in the religious councils. The sudden realization sent shockwaves to his gut and he hurriedly flipped through the pages to read through the book as quickly as he could. He groped desperately for his reed pen so he could make these important notes at once.
Merari was busy looking in the places he knew no one else would care to look. He searched under the bookcases, behind old stacks of books, and on top of hard-to-reach areas for anything that might have been hidden or placed there by accident. He crawled through the piles of dust and cobwebs and found little to boast about: a moldy piece of rope, 3 marbles, a copper earring, and the sharp part of a quill pen. He began to feel annoyed that his crawling had been for nothing, when suddenly he came by an old-looking envelope. He wasn't sure as to the contents of the envelope as it was still sealed, but he decided that it was worth the humans looking at. He pushed the letter from under the bookcase to the outside. The envelope slid along the floor with a dull crinkle and hit Gasan's sandal. Gasan looked down at the dusty envelope curiously. He wondered how it had gotten there, but was far too exhausted to look into it. He bent down and picked the envelope up, examining the outside for any identifying or interesting marks to no avail. It was a plain yellow envelope with a small wax seal on the back. The seal was not a decorative one, and so did not offer any clues as to the purpose of the letter or the author.
He opened the envelope carefully, as to not rip anything that might be inside. He cautiously removed the dry paper and unfolded it with the greatest of care and began to read. The letter was a love letter, so it seemed, though he could not gather the identity of the author or the intended recipient:
My Dearest,
I pray you forgive my awful delay. I have longed to write back to you, but my work has kept me from doing so. O how I long to touch your silken skin, your curling locks. My love, I promise I shant be from you much longer. The council has decided to draft me. I go in with regret, knowing that this will pose a problem in our happy future together. I pray I will serve only for a short time and that after my service we may marry. Once the council comes to collect me for my draft, I will have no ability to write you as I will be under constant watch. O what torture to be torn from your side! Cruel fate has endowed me with a spiritual essence the council feels is necessary to their activities. I do not know what they mean when they tell me about my spiritual essence, but I hope to return to your side very soon. I go into this predicament with little knowledge and little understanding. I wish I could tell you more. I wish I could be with you. Please, wait for me. I shall return soon.
Gasan wasn't sure what to make of this letter, other than the author must have been a man drafted into the council of priests and the intended recipient must have been his lover. He now wondered about this person's "spiritual essence" and what this could mean. He examined the letter over and over, looking for small clues that could provide more information to him.
The cherubs fluttered busily around the room looking for anything else that might be of use to the two, but they came up with nothing more. They looked at each other in disappointment and decided to move on to find the other University council members to see if they could assist them.