A/N: Thanks to all for continuing to read and leave me very kind reviews.


It was absolutely amazing, staggering, mind-blowing, how much one's life could change in less than two weeks. Less than a week ago Daniel had still been on Gaia trying to absorb the monumental shift in his life, one in a string of "how is this my life moments?", and trying to figure out where to go from there, both literally and figuratively. Less than two weeks earlier, Daniel had still had a job with Stargate Command, with his friends and his teammates on SG1, still had his apartment and his office with all his journals and his books and his research and his artifacts … and oh, how he missed all those resources now that the galaxy … galaxies had opened up before him. He had been happy with his life, and all that was missing were Sha're and Skaara. Then … everything had changed in a matter of days. Daniel had tried to do the right thing by helping the Tollan escape from earth to keep them from being virtual prisoners of the NID. In return he had been accused of trumped-up charges of treason and had been himself forced to flee.

But now …

Now …

The Furlings. He was living in another galaxy … a galaxy far-far away, literally. (Thinking about Star Wars made him nostalgic for earth and made him miss his teammates all the more. I've lost track of how many times Teal'c has watched Star Wars.) He was living with the Furlings, one of the member-races of the Alliance, of which the Asgard and the Ancients, the gate-builders, had been a part.

It was staggering.

So much history.

So many new cultures.

So many new languages!

So much to learn!

Uslisgas … the planet and the city … were … was? … already proving to be a far cry from Abydos and the other alien worlds in the Milky-Way Daniel had spent the most time on. On Abydos, if it weren't for the multiple moons in the sky, Daniel could have fooled himself sometimes into believing he was in Egypt … if time-travel was a possibility … or … is it? Now he was in a completely separate galaxy, so far it would take the Goa'uld over 100 years to reach it.

(It was rather mind-boggling.)

The Furlings and their allies … he still needed to learn how exactly the Furling Empire was comprised … not since Nem had Daniel seen any humanoid races as alien in appearance as them. And while Uslisgas' style of architecture was much less alien and much more normal … to my conception thereof … than he had been expecting … I was expecting something more Star Wars-ish and less earthy … even Goa'uld architecture and artistic motifs had been very similar to earth … the casual use of advanced technology, everything from the beaming technology like the Asgard's to move from place to place to Ruarc's personal shield that he had used to keep from getting bowled over by a tumbling box while he was giving Daniel and Lya a tour of the city, had helped impress on Daniel that … as Jack might say, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

And when it came to alien … Daniel was still trying to absorb the mere idea of living for thousands of years. Even in earth years, which were shorter than Furling years, an average lifespan of 6000 years for those two Furling subspecies … six-thousand years ago, Narmer had not even united Egypt under his rule, and there were not even proto-writings in Sumer yet.

The Roman Empire was still a thing when the Commander was born!

It was staggering how much you could see and do, how many peoples you could meet, how many cultures you could experience in a lifetime that long. The possibilities were endless and staggering.

For every similarity Daniel could find himself drawing to a culture from earth or a culture from the Milky-Way more broadly, there was something eye-openingly or shockingly different.

The government for one! It was going to be strange living under a king … in an empire … which was a really strange mixture. And their method for determining asylum! It seemed basically to be the equivalent of just talking to the Chief Justice and answering a number of questions!

At least I have notebooks again! It had been so frustrating the first couple of days to have so many thoughts he wanted to put down on paper … and nothing to write on or with.

This was cultural immersion … even more immersive than it had been on Abydos. The culture had been familiar because of his studies. It had only taken some vowel shifts, and then, with his knowledge of Egyptian, he had been able to speak to Sha're. Not so with the Furlings. The Furling tongue, which seemed to be only one of multiple languages widely spoken on Uslisgas, given the mish-mash of languages he had heard at the market, was one that his prior language training would be no help with.

At least they're picking up English fast like the Nox did, or we might be stuck with charades for longer.

Commander Sujanha, as well as Ragnar and Ruarc, her two bodyguards, had been, politely, trying to stick to speaking English as much as possible in front of him, which he appreciated and felt frustrated with at the same time.

I can't listen for familiar words if they don't speak Furling!

Not that he had heard any familiar words or possible derivations from his small corpus of Nox words or with the even smaller corpus of Asgardian words he remembered hearing Commander Thor using during the events on Cimmeria … the second time around.

Ruarc's tablet with the language program/flashcards was going to be invaluable. Daniel wished Sam was there just so that she could get a look at the tablet itself, which was similar to a computer in some ways … but much higher tech.

And it can make holograms!

Daniel was not totally sure what to make of the Furling Commander and her bodyguards yet. They were all … nice was a very poor descriptor. Patient, unfailingly polite, restrained, but kind, too. Sujanha seemed the most … different, restrained of the three, though that probably came from being Supreme Commander, having the responsibility for so many people … however many that were. He didn't even have any idea how large the Furling civilization was, though considering they had what was sounding like a galactic-wide empire, probably quite large.

I wonder why the Asgard and the Furlings have the same military title?

And that was an interesting thought because the Commander seemed to have Asgardian blood. She was trying to be a good host, but she was gone at work more than she was at home, but from the time that Daniel had spent with her, there was no mistaking the out-of-proportion, too long limbs, the entirely black pupil-less eyes … which the other Furlings he had met did not seem to have, and the short stubby fingers on her hands … paws?. Yes, he had only met one Asgard—Thor—once, but their appearance had stuck in his mind given the resemblance to the Roswell Greys, and there was no mistaking those features.

But those thoughts were about to lead him down yet more mental rabbit trails, and it was time to sleep. He had nothing but time now, it seemed, and there would be time to absorb the Furling culture, to think about Sujanha's comments over dinner when she had seemed exhausted from work and he had asked how he could help.

If the Fleet needs intelligence about the Goa'uld, they'd be better off with Jack … or Teal'c … both.

But Jack and Teal'c and Sam ... they weren't there. It was just Daniel now.

But anything Daniel knew about the Goa'uld, their numbers, their worlds, about possible allies for the Furlings in the Milky-Way, anything that he had learned from Teal'c or Earth's allies or on his missions, anything that he knew he would gladly share if in any way it might help bring Sha're and Skaara home.

There will be time for that later.

Rome was not built in a day.


29th of Xuxiq, Fall, 6544 A.S.
(c. March 12, 1998)
Uslisgas, Asteria

It was still early when Daniel woke the next morning, or at least it felt early. The sun had already risen, though his watch said it was the wee hours of the morning on earth. Well, that's no help at all. He was looking forward to Ruarc getting his clock set up so he would have a better idea of the Furling time schedule.

Has he said how many hours are in a day on Uslisgas?

Or how a day is usually structured? Daniel made a mental note to ask both questions once Ruarc arrived.

Daniel pulled on a pair of clothes he had bought from … Rho Trunec … the Lapith shopkeeper the previous day, and by the time he had brushed his hair and teeth and pulled his boots on, he thought that he might like his new clothes better than his BDUs. Despite the familiarity of his old clothes, these new ones seemed sturdier, felt nicer, and were cut better. He did pull his BDU jacket on over his clothes, though, since the house felt a little cooler that morning.

Commander Sujanha had already departed, but there were fresh dishes in the sink soaking and waiting to be washed and a fresh pot of spiced tea in the refrigerator. The tea was not coffee, which Daniel found that he missed … though not so much after the caffeine withdrawal had passed, but it was good, reminding him of some of the drinks he had been served during his various digs in the Middle East.

(Daniel still found it amusing how Furling culture … or what he knew of it so far … was a strange mix of the very advanced and the perfectly normal. They could beam instantly from one place to another, but they … or the Commander, at least … still washed dishes by hand.)

Um, okay.

Breakfast was the same as the previous morning: breakfast sandwiches, but there was a new kind of meat and a new type of bread, and the bowl of fruit on the counter had been refilled … since dinner the previous night. Judging by the contents of the fridge since he had arrived, the Commander did not seem to be one for variety.

(But that was okay, Daniel wasn't particularly picky.)

Once he had finished eating and left his dishes to soak, Daniel retrieved his notebook and the tablet Ruarc had given him from his room. Finding a nice seat in the living room with a good view of the garden with its colorful flowers, he spent the morning starting to catch up, in great detail, on his journals that he had been neglecting since, until yesterday, he had no good writing materials since leaving earth.

I hope nothing happens to all my books and my old notebooks.

Hopefully Jack or Sam can keep them safe.

Eventually, his hand began to cramp from writing so much. I'm half-way caught up now, at least! He switched at that point to studying the vocabulary card program that Ruarc had made, listening to the words and sentences again and again. He did that until he grew hungry again, and after eating a quick lunch, he decided to go examine the Commander's library, which he had been granted permission to do from the first but had not done yet.

Sujanha's library was a medium-sized room that took up the entire back section of the house on the lower floor of her two-story house. There were no windows, and the only light came from artificial lights along the ceiling, which were thankfully natural-colored, not blue-colored like the strange blue lamps that seemed to be widely used in some of the governmental buildings downtown. They make everything weirdly tinted. All four walls were covered with tall bookshelves that Daniel would have needed a step-ladder to reach the top shelves of, and the only free wall-space was the door. Her library was extensive.

You live for thousands of years. 's not like you're short of time to collect books!

On top of each bookcase—in the short space between it and the ceiling—were set different knick-knacks: large and colorful shells; several odd statues, whose significance Daniel wondered at; two model ships … the one on the right looks like Thor's ship … is the other a Furling ship? (He had no way of knowing for sure.); a handful of wooden carvings, probably of animals. Those carvings, from what he could see from floor level … with my eyes! … looked the most interesting. One looked like professional work, but the other three were much rougher in quality.

Looks like a novice's work?

Maybe a child's?

A desk took up most of the floor space at one end of the room. There was a lamp—another one of those blue ones?—on a stand on the desk along with several massive books, another one of those computer-like tablets, and a handful of scarab-like stones. A large stuffed chair stood behind the desk and two more in front.

The shelves were covered in books of all sizes and a handful of scrolls. Several books that looked quite old and fragile were deposited separately on their own shelf. Not knowing the languages in which any of Sujanha's books were written or even the manner in which the library was organized—definitely need to find that out—Daniel settled for pulling a book at random off a shelf.

The book he ended up choosing was a large one, several hundred pages long at least … the pages were numbered, not that he could read the numbers, and it was finely bound. Taking a seat in one of the comfy chairs, he carefully started to flip through it. The label on the front cover (a title, perhaps) was written in Asgardian runes which he recognized from the pictures he had had of Heliopolis, and the rest of the book except for select spots (probably quotations from other sources) seemed to be written in the same script.

I see at least half-a-dozen other scripts in this book, and only one of them is Furling.

From the copious number of diagrams of what looked like battle plans from the layout and pictures of spaceships (some similar to Thor's ship, others different designs including one that matched the other model ship), Daniel guessed that it might be a book of military tactics or perhaps a book of military history.

Returning that book to its shelf, Daniel picked up another book at random from a separate shelf. This book was also carefully bound and had what appeared to be gilt edges. It was written in the spiky, curved script—it looks like someone smashed Urdu and Tolkien's elvish together—that the Furlings used. There were no pictures or diagrams to give him a clue as to the book's contents, so he used the chance to study the orthography instead. After slowly studying this book and another book also in Furling … short lines of varying length … poetry? … that he grabbed off the shelf, Daniel was able to conclude that the Furling language had an alphabet longer than English alphabet given the number of different signs he could count on two pages (over 40 before he lost count), no obvious punctuation marks … at least it has spaces between words, might be an inflected language, and might be made up of bound groups similar to Coptic.

Daniel lost himself to exploring Sujanha's library for a while after lunch. There were so many books to examine. Aside from the books in Asgard and in Furling, he discovered books written in several other languages, as well, which was interesting.

I wonder how many languages the Commander knows.

Finally, the 'auto pilot' that ran the house suddenly spoke. "Doctor Jackson, Ruarc arrives," the voice surprisingly spoke in English (Sujanha had not mentioned making the adjustments to the program yet) that was somewhat stilted and not quite right, but still very close.

Grammar is almost right … for a two-word sentence.

Inflection is way-off. It sounds like a robot.

"Thank you," Daniel replied automatically before he remembered that he was talking to a very advanced computer program … it isn't sentient, is it? (What would have been impossible on earth was not necessarily impossible here.) Filing that thought away for later, he put the book he had been examining away and then made his way out into the hallway.

Well, it is a computer program … so close enough?

Ruarc, with a large box tucked under one arm, had just entered, and the front door was sliding shut behind him. Apparently, he had permission to come and go as he pleased without someone letting him in.

"Good afternoon, Ruarc," Daniel greeted him.

"Fair afternoon, Daniel," Ruarc replied, "I have brought extra food. The Commander is not known for her varied taste." It was confirmation of what Daniel had already noted.

"I already ate, but thank you."

"The food will keep. Just let me put it away in the cold box, and then we can get to work."

"What do I need to bring down?"

"The clock and the other small stone to start."

By the time Daniel had returned from his room with those two stones, Ruarc had put away the food and was already in the living room, sitting cross-legged on the floor. A massive hologram that bore a striking resemblance to an oversized spreadsheet was floating in midair before him.

Did the Furling invent Excel, too? Was Daniel's first thought, quickly followed by. Sam would love this.

As soon as Daniel entered, Ruarc swiped a hand … paw? He has fingers and opposable thumbs, but … much more paw-like … through the hologram, which immediately shrunk to a much smaller and more manageable size … that doesn't take up half the room. What would happen if I stepped through it? … and pushed it out of the way.

"Which do you want first?" Daniel asked, folding himself down to sit on the floor, his back against the couch.

"The other small stone, not the clock stone." Ruarc replied.

Daniel pulled the stone Ruarc had indicated out of his pocket and studied it for a moment. Small enough in diameter to just fit inside the palm of his hand, though relatively deep, the stone was the color of black onyx and was finely polished until it was almost reflective. Straight down the center of the stone was a long notch, less than an eighth of an inch thick and less than half-an-inch deep. What the function of the device was—I have a feeling it's not just a nice-looking stone—or why exactly Ruarc had added it to the to-buy list, Daniel did not know.

But I'm about to find out.

Motioning for Daniel to place the small stone on the small tablet next to where they were sitting, Ruarc said, "I told you to get this because I saw you touching a spot over your heart many times these past days."

I suppose I have. It was an instinctive gesture now, one Daniel was not always cognizant of doing.

"I keep a photo of my wife in my pocket," he replied, "It's the only one I have left of her that is with me." All his other pictures and relics of his time on Abydos were with all of his other belongings … back on earth … and far out of reach.

"May I have it for a moment?"

Unzipping the chest pocket of his BDU jacket, Daniel carefully pulled out his only photo of Sha're and handed it across to Ruarc, who took it gently. He rested the photo inside the notch in the stone and then tapped the stone twice with one claw. A blue line sprang up suddenly and scanned across the photo. When the light had disappeared, Ruarc carefully returned the picture to Daniel, who returned it to his pocket, and then double-tapped the stone again. From it, a hologram—a perfect duplicate of Daniel's picture—sprang up.

"We all have images that are dear to us," Ruarc said quietly, a distant look in his eyes, "And these stones are quite hard to break. Tap twice to make an image come or go. An image will not appear while the top is covered if the stone gets knocked while in a bag or pocket."

Tears stung at Daniel's eyes as he looked at the projected picture of his wife's smiling, carefree face. "Thank you," Daniel finally forced the words out through the lump in his throat, "You don't know how much this means to me."

Ruarc bowed his head in acknowledgment, "You can add more pictures to the stone in the same manner and then page through them."

I wish I had a photo of us as a team to add. Daniel scrubbed the cuff of his jacket across his eyes.

With the high-tech photo album complete for the moment, the two set to work on the clock next. Ruarc took the clock-stone over to a small desk on the other side of the room and set it on top of some sort of panel. A holographic screen immediately appeared in front of where Ruarc had been sitting, a different screen from the high-tech spreadsheet.

"Many of our stones, whatever their use, are based upon the control stones that the Asgard use in much of their technology. Simpler ones like the photo screen have very simple controls. More complicated ones like the clocks require a more complex control set, because of the variations by race and planet of scripts and day-lengths."

"How many hours are in a day here?" Daniel asked. "Actually, how does the calendar break down? Where could I find a calendar?"

Ruarc shot him an amused look, "You will have to tell me what a calendar is first."

Oh, for ...

Daniel thumped himself on the forehead, "Sorry. A calendar is just a chart of the days, weeks, and months in a particular year, usually with the addition of particular holidays or important events."

"Ah," Ruarc tapped a few more virtual buttons, "There are approximately 25 of your hours in a day. There are eight days to a week, five weeks to a month, and ten months to a year. Those measurements hold for Uslisgas and for the imperial … calendar … used to line up events among multiple peoples. It can get … confusing … else with multiple peoples with just as many calendar forms."

I bet!

On earth, it would be like trying to coordinate events between countries while using the Gregorian Calendar, the Julian Calendar, the lunar-solar calendar used by some Middle Eastern countries and maybe Ab urbe condita and a few other for good measures … all at the same time.

Sounds like a recipe for disaster and disorganization … and a good way to get nothing done quickly … or have a lot of people pull their hair out in the process.

"The current date is Day 29, Month 7—called Xuxiq—Year 653 of the reign of Ivar or in the Year 6544 of the post-settlement era," Ruarc rattled off the date, "At some times you might hear Day 5, Week 4, Month 7. Government records usually go day, month, year. Oh, and it is currently the fading season."

Post-settlement? I need a history book … and the ability to actually read it!

Fall then?

Ruarc paused, tapped a few more virtual buttons. "As for seeing a calendar," he switched abruptly out of English and back into Furling, speaking several quick sentences into thin air, and a few moments later a hologram appeared next to Daniel's head. It was a calendar … not quite identical to one he might see on earth, but close enough for easy recognition … with the current day highlighted in a colored box. The name of each month topped the box for that month, each of which had exactly five weeks, beginning on the first day of the first week and ending on the last day of the last week.

No weeks overlapping between months.

How does that work?

"Thanks," Daniel murmured, still starring at the screen. He was studying the month names. All were short words. Seven of ten began with one of three different characters. Interesting, though not necessarily useful. "How is a week structured?"

"Days 1 and 8 are considered rest days, though the Commander often works at least partial days. A day lasts from dark-night, deemed the first hour, to dark-night. It used to be from dawn to dawn … several ages back. The sleeping period usually last from hour 24 to hour 5 or 6. Furlings need less resting than many peoples. At Headquarters, work begins at hour 8 and ends at hour 21 … with breaks for meals. Given the varying needs of races, we do not require others to fit line by line to our daily structure."

Not horrendously different from earth then. Daniel was used to keeping long hours anyway, especially when he got wrapped up in an interesting project or translation. Then … sometimes … he forgot to sleep. I might start missing coffee again.

Ruarc paused and spun the holographic screen—the oversized spreadsheet—that he had pulled back up so that so it was facing Daniel. He then 'zoomed' it in so that there only two columns of text visible. The column on the left had a row of Furling characters, probably numerals, since they were dealing with a clock. The right-hand column was blank.

"In the blank column, I need you to enter your numerical symbols from smallest to largest for the full 25-hour period," said Ruarc, "In other words, you need to write down the signs that you wish to represent the hours."

Easy enough … except … What am I supposed to write with? And how?

"With what?" Daniel asked, unsure of how to work with these holographic screens.

Ruarc picked up what seemed to be a stylus off the small table and handed it to Daniel. The stylus looked much different than the styli Daniel was used to working with in the context of ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform texts. This stylus bore more of a resemblance to an extra thick pencil, though it felt like it was made of metal. It was perfectly cylindrical and was flat on one end and rounded on the other. After a few moments of fumbling, Daniel realized if he held the stylus like a piece of chalk, then he could 'write' or 'draw' on the holograms like on a chalkboard. His handwriting was a little shaky, but whatever program Ruarc was working with seemed to be standardizing his numbers. His straight lines became straighter, and his curves curvier.

Interesting that it knows how to do that.

Even after Daniel had entered the numbers in the spreadsheet and turned the screen back to Ruarc, it was about half-an-hour before Ruarc finished his work updating his clock.

Knowing the hour on earth is useless here, but the minutes are still helpful.

(Daniel figured that he would stop wearing his watch on a daily basis once he had a Furling time-piece, though he'd tuck it away for safe-keeping … just in case he got to go back one day.)

Ruarc explained why the updates were slow as he worked, "On all occasions, it requires more times to update a clock or a language package in the house-program or a stone to account for a new language or script. The lands of our people span almost the entirety of this galaxy. Within our lands are many cultures with their own systems of writings, some of which are extremely different from our own. It is a time-consuming, though not extremely complicated, task to enter their writing systems into the matrices and update the equivalences."

By ours … you mean the Furlings?

Daniel nodded. He understood the gist of what Ruarc was saying, though some of the more technical elements went over his head. Daniel was more interested in the snippets Ruarc mentioned about the Furling system of government. "So the king rule all the lands of the empire then?"

"Yes and no," Ruarc said. He was either good at multi-tasking or had done this work before, as he seemed to have no trouble talking and paging through screens at a very quick pace while he talked. "Our king's exact title does not translate well into English but is close to 'High King' or maybe 'Great King.' He is called that because there are other kings or councils who rule the other peoples of the Empire, not the Furlings, themselves, and Ivar King rules over them all. The depth of Furling control over these other territories varies by people and planet. No land is forced to come under our rule, and no territory is coerced into staying by violence or even threat of if they prefer to leave. Any people may leave if they wish, but the peoples who remain under our rule have certain obligations towards the king."

"Like?" Daniel asked, his fingers itching to start scribbling in his notebook again.

"Military support, trading rights, forwarding of some criminal cases to our law courts, use of a standardized money system. And in return, we have certain important obligations toward the peoples under our rule: military support, supplies and aids after disasters or famines, fair treatment at all times, and the like." He paused and then added, "Once you know our tongue, you could read the treaties that bind the empire … though the texts are very … wide?"

"'Thick' or 'dense' is probably the word you want in English if you mean those legal texts are hard to understand," Daniel noted, before asking, "So, is the king the law? Why do you have a High Council?"

Is this an absolute monarchy? Constitutional?

Half-way in between … if there is such a thing.

Daniel was in his element now, parsing through all he was learning and filing away salient point to scribble down later. It was nice to be able to sit and learn and ask questions without fear of being prodded into hurrying up … like with Jack. He never understood.

"Yes, that is what I meant, so I thank you," Ragnar replied, "As to your first question, the answer is both yes and no. The High King's word is law and cannot be overruled except in extreme circumstances. However, he must act and is bound to act within the confines of the already established laws, both religious and political. It has never been necessary in our history, but the King can be overruled by a united vote of the High Council."

So … the king has actual power, not just influence like with a constitutional monarchy, but there are checks and balances to his power.

"As to the High Council," Ruarc continued, "it is the main governing body for the empire, as I said before. Its power is greater than the courts', usually, and less than the king's, also usually. It exists because the matters of state by this period in our history are too great for one man to handle. Our empire spans almost the entire galaxy and in years past spanned almost two galaxies. Our King is only one man. He must have aid to do justice by his people."

Two galaxies!? My …

The Goa'uld as a whole ruled most of the Milky-Way Galaxy … for now … but any sense of unity was a veneer, and the Goa'uld 'Empire' was more like a series of petty kingdoms ruled by the System Lords under the authority of a Supreme System Lord, which had been Ra … until we blew him to kingdom come. As far as Daniel knew, a new one had never been appointed.

The Furlings also ruled a series of other kingdoms, but Daniel seriously doubted that the entire empire was ready to blow apart at the seams or that the kingdoms would start trying to destroy each other … like the Systems Lords. For them, fighting each other was just another day at the office.

"Makes sense," replied Daniel.

After a few more minutes, Ruarc paged out of the complicated screens and retrieved the clock stone from where it was sitting on the desk. He brought it back to where they were sitting and placed it on the table. He tapped it twice with one claw, and immediately a holographic projection appeared. Their labors had been successful, for in front of them appeared in Arabic numerals the current time: 16:21. It was later than Daniel had realized, glancing down at his watch and seeing how far off it actually was.

Just past ten in the morning on earth.

Late afternoon here.

Uhhh, definitely far off.

"Thank you," said Daniel, "It really has been hard without a working clock. This will be very helpful." Especially with the information about daily schedules.

"I'm very glad to be of assistance," Ruarc replied with a nod of his great head. "My lady said that the language matrix for the house needed some more upgrades since its updates are rather stiff right now. Are you weary of this type of work, or do you feel like helping me a while longer?"

Rather wooden? Yeah.

"I'd be glad to help, if you'll try to explain what these language matrices are and what you are doing."

"With pleasure, though you will need to explain aspects of your language for me to make the adjustments."

Thus, the two started back to work, English lessons and all, and the hours slipped away.


Ruarc was kind enough to give up the rest of his week, as well, to accompany Daniel around Uslisgas further and continue to help him get adjusted. After exploring the city some more and pointing out more important locations and shops in the Lower City, Ruarc took Daniel back up to the Acropolis, the Upper City located on a cliff that towered above the plain and contained military headquarters, various governmental buildings, the Royal Palace, and … most importantly … the massive Great Library of Uslisgas.

The library was the type of building that, if Daniel had no other responsibilities and a lifespan as long as the Furling, he could help lose himself in the stacks and stacks of books and forget to reappear, forget to eat … sleep … because of all the books, all the knowledge just waiting to be read and absorbed.

An academic's dream!

The more Daniel saw of the library, the less he could wait to learn Furling so that he could start reading and reading and reading and reading.

That being said, he was also coming to the conclusion quickly that learning Furling would only be the beginning. The Great Library held texts of almost every species in Asteria, as well as texts of the Asgard and the Ancients, as well as texts of their ancient allies and of races from Asteria now lost to time, and its collection of texts was continually expanding.

I already know 20 languages.

What's a few more?

The Great Library of Uslisgas had an old-world feel with room upon room of shelves that stretched up to the high ceiling and exquisite wood and stone architecture. It remained him of being at Oxford or in the New York Public Library. Considering that the library had ten floors of stacks in five separate wings, along with several more floors of varying usage below ground, Daniel was almost positive that the Furling's library dwarfed the British Library, which was probably earth's biggest library.


The visit to the Great Library only magnified Daniel's desire to learn Furling as soon as possible. In return for all the English help Daniel had given them, Ruarc spent part of his weekend with Daniel, starting to teach him the basics of the Furling language. (He had already uploaded a large new stack of vocabulary words/phrases.)

Furling, Daniel quickly learned, was a language that was as precise as it was complex. No reading between the lines necessary. Its alphabet was longer than he had thought with 58 separate mono-syllabic signs, making it much lengthier than most alphabets on earth, though not as long as the Khmer alphabet of Cambodia with 74 letters. Thankfully. On top of that, there were a handful of multi-syllabic signs as well as non-phonetic determinatives as in Egyptian. Like Arabic, it also contained many sounds that were not even a part of the English alphabet.

With nouns, pronouns, and adjectives, gender and number were indicated by articles, while case was shown through inflections. With verbs, number and gender were shown through prefixes, unlike the inflections in Latin, and tense, mood, and voice were indicated through separate conjugations of the verbs. A strange combination of grammatical features … compared to what I'm used to.

To affect this precision, Furling vocabulary was quite complex, enough that Daniel couldn't imagine how much it must have driven Sujanha and her bodyguards up the wall to be scrambling for a word only half-approaching what they wanted when speaking English.

The situation with the Furling vocabulary was similar to that of the Eskimo tribes on earth who had words not just for "snow" but for different types of "snow." Likewise, Furling had words for basic concepts and then many other words for iterations of those concepts depending on context, nuance, and connotation. Daniel wondered if this precision in vocabulary and its ability to express very slight variations in meanings resulted from their physical forms and, from what he had seen, a lesser ability to convey some expression through physical body language than a human face; their alliances with other races with vastly different forms … thus compounding the body language problem; or some combination of both.