3: Heroes of Old
The rest of the Titans were at the tower, monitoring the city from afar and going about their daily business. Raven was happily reading on the ops room sofa while Starfire and Beast Boy played with Kitty-kitty. Raven, to be honest, wasn't so much reading as holding an open book in her lap and thinking about whatever her mind was wandering across.
She listened to Beast Boy give Starfire information on the only topic he was vastly knowledgeable on, the Earth's many animals. Starfire was deeply engrossed in the natural history lesson and truly fascinated by the topic of the countless strange creatures inhabiting her new home world. It was something of a bonding experience for the two to watch animal planet, and convenient reference material to be able to transform into any animal she was unfamiliar with, while Beast Boy enjoyed learning about the wildlife of Tamaran as well.
Raven decided, no longer interested in the book, to go see what Cyborg was up to. The book closed and evaporated from her hands with a swirl of black magic. Moments later she stood knocking on Cyborg's door. "Come in!" She heard him yell. She opened a portal and phased through the door.
"Hey Cyborg, what are you up to in here?"
He was sitting at his desk, reading an old looking book. "Raven..." he trailed off, finishing a scan on his arm console. "Just the Titan I was hoping to see..." Raven raised a brow.
"Oh? And why is that?" She asked, walking closer to look at the book over his shoulder.
"I was hoping you might be able to help me with this book- it's in ancient Karqui. I can't get a decent translation, it being a dead language and all." He sighed in frustration and hit a few more buttons on his arm. It suddenly began to translate.
"Keshiam moon Dragon darkest-pink. Looking Baal- north tesjado ejem byzaishnum." It said with it's robotic monotone.
Cyborg sighed, accepting the futility of his efforts, and closed the panel. Raven pulled the book around to face her, scanning the words quietly for a silent moment as Cyborg looked on hopefully. Raven, sensing his anticipation, cleared her throat and began to recite.
"Ehem. Keshiam moon Dragon-pink."
"Raven! This is serious!"
Her eyes flicked up at him playfully, but back down to the book. "It says... loosely something like... 'The epic of the dark leader. The son of the child of Kheahos, Cyros conquered many... something- lands, and brought gray- great prosperity to his people. Under the rule of... Cyros the great, the people of Kadros thrived for a great many... eras.'" She finished the passage and looked up at Cyborg, sensing a sadness emanating from him. "Where did you get this Cyborg?"
"I got it from your favorite book store actually, doing some research on ancient Karaque." He said sadly. Raven tried to cheer him up. She knew what he was really researching.
"I could probably translate this in a few days, it might mention Saracym later on in the story." She said plainly. He looked at her for a moment with an odd expression, and she sensed an internal conflict, but cut off her empathy out of courtesy for his privacy. "It shouldn't be too hard to do, but I doubt it mentions much about her."
As in most ancient cultures, ancient Karaqui history was very male-dominated, and had little concern for the achievements of women at the time. She had found a few references to Saracym for Cyborg in the past, but she was usually portrayed as a male whenever mentioned. He was overjoyed weather falsely gendered or not. In all accounts, Saracym after cyborg's passing married, had children, and continued to lead her tribe, and her life with some normalcy. Raven knew that he cared for her very deeply. Perhaps even loved her, but that was centuries ago and he was having trouble coping with that fact.
"I'd really appreciate that Rae." He said, his mood improving. She gave him a rare and comforting smile and closed the book, clutching the rather large tome to her chest.
"I'll get to work on that then. You're welcome to join me if you like."
"That's okay... I need to uh- get some work done on the car." Raven winced slightly. She didn't need her empathy to know how he was feeling. He never called his baby a car.
"Alright Cy." She said, trying to empathicly ease his pain. She left his room and arrived at her own, digging through her drawer and pulling out some plain white stationary and and Inkwell. She retrieved her quill pen from a shelf and began to translate.
After about an hour, she had gotten through about a quarter of the book. She was out of ink and would have to acquire more before finishing. She re-read a bit of what she had put down and sighed inwardly. She was less than confident in her translation for one reason. The main character in this ancient odyssey was referred to often as the leader of darkness, but the stories were nothing but praise.
Feats of strength, defeating villainous opponents, protecting his people- a stand-up guy any way you looked at it. 'The leader of darkness' is an evil sounding title if she'd ever heard one. Her own father for instance had been given that very title, and many similar titles throughout the ages. So why would the author peg him as evil if he was so great?
She shook her head and decided to go get more ink. She made her way to the ops room and notified the Starfire and Beast Boy that she'd be leaving. She simply opened a portal and appeared on the sidewalk about half a block from a local store that carried the ink of her preference. As she was paying for the ink a red flash of motorcycle caught her eye in the store window. She shook her head at Robin's insistence on speeding.
He never broke the law, he never considered himself above the law, and if he were to be pulled over, she had no doubt he would pay the ticket graciously and vow to never do it again- outside of what his work required. The boy just had a love for his motorcycle, and he loved how fast it was most of all. As she walked down the street she mused that he didn't even mean to speed. He was trained how to drive by the Batman she assumed. She doubted he put much emphasis on obeying all traffic laws when the joker was trying to blow up a dam or something of the sort.
She portaled back to the tower. As she went back to her writing, she again wondered if she'd been translating wrong. She tried a few combinations of the words and decided her wording was close enough.
In the end of the story, Cyros died at the hand of a vicious ruler of a foreign tribe in an act of sacrifice to save his people, and in turn, the daughter of Cyros, Sashan, killed the ruler of the foreign tribe and united their people. She and her husband, a member of the other tribe named Denos, ruled peacefully up until the time the book was written.