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theonecalledwander“Just one thing more,” I say, turning my attention back to Elector Tyrol.
“Yes?”
“Earlier today, I heard some children singing a song in a language that I didn’t recognize.”
“Do you think that’s likely to be important?”
“I don’t know enough to know that it isn’t,” I say. “It feels significant, though. It went something like this.”
I try to replicate some of the words for him, as near as I’m able to.
“I don’t recognize those words, but if it isn’t childish gibberish, then it sounds like it could be an aldic tongue,” he says, frowning. “One of the languages they speak up in the mountains on the other side of the forest. We do get travelers from those reaches, carrying their goods to the markets in the west. Hmm….”
“One recent traveler in particular springs to mind,” I guess.
“Yes, but only because the whole thing was so peculiar… but I don’t see how it could relate,” he says. “It happened some two or three weeks before everything started.”
“You mean, before anyone noticed anything was wrong.”
“As I said.”
“You said it happened before everything started,” I say. “If this peculiar event had happened after your trouble, I’d say they were unrelated, or at least that the traveler’s was not likely to be the cause. But if it happened before there was anything to notice? The whole thing could well have started then. Maybe it just took a week or three to get up to speed.”
“You know, I didn’t half wonder if maybe he’d poured something into the well,” Tyrol says. “The man who found him said he’d pried up the covers… only, the water there is always flowing. It’s a gentle enough current at that point, but if he’d tainted it with something, wouldn’t the taint get weaker over time?”
“Possibly,” I say. “I really think you should tell me this story.”
“Yes?”
“Earlier today, I heard some children singing a song in a language that I didn’t recognize.”
“Do you think that’s likely to be important?”
“I don’t know enough to know that it isn’t,” I say. “It feels significant, though. It went something like this.”
I try to replicate some of the words for him, as near as I’m able to.
“I don’t recognize those words, but if it isn’t childish gibberish, then it sounds like it could be an aldic tongue,” he says, frowning. “One of the languages they speak up in the mountains on the other side of the forest. We do get travelers from those reaches, carrying their goods to the markets in the west. Hmm….”
“One recent traveler in particular springs to mind,” I guess.
“Yes, but only because the whole thing was so peculiar… but I don’t see how it could relate,” he says. “It happened some two or three weeks before everything started.”
“You mean, before anyone noticed anything was wrong.”
“As I said.”
“You said it happened before everything started,” I say. “If this peculiar event had happened after your trouble, I’d say they were unrelated, or at least that the traveler’s was not likely to be the cause. But if it happened before there was anything to notice? The whole thing could well have started then. Maybe it just took a week or three to get up to speed.”
“You know, I didn’t half wonder if maybe he’d poured something into the well,” Tyrol says. “The man who found him said he’d pried up the covers… only, the water there is always flowing. It’s a gentle enough current at that point, but if he’d tainted it with something, wouldn’t the taint get weaker over time?”
“Possibly,” I say. “I really think you should tell me this story.”