Wandering Agent
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Elevation of Mana Chapter 87 Writing
🕑 Added 2023-12-18 14:02:47 +0000 UTCThings changed slowly around my home, I brought in more things that were normal to me, but still odd to others. These were often things that I didn't really think about, things that I'd never considered as 'important' to the world. Decorations, cabinets, holders for various things here and there. None of them were large, but all of them were something, and they all mattered in their own small way.
Then I came to an invention that I had put off for a long time, one that I was deeply afraid that others wouldn't see the need for, but which I was sure would play a role in this world. Stripped bark from a certain tree lay before me in small sheets, and a small stick of charcoal. It was time to work on proper writing.
Of note there were a few systems, for record keeping and the like, but they were painfully basic. While they handled whatever it was they were dealing with at that moment they tended to be very, very limited in scope. You couldn't for example write a novel, or even an instruction book, because they just didn't handle that. They were even limited on the math they did, not that many people did math beyond multiplication and division anyway.
Armed with what already was I sat down and began my first draft. I was by no means a linguist, but there were things I could do. For instance I could translate the Atali dialect of our tongue into a phonetic alphabet, with punctuation for basic grammar and speech conventions. I could've used the basic English alphabet but that seemed dangerous. There was no evidence that I was the only, or would be the only transmigrator, and so keeping English in my back pocket for anyone else who might come could one day be useful. So I made a few simple symbols and assigned them sounds, building from there.
It had been a few weeks since Isha and Atie had joined me, a few long weeks. There were whispers and rumors of war, large orders for me to process and send out, but since my interaction with Isha down in my lab and the subsequent change in our relationship I'd taken up a new hobby. Every day I needed to try and implement something from my old world that I found convenient. It didn't need to be big, and shouldn't be too complex, just something small to improve our lives. Writing was today's project.
Creating a written language might seem like a massive undertaking, but the language itself already existed, I was more just making an alphabet. Using what I knew about Korean and the Japanese Kana mixed with a bit of my own native tongue for structure I came up with something that was quick and easy to learn. I even included a marking for sarcasm. Though as I thought about it, quick and easy was perhaps not needed, with our memories instruction was painfully short for us. I could still recite verbatim all the things Atal's granddaughter had told me weeks ago, or every single class from my fourth grade in my previous life, it was very odd.
As the sun began to set I called in my house companions to see what their opinions were. I ran through the alphabet quickly showing them how each letter represented a sound and the basic grammar structure.
“How do you know if the person you're talking to is to be respected or not? You didn't include any markings for the tone there,” Chien said first.
In our current tongue there were tones that one might use to indicate respect to things like elders, along with word choice, these weren't always different words, but sometimes simply how things were said, where the emphasis was in a given word.
“It shouldn't need that,” I said.
“No, it absolutely does. If you did this and wrote a letter to an elder without showing respect they'd be livid if it looked the same for a slave,” Atie objected. Ida nodded agreement off to the side, and she might actually have perspective there.
“Is it one of those symbols?” Isha asked, pointing to the page that had the math written on it.
“Um, no, those are for math.”
“Seriously? How much math do we really need? You only need to count and stuff right?” Chien said with a shake of his head.
“You need a lot.”
“Like what?” he continued.
“Like being able to add, subtract, divide something into multiple parts, repeat something multiple times, and a whole host of other things.” I really wanted not to go deep into math right now.
“There are too many symbols for that,” Chien griped, not letting it drop. “What are the rest for?”
“Alright, pretend there's a perfect circle...” We spent the next five minutes finding the area under a curve in part of that circle at which point they all looked at me like I was mad.
“So... it just keeps going infinitely, and you can do that?” Chien now looked deeply confused, which made sense, because he'd missed a lot of math before calculus.
“I mean, the world doesn't work like that perfectly, there are smallest units, probably, but it works for a lot of stuff.” If they tried to get me going on physics I would ardently refuse, but it seemed at least Chien was now good to drop it.
“Is... is this how you see the world?” Isha asked.
“Sort of? I mean, I don't go around measuring everything all the time or doing the equations, but I know they're there. Like I said, the math doesn't work perfectly for the world, probably.” I knew a lot, but I also knew I didn't know everything, and it was good to acknowledge that.
“No wonder he seems insane half the time,” Atie said with a shake of her head.
“You know, we should begin doing some teaching for your Chien. Some of this you could definitely learn.”
“Pass,” the young man said.
“Seriously?”
“Very pass, I don't see the point in any of it.” His statement echoed those of kids all throughout my previous life, even some of my own. I knew that one day he would understand at least the point of some of the knowledge I could impart, and with magic like mine he could probably use it, but until he saw it I wouldn't insist.
“Well, I'd like to learn some, and when your friend Ian returns again perhaps he will too,” Atie said with a smirk, they'd only met once or twice, but I got the feeling she might like him a bit.
I worried about my friend, but I'd done all I could for him. He'd come to me for a new set of armor, and I had delivered. Rather than using shells for it this time I went a different direction. Ida's work on fabric had been rough, but perfect for my use, and instead of carving the shells that could turn brittle or break easily I'd taken a lot of her failed pieces and layered them, a simple glue forming them into hardened sheets. I'd even hidden small steel wires in some of them, those over the vital areas for added strength. The new armor was just as light, and many times stronger than its predecessor.
“Alright auntie, I'll be more than happy to teach you, whenever I find free time.”
“Good luck on that one,” Chien laughed.
