"I think you two need to leave," Kasim said calmly looking back at them.
Suriya was mildly annoyed at the situation, "This place really plays favorites." She swiveled around and walked back into the passageway.
As expected, Einar stood still with a conflicted look on his face. Eventually, his taught jaw relaxed and he followed after Suriya in silent resignation.
As soon as the sound of their retreating footsteps quietened, the outline of the stone door released a puff of dust as the large slab slowly slid backward. A slot just big enough to slip through was created before the stone screeched to a halt. Accepting that the door wasn't going to open any further, Kasim squeezed through the crack. As soon as he was inside, the door scraped closed behind him.
She stood in the center of the dusty, barren chamber, beaming up at him. She gleefully bounced up and down, her small feet pushing off a specific stone slab. Kasim only blinked once and she was gone. Without hesitation, he approached the stone slab she had been bouncing on. There were similar stone slabs on the floor that had been broken open, the stones were cracked revealing small compartments under the floor that most likely used to contain something important.
Six broken stone slabs with empty compartments. Kasim got on his knees before the slab and wiped off the dust, revealing multiple slash marks and punctures on the stone. The people who had been here had tried to take whatever was beneath but failed.
Thinking about the way the ghost girl had jumped on the stone, Kasim gently pushed down on the slab. A puff of smoke burst up from the outline of the stone, and the whirring of old but sophisticated mechanisms whirred from underneath. The slab split in half with a loud crack.
In the shallow compartment underneath, a slim book with a worn, faded cover lay nestled in the rubble.
Kasim fished the book out of the compartment, careful not to scrape it against the jagged cracked rock.
He regarded it carefully, looking for anything that might cause alarm. Satisfied that it was just an old book, he opened it to the first page. He immediately frowned. He was relieved by the familiar letters, only to be thrown off by the strange and complicated conjugations, new vocabulary and odd grammar structures. Additionally this script included some unknown symbols, and diagrams...
Staring at the first page, Kasim's forehead creased and with each passing moment, a new wrinkle was added.
"The something book… of something and something." was the final deduction he made after staring at the front page for ten minutes.
Although the letters were familiar, the writing system was entirely different, filled with many unfamiliar words. Translating it would take time, and he preferred to take it along rather than revisit the chamber repeatedly.
With the book in hand he approached the hidden stone door. It immediately obliged and a narrow opening was made for him. He slunk out, relying on the soul shard's glow to navigate the passage and ascend the sandy steps.
On the dried out field Suriya and Einar were waiting for him anxiously. When he finally emerged, more of the sand lizards who slithered to the edge of the chamber opening, darted away, diving for the prominent cracks in the sand to take cover.
"Well?" Suriya questioned him nervously. "What did you find in there?"
After considering it for a moment, Kasim thought that the fastest way to get the book translated was to ask them.
He showed them the dusty book. Einar held the torch higher so that the light would illuminate the pages while making sure that the pages would catch fire.
Einar frowned down at the book the same way Kasim had. lightly shaking his head, Einar said, "It's written in old Tanshk."
Kasim nodded in understanding. The language they currently spoke was the heavily simplified version of Tanshk - the originator of most of the languages spoken on the continent. That's why Kasim was able to understand some of the words but couldn't string the sentences together or decipher it's meaning.
Suriya leaned in, squinting at the first page. "The guide… or the chronicle, of something… and something."
The old Tanshk language was incredibly difficult. Even the speakers of its descended language, simplified Tanshk, were completely lost when trying to translate it.
"Do you guys know anyone who can translate this?" Kasim asked.
Suriya nodded solemnly, "Grandmother."
According to the diary, Grandmother did have days when she was lucid, and perhaps capable of translating this. Was it worth sticking to her like glue and waiting for the golden moment?
"Surely there's someone else." Kasim didn't like his odds of just waiting around for the desired moment to happen.
"Lots of noble houses are educated on Old Tanschk, but who are we? Just some fallen palace that no one remembers, it's unlikely anyone will do us a favour. Besides, whatever is in that book is a family secret, important enough to be locked away in the underground chamber. Outsiders shouldn't look at it." Einar narrowed his eyes as Kasim, subtly warning him not to show the tome to outsiders.
There were libraries in Al-Saraya, but they were not free for everyone to use. Only students of universities or scholars and their apprentices could read and borrow the books. Kasim sighed, he would have to give this problem more thought.
"Although there's nothing down there anymore, at least we got it open." Suriya glanced down at the entrance. "If only we knew what was down there, we could march to our thieving relatives' houses and demand our stuff back."
Seeing as the night was still young, Suriya decided that sleeping was her top priority. After seeing that the only fruits of finally getting the underground chambre open was an old tome, she had completely lost interest. Einar, however, was energised and was determined to go back down in the chamber and look over the place again.
With nothing else left to do, Kasim returned to his room and lay down on his bed. He let his sandy feet hang off the side of the bed as he flipped through the pages of the book. The first quarter of the book was filled with writing only. He squinted at the words, some familiar but most too archaic. Once in a while he would murmur out a word of a sentence he could decipher. But understanding one line amidst dense paragraphs was useless.
The rest of the book was made up of diagrams of objects. Carefully drawn with robust annotations, each page was filled to the brim of words and drawings.
At some point, his grip on the book loosened. The old tome fell on his face, that's how he slept for the remainder of the night.