Chapter 68

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Bill stepped in first through the portal, and after several seconds, his head popped back in. "It's safe; you can come through."

Ethan and Tracey shared a look before stepping through the portal.

What was their surprise when they realised they were back in the room of the golden pyramid.

They were not alone either, as Snyde and Helene were already in front of the pyramid, along with Miyuki, who was nested in Helene's arms.

The moment she sensed Ethan, however, Miyuki leapt down and ran over to him. She climbed up his body agilely with her small body and got on his shoulder.

Nuzzling her gently, Ethan looked around the room and spotted another opened portal. He had not noticed it before, but now that he knew where the portals were, he could see their outlines carved into the walls. This allowed him to spot a third one, still unopened, which he guessed was where his father and Rakepick, the only two missing, would come from.

Meanwhile, Bill had grabbed Snyde and was harshly whispering to her. Although curious about what was being said, Ethan instead joined his mother, who was studying the pyramid.

As they approached her, though, she suddenly turned and stared at Tracey, high on alertness. This was all Ethan needed to take a step to the side, his wand at the ready.

Tracey's eyes widened, begging with her eyes. This made Ethan pause. She was not attacking, she was not saying anything, and she was not asking for help either. She… was she asking them not to do anything?

Was she out of her mind? Whatever was controlling her was acting so strangely that it made Ethan feel confused. How in the world did they think they would just let them take control over his friend?

And yet, against all odds, Helene acted as if nothing happened, turning back to the pyramid.

Ethan was dumbfounded, to say the least, but before he could say or do anything, Helene said, "Ethan, come over here."

She made it clear in her voice that Ethan did not have a choice and, most importantly, that he was not supposed to say anything.

Needless to say, Ethan's paranoia went on full throttle as he heard his mother and approached the pyramid.

He looked at his mother, his gaze making it clear that he was asking for answers, yet all she said was, "Look at this. Although most of it is made of an unknown runic language, you can still see some resemblance to the languages of today. We might be looking at one of the oldest runic languages in the world. Perhaps the first."

Ethan would have believed she was excited, were it not for the slight frigidity of her voice. Others would miss it, but this was his mother; of course, he could pick up on it.

This only served to make things more confusing for Ethan and, in turn, increasingly frustrating.

Moreover, it was not just the situation itself that was frustrating him, although it was infuriating enough on its own, but also what it meant.

Some time ago, during the school year, Ethan had a conversation with Dumbledore, and the old man had told him he liked to be in control, something he had swiftly denied.

But the current situation was showing that he might have been onto something. He did not like having to do mental gymnastics to make sense of the situation, or even worse, still not managing to get a proper grasp on it.

"Look at the pyramid, Ethan."

Ethan could hear the insistence in his mother's voice, meaning it was important. Beyond mere curiosity towards an ancient runic language.

The golden pyramid was the same as before, with the exception that the black sacrificial bead had inserted itself into the ground, right below where it had been floating. It was unnerving to be standing so close to such an item, but he figured that if his mother was here, then it had to be safe.

At first, the ancient runes did not seem to be making any sense, but as he delved deeper into the enchantment, Ethan noticed patterns in the rune-work.

He also managed to find some familiar hints within the runes, and the longer he looked at them, the more they reminded him of runes he did know.

They came from plenty of different runic languages, all ancient by nowadays' standards, which made it hard to understand, but the more he read it, the more clues he managed to pick up.

None of the runes were identical to any of the runic languages Ethan knew, but through the sheer number of runes he had memorised, he had become capable of picking up hints other people would miss.

Runes, down to their very essence, were quite different from other forms of magic because instead of forcing change onto the world through their magical power, runes aimed at exacerbating some of what was already there.

It might sound similar to Transfiguration, but using the nodes as representation, while Transfiguration was altering the nodes of a particular object, Runes were about harnessing the power of some of the already present runes and decreasing the influence of others to lead to a 'natural' change.

Because of this, the Runes could not be just any random shape. The creation of a runic language was a complex affair that was hardly understood, even to this day. It involved a lot of trial and error, and it was still mostly unknown why some shapes would result in an effect and others not.

One long-lasting theory in the world of Runemasters had been that the creation of a runic language had to do with faith, something that was known to be a powerful catalyst. According to Helene, this was not completely false, but she had a larger theory.

She believed that there existed one runic language from which all runic languages descended, something she called the Origin Language. It was not anything man-made, but instead the barest symbols that would influence the world, which explained why some symbols from different languages had similarities despite the fact that they should be completely unrelated.

According to her, all runes had a core that was made of an Origin Rune, and that translated into an effect, while the rest of the rune was a modification on this core part that was constructed through faith or some other means.

Unfortunately, this made deciphering this possible Origin Language much more difficult, as every rune had some sort of identity granted to it by this outer layer built on faith, and finding where the core Origin Rune ended and the external layer started was next to impossible.

The fact that it was only just a theory did not help either, as to this day Helene had still not managed to find even one Origin Rune. It was Ethan's goal to one day prove the theory true by finding at least one Origin Rune, and perhaps even the entire Origin Language.

Besides, the theory did hold some grounds. The reason so many experts, including Ethan's mother, believed that Runic Languages were built on faith was because through extensive research it had been found that it did play some role, which was to make it easier for a people to use Runes.

Not every Runic Language was equal in power, although the difference was rather small, it was there. Generally, ancient languages resulted in stronger effects than newer ones.

Mainstream experts believed that it had to do with the accumulated faith through time that strengthened a particular runic language. Helene believed that the closer a rune was to the Origin Rune that had inspired it, the stronger it would be.

It was quite a complicated concept that held some roots in divination magic, but basically, the more powerful something was, the more difficult it would be to find. Strong spells that were not necessarily complicated in execution took thousands of years for some to be found simply because magic worked that way. Power had this strange capacity to hide from mortal eyes.

It was the same for this Origin Language. While it should theoretically be in front of everyone's eyes since it was part of every Runic Language and similarities could clearly be found, it should have been figured out already. Yet, to this day, not a single Origin Rune has ever been found.

As for the Runic Language that had been used on the golden pyramid, while it was not the Origin Language, it did feel more raw than most, meaning it might be closer to the Origin Language.

All of this to explain that Ethan did manage to make sense of some of the runes himself, despite having never seen them before.

It was undoubtedly complex since Ethan was capable of figuring out more contemporary runic languages by extrapolating from those more ancient ones he knew and the newer ones had been built from while this one was proving to be a challenge, but quickly, Ethan managed to find the functions of the enchantment.

Detection, dominion, preservation, and all of them were geared towards the spirit.

Ethan barely had the time to take in the implications when the last portal opened, and Rakepick entered the room, along with Henry, the two clearly on edge against each other.