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There was always some noise or commotion in the Zinric house during the day, whether from the children’s hijinks or the parents' attempts to redirect the energy elsewhere. Today was a special case. The attention of the trio was caught by the oddest of their guests. Effloresced Rot, they called themselves. Last time, this one was shadowed in a cloak that saw better days, reached only with gloved hands and spoke through their companions. Now it sits in the middle of their common room, telling a silent story with crudely carved tokens.
Sugar wakes to cries of disbelief carrying up the stairs, she rolls over, half dreaming of lemon meringue, topped with lemon chunks. But the bed was too soft, too empty, propping herself up by the elbows, Sugar shoots a loaded stare at the rest of the mattress,
‘Stupid bed, stealing my headrest.’ Sheets slide her off the bed only slightly quicker than molasses, looks around for a witness, then kicks a bedpost, marching barefoot towards the stairs.
***
“You’ve gotta tell us what happens next! What happens to Lord Crom?! What about the Cloaked Warrior?”
The oldest child: Tovi, stands with clenched fists. Brown ears rigidly raised over, left foot stamping onto the carpet.
“You havta tell us, tell us, tell us!” Zedrel, the middle sibling, chants, leaning forward from his seat on the floor, interest latching on to his sister’s outburst. Thudding steps down stairs draw the youths’ attention, Sugar’s pink mane offering a colored shock to the wooden wall behind her.
“Why’re you yellin’ at Mom-dad? I haven’t even had my morning lemon yet.”
“Well because she isn’t gonna finish the story! There’s so much more to her stories than the books!”
“When I return, will I not continue? For one with a long life ahead of them, it would do to learn a measure of patience. Besides, it gives us something to wait for. Maybe out of trouble too.” Rot’s silent speech buzzes into Sugar’s ears, chiding, motherly. Well, motherly as Sugar can imagine, the words are more like thoughts.
Zedrel hops to his feet, dragging his fuming sister behind.
“Chill out sis, you’re doing Ma’s thing when she’s mad, let's go find another stick for Barak to chew on,” A shove, a yelp, and bickering followed by the back door slamming shut, voices pealing away.
“So where in the 9 lemons of Hell is everyone?” Sugar’s voice the only sound barring the rustle of fabric drapes.
“Busy; Kiko and Maeleon went to the tram station, Mr Zinric brought Barak with him grocery shopping, and Mrs. Zinric left for work. I stayed because I wanted to… discuss something without interruption.” Rot’s shiny eyes accompany the message, directing attention
“Wait, hold on, I wanna guess it first,” Sugar puts two fingers on each temple.
“It’s about your ‘oh so mysterious past’.”
‘No.’
“How much you like my lemons.”
‘Not that.’
“How our lovely Mom-dad is still single.”
‘Also no.’
“Is it how awesome you think I am”
‘Unfortunately not.’
“Bah, I give up, but if it’s something I don’t like i’m rubbing lemon juice on you in your sleep.”
‘A necessary sacrifice.’
“Huh???”
‘Follow.’ Rot led her to the dining table, pulling a chair out then sitting down on an adjacent seat. Wood groans, threatening splinters, but it refrains. Rot draws out a plain leatherbound journal from inside her cloak, setting it at the spot taken by the pulled chair. ‘Sit.’
Sugar eyeballed the journal for a moment, ‘That Guy had one of these, his was fancy, he kept his fancy secrets in his, so Rot has… plain secrets?’ the journal was snatched and flipped through. “Blank?! Grh, that’s it, you’re already at one lemon.” She then sat down and scooted her chair forward, journal returned to the tabletop.
“So, uh… why’re we here?” Sugar puzzled, tapping toes hushed by carpet.
‘I’ve seen you’ve taken to those… discount scrolls. A tool, though, a lying tool.’
“Hol’ on, lying? Words don’t lie, that's for mouths to do.”
“Did you intend to summon the ice merchant?”
“Mmmmm, definitely” ‘-not, thought it’d be cooler than that.’
‘Either way, we won’t know what you cast, much less our enemies, here we can have an advantage, a scam, more or less.’
“Ooh? Like?”
‘Er, take the ice merchant, it was two lies, first was that you had… whatever spell you thought it was. Second is what happened, the merchant. If you know what you’re casting, and no one else does, you can play it however you please.’
“Wowzers, and you’re telling me how?”
‘No, you will do it yourself, I’m teaching you how to read, first, the letters.’ The journal is taken by small hands, characters scratched on with charcoal. ‘We start with A.’
***
3 Hours later
“- you don’t haggle cheesemongers. Hey, we’re back!” Kiko calls, fresh air blows in with two people, returned by a beseeching screech. Green follows Kiko in, Maeleon with a tray of cheese balanced on her hip. "OOOOO Sugar's in trouble. I wonder what Mom-dad's saying?"
“KIKO! HEEEEELP MEEEE!” Sugar wails, using the table to ring-around-the-rosie Rot from forcing her to sit down, all while the journal’s page is presented to her. Many tidy lines and curves of Common characters take the top part of the page.
‘What is this character Sugar? What is it?’
“Sniff, flipped B.”
‘Wrong! It’s lowercase D! We will keep doing this until you can’t get it wrong.'