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"Void. I was hoping shadows wouldn't be one of the ones you mentioned."

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"Mm?"

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"Monstrous things are not pleasant, but there are a lot of shadows anywhere there are people. If some of them are 'woken'... well, I suspect you have more paranoids than home does."

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"If you are plagued by a woke shadow it is more likely to hide in your ear than under your bed."

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"I don't think that sounds much better."

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"It isn't, but perhaps it will make ordinary shadows seem less threatening."

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"Oh, probably. Are they rare, at least?"

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"Most people wouldn't make them and many people who would can't, but when someone knows how they can make huge numbers before we track them down at the source."

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"Well, I will be extremely happy to help you with that tracking."

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"It would be very useful if we could simply lie-detect people who might have been manufacturing them," Kaja nods.

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He smiles. "The judge gift is very useful. On a previous topic, was there a library or something where I should find materials for learning the alphabet?"

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"I was going to just write out the alphabet for you and then have an initiate who could use the practice with their language gift help you with the rest."

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"That sounds better," he agrees.

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They arrive at the dorm, where someone finds a spare room for Theod and Kaja gets a piece of paper to write out the Cirth alphabet. It's thirty-eight letters. "I can't use my gift in writing, so I'll just tell you what sounds they make and you can write down whatever will help you remember that -" And then she lists the sounds.

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Theod looks confused for the first couple letters, then mutters "Oh, just half syllables. Alright, I can work with that," scribbles out most of what he'd written already, and replaces it. A few more sounds feel out of place, but he rounds them to ones he can write and makes nonsense marks to remind him of the difference.

"Thank you. For an increasing number of things, now."
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"You're welcome. I'll go find you an initiate."

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"I'll be here, settling in a bit."

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Kaja leaves.

A little while later, a teenage boy knocks on the door. "Um," he says, "you're - learning - Cirth?"
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"I am, yes. I sort of appeared on Kaja while she was fighting zombies. You're going to help translate and teach me some basics?"

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"Yeah. Um, what do you... want me to translate... first?"

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"I think we should start with basic conversational things. Like, things one might say going to the store."

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"Okay." The initiate produces reasonable generic store-related sentences in Cirth, and translates them haltingly, and writes them down.

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Theod interjects with questions about patterns, when he thinks he's noticed them. And as they go on, more pronunciation attempts for him to check in Cirth.

This probably continues for a while.
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Yup. The initiate has apparently been assigned to him for the next week and is also supposed to escort him to the cafeteria.

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The cafeteria will probably be useful practice as well!

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