She writes down some hypotheses (magnetization=too much data handling? Fine matter manipulation? Magnetization itself? (Try making superconductors?)) then winds the cassette tape all the way back to the beginning and tries a different tactic. A nontrivial amount of time and French dictionary usage later: "Cause the cassette to produce the sound of the first incantation used to enchant the medallion, at sixty decibels, repeating from the beginning when it finishes, whenever the tape is moving from the reel that is currently full to the reel that is currently empty, and to pause whenever the tape stops moving and resume when it starts again."

Of all the things magic might turn out to require, "lung capacity" was not one she would have guessed, but here she is.

That works fine.

Awesome! That should do pretty well unless someone tries fast-forwarding, and they're more likely to think "weird technical glitch" than "magic". She puts the other three incantations on three more cassettes and emails that Latin professor with the story Bella helped her come up with: she found some tapes in her great-grandmother's attic, she can't identify the language being spoken on them, can she buy the professor lunch and show the recordings so she can learn something about her family history.

The professor is flattered, isn't sure she'll be able to help, suggests a Vietnamese restaurant near campus, but of course Margaret doesn't need to pay for it.

Margaret is appreciative and understands that of course there are no guarantees. She shows up at the restaurant with the recorder and tapes at the time they agree on.

The professor is dressed as she said she would be in the email and has already started on some pho. "Margaret?"

"Yes, that's me. Thanks for meeting me." she says, setting the recorder down on a corner of the table and glancing over the menu.

The items all have Vietnamese names and English descriptions.

"It's no trouble," the professor replies. "Now, a lot of ancient languages we're only guessing what they sounded like, and presumably whoever recorded these tapes was guessing, too, and maybe differently. Was there any writing at all with the tape recorder?"

"No, nothing. I don't even recognize the voice. That makes sense, that there'd be guesswork involved in figuring out how to pronounce things." She orders one of the variants on veggies-in-sauce.

Her food comes pretty fast. The professor starts the tape recorder, listening intently to the recording.

Margaret eats her food and fidgets with the loose plastic on the corner of her menu, hoping the professor knows something about whatever family this language is from and doesn't know too much about the workings of old tape recorders.

"Do they all sound similar?"

"They do, yes. I'm pretty sure it's the same voice on all four tapes, and if it's not the same language it's at least similar enough that I can't tell."

"All right..." She switches through the tapes, listening to each of them, one twice.

Margaret listens too, though she's not expecting any insight.

"I want to say Arabic. Old, old Arabic. I don't know Arabic, though, all I can be really certain of is that it isn't Latin."

"Arabic, huh? That's cool. Do you know anyone who speaks Arabic? Or I guess studies how it used to be, if it's old."

"Well, there are Arabic classes at the university but I'm not personally acquainted with the professors. I have a friend in the econ department who's from Jordan but no reason to believe she knows ancient versions."

"Getting in touch with the Arabic professors sounds like a good next step. And maybe your friend if this is old like Chaucer rather than old like Beowulf."

"I'm not even certain of my guess let alone the age."

"Fair enough. I'll still take your friend's email if you think she wouldn't mind my asking."

"Sure." The professor scribbles it out.

"Thanks! I don't suppose you have the emails for the other professors? The class websites don't always say."

"Most of them will be first initial last name at the same domain as mine and this one."

"That's convenient! Thanks again." She finishes off her veggies and asks for her check.