Chapter 9 - Newer Traces
The next day, Lucien returned to the cartography room with one thought that had stayed with him since his conversation with Elara. They already had the Seventh Revision map, travel records, the same symbols, and one old trail that might lead to the region they were looking for. But none of it was enough to confirm that their theory was correct.
Rowan was already inside when Lucien arrived. Several maps lay open across the table, but this time he did not immediately examine Revision Seven.
“We’re looking for more recent records,” he said as soon as Lucien approached.
Lucien set his bag on a chair.
“Find anything?”
“Not yet. But I found several archives that might be useful.”
Lyra arrived a few minutes later with two books in her hands. She placed them on the table and looked at the stack of documents in front of Rowan.
“So where do we start?”
“The region,” Rowan replied. “If that old trail can still be identified, someone else should have recorded it at some point.”
Lucien nodded.
They divided up the work. Rowan examined more recent cartographic collections, while Lyra searched for travel records and research reports that mentioned the region. Lucien wrote down every place-name and trail that appeared similar to Revision Seven.
The first few hours yielded little.
There were records of mountainous regions, but they were too far away. A botanical study mentioned an area with similar terrain, but none of the trails matched. Even several promising place-names turned out to refer to different regions.
Lucien leaned back in his chair.
“If this keeps up, we could spend a whole week just crossing names off the list.”
Lyra, who was reading a book, did not look up.
“At least the crossed-off list keeps getting longer.”
Lucien gave a quiet laugh.
“That’s not very helpful.”
“But it’s better than having nothing.”
Rowan remained silent. He was comparing two maps from different years.
“Lucien.”
“Hmm?”
“Elara said yesterday that old trails could change.”
“Yeah.”
“Then don’t look for a trail with exactly the same shape.”
Lucien leaned closer.
“Then what?”
“Look for fixed points.”
Rowan pointed to one of the maps.
“Roads can change. Trails can disappear. But rivers, valleys, and mountain ranges usually don’t move.”
Lucien nodded slowly.
“So we find the region through its geographic features.”
“More or less.”
They went back to work, but in a different way.
This time, Lucien no longer searched for place-names that exactly matched those on the old map. He looked for descriptions of regions that might refer to the same place, while Rowan compared the shapes of trails and terrain across several different maps.
As evening approached, Lyra suddenly stopped moving.
“Wait.”
Lucien turned toward her.
“What is it?”
Lyra opened a notebook that was already fairly old.
“This isn’t a travel record like the ones we have.”
She flipped through several pages.
“It’s a research report.”
Rowan moved closer.
“What kind of research?”
“Field research. It was conducted several decades after the travel records we have.”
Lyra pointed to a section.
“It’s the same region.”
Lucien stood immediately.
“You sure?”
“The region has a different name, but the description matches.”
Rowan took the notebook and read the section Lyra had indicated.
The study recorded the condition of the soil, the flow of the water, and several trails still used by the local inhabitants at the time. It made no mention of a gate, but one of the trails it described occupied nearly the same position as the faded line on Revision Seven.
Rowan took a pencil and opened the old map.
“Here.”
He placed the pencil tip on the trail they had found the day before.
Lucien compared the two sources.
“Similar.”
“More than similar.”
Rowan took the newer map and placed it beside Revision Seven.
“The trail has changed, but the entry point is the same.”
Lyra leaned in to look as well.
“Then this map is accurate.”
“At least this part of it.”
Lucien stared at the thin line that was almost invisible on Revision Seven.
All this time, he had assumed the trail was only one possibility. Now, for the first time, they had evidence from another source that the trail had actually existed.
“But this record doesn’t mention a gate,” he said.
“Because the author may never have made it that far,” Rowan replied.
Or perhaps the gate was no longer visible by that time.
The possibility left them silent again.
Lyra opened Travel Records from the Northern Region.
“Then we go back to this.”
She spread open the page with the drawing of the gate.
“This author clearly made it farther.”
Rowan looked at the drawing.
“And left behind a symbol.”
“The same as the symbol on the map.”
“And a directional marker we still don’t understand.”
Lucien looked at the two of them.
“So now we know the trail.”
“Part of it,” Rowan said.
“And we know the region.”
“More or less.”
“What don’t we know?”
Rowan pointed to the drawing of the gate.
“How he found the final section.”
Lucien nodded.
That was the only part that still did not fit.
Revision Seven led them to the region. The more recent record proved that the trail had once existed. But Travel Records from the Northern Region showed that its author had managed to reach something no other source had ever mentioned.
A gate.
Lyra began reading the bottom of the page again.
She had looked at it several times already, but this time her eyes stopped on the small writing in the footer.
“That’s strange.”
Lucien turned toward her.
“What?”
Lyra did not answer immediately. She took out a magnifying glass and held the page closer to the light.
“This writing...”
Rowan looked too.
“The part underneath?”
“Yeah.”
“The same as yesterday?”
“Part of it.”
Lyra slowly shook her head.
“There’s a section we couldn’t read.”
Lucien moved closer.
“But we already read ‘Gate’ and ‘Heir.’”
“I know.”
Lyra pointed to the section where the ink had faded the most.
“But there’s more writing after that.”
Rowan frowned.
“Why is it only visible now?”
“Because most of the ink is nearly gone. I only just realized the letter shapes were different from the ones before.”
Lucien studied the page.
“So?”
Lyra shifted the magnifying glass slightly.
“I think we missed something.”
The three of them fell silent over the same manuscript.
The words Gate and Heir turned out not to be the end of the small note.
There was still another section waiting to be read.