Forgotten; Worshipped (Imported from Ao3)

29

Aaron and Hercules travelled to the realm below again, back to the earth temple, to follow the directions given to what Aaron assumed should be the fire temple. They slipped back into the temple and into the room in which they had found the shovel as well as the directions. Aaron had brought paper and pen to write down the directions, accidentally writing them down in Qjuanjoithian and Hercules asking him to write it in their modern language so that he may be able to read it as well. Aaron laughed sheepishly at that, still accidentally writing some parts in Qjuanjoithian that he wasn't sure how else to translate for himself without losing the meaning, the meaning of the directions depended greatly on the time, whether it was given in the different tenses of past, present, future, and some odd combination of present and future which was used to fluidly transition from a present action or circumstance into a future one. There were many more peculiarities about the language, as there were seven different tenses of past, five different tenses of present (including the odd combination of present and future tense), and a whole twelve different future tenses, the twelfth tense being used to describe impossible or incomprehensible future and thoughts concerning this future. Aaron shook his head, scribbling the last bit of needed directions onto the paper.

Hercules looked over his shoulder, raising a brow at some of the symbols replacing whole sentences of the directions which Aaron didn't know how to translate into their language. Aaron squinted. He spoke three languages now, he realized. Markon, his native tongue, Elsyae, the most popular language and Qjuanjoith, a dead language. He hummed, realising he could barely tell the difference between them at any given moment. He turned to Hercules with a quizzical expression.

"Did you ever notice me suddenly speaking in a different language?" he asked and Hercules raised a brow.

"All the time, just now you did," Hercules pointed out and Aaron's brows raised in surprise.

"Why did you never point it out to me?" he asked.

"Well, I barely notice it myself, I know those languages, and I understand what you mean whenever you slip from Markon into Elsyae or vice versa. If you were to slip this dead language into it, it would be a problem for me, but otherwise I understand," Hercules explained and Aaron hummed.

"I do hope I won't slip into it and- I just did, didn't I?" he asked and Hercules nodded, causing Aaron to sigh in defeat, "I knew this would happen at some point..."

Hercules chuckled and laughed, kissing Aaron's head and Aaron grumbled, frustrated.

"I'll tell you if you slip into the dead one, don't worry. Now, you got the directions?" he asked and pulled Aaron to himself in half a hug. Aaron looked down at the paper in his hand.

"Yup, I got it. We can go now. Do you know a place called 'Spiralling Canon'?" Aaron asked and Hercules nodded.

"Yeah, it's near the place where I first popped into existence. I think... I think it might be abandoned. though..." Hercules muttered and Aaron hummed.

"This says we need to follow the river crossing through it upstream until we find its spring... Then cross around the 'mountain' we find there and... 'enter' it..." Aaron explained.

"'Enter' it? What's that supposed to mean? Why did you say mountain like that?" Hercules asked and Aaron sighed.

"This word here means mountain and something like a volcano, and this word, while it means to enter, it means that in a... in a way that implies forcing your way in through uh... Um..." Aaron tried but words failed him.

"You don't know how to translate it," Hercules stated and Aaron nodded.

"I know what it means but I couldn't explain it if I tried," Aaron sighed.