Some Other World

Rosetta Stone? Probably Not

"Percy, you've got to come see this!" 

I shook my head as Maggie grabbed my arm. "I've got to talk to you."

"In a minute, this is really important-"

"Maggie, I promise that whatever it is, what I need to ask is more important."

She shook her head and tried to pull me towards the tents. "Just wait, you have to come see!"

'Just go with her, little one. You will have time to tell her what you found afterwards.' Anareem said softly.

Sighing, I let Maggie drag me off towards her tent. The revelation that it could have been so much longer than she thought it had been since she last stepped foot on Earth still had me shaken, and I wasn't sure how I was going to break it to her.

"Okay, so when Eragon and Saphira came back from scouting today, he gave me this. He doesn't know what it is, but he said he had a hunch that it's related to you and me. I didn't ask, I've just been trying to figure out what all the symbols mean."

I raised my eyebrows when I saw the marks carved into the slab of stone sitting on the little table in Maggie's tent.

"That's Ancient Greek!"

"Really?" She yanked the tent flaps closed and darted over to the table, standing next to me as she peered at it. "What does it say?"

I ran my fingertips over the top of the stone. "These names inscribed call our accusers to account. For we all were fully innocent, our supposed crime being our refusal to bow beneath immortal boots."

"Is each line a name?"

"I would assume so."

"These names inscribed..." Maggie murmured, touching the stone gently. "Calling accusers to account?"

"These people were sent here, like us. They recorded their names, probably in the hope that some day there would be someone who found a way out of here and went back to call the gods out on what they'd done."

"What did they do?"

I waved my hand at the tablet. "Clearly the gods have been using this world as a landfill for people that don't submit to them the way they want. That's why we're here, that's why they were. 'Our refusal to bow beneath immortal boots.'"

"That's horrible." Maggie shook her head.

I nodded. "Do you have anything I can write these names down on?"

"I might, let me check." She darted over to the side of the tent.

"I had a notebook with me when I crossed over, and I've stretched it as much as I can. This is the last half-sheet."

"That's fine."

She handed me the ripped piece of paper and a sharpened stick that was charred at the end. I flattened the paper on a section of the rock that was fairly smooth, then began to write.

It took a few minutes more than it should have, but I was fighting my dyslexia to figure it out.

Iasonas Lias, son of Aphrodite -

Lazaros Resta, son of Ares

Vasileia Morou, daughter of Haephestus -

Daniil Drakos, son of Dionysus -

Minos Sagonas, son of Nemesis -

Giorgos Palas, son of Hermes -

Natasa Meli, daughter of Athena

Nomiki Apostolou, daughter of Athena -

Vasso Grivas, legacy of Athena

Cassandra Avra, daughter of Hades -

Lance Fastolfe, son of Momas -

Martius Vernon, son of Apollo -

Menas Sly, daughter of Iris -

Alan Byrd, legacy of Nike

"Why are those marked?" Maggie pointed to the names that had a slash next to them. 

"No clue. There doesn't seem to be any explanation that I can find." I looked over the list. "Most of these names are traditional Greek names. There's nothing marking when they arrived here, but I'd guess it was a long time ago."

"Well just keep that for now, so we can look into it when we get the chance. And when we get back, we can take that list with us and try to fix the wrongs against them."

I nodded slowly and pocketed the paper. Thinking about what these people must have been through brought back the nervousness about telling Maggie what I had found out.

"Are you going to keep this?" I tapped the tablet with the charred stick.

"Probably. We should try to keep the original, right?"

I nodded. "Probably a good idea...."

Maggie picked up a blanket from the chair on the side and tossed it over the tablet.

"Okay, now what did you want to talk to me about?"