I remembered to call Susan, though I had temporarily lost the card she gave me with her number on it, and told her about the food and the boxes I needed shipped to me. She said it was no big deal and that she’d take care of it. I made up a believable story of Aunt Estelle being a Roman artifact collector and that she had some cool weapons that I wanted to take home and give to my friend’s dad who teaches Roman history. My returning flight wasn’t first class, and the man next to me kept giving me sideways glances as I flipped through the pages of the BOS and the magical herb book. I was starting to feel sleepy when I turned the page in the BOS. I gasped so suddenly that I startled the guy next to me, though he deserved it for reading over my shoulder. Twenty-four squiggly symbols were drawn on this page, with the letters of the alphabet under each one. “THEBAN” was written at the top. I pulled off my pendent and looked back and forth. This was the language it was written in! I rummaged through my bag for a pen and piece of paper.
