Chapter 3.27: The Plane In Between

“You can understand me, but we are not speaking the same language.”
They stare at Cyrzana, slightly confused by what she says.
“Yes.” Oanoa enlightens them. “In my plane we all understand each other, because my magic makes it so. While you all speak in the Common tongue, I speak Deep Speech most of the time, the language of, for example, beholders.”
“And I speak a mixture of Abyssal and Infernal”, the succubus princess says, “the languages of demons and devils. Almost every humanoid creature in Abaddon speaks in these two tongues exclusively.”
“Then how do you suggest we go and speak to your mother?” Oslando raises his eyebrows. “She won’t understand us and we won’t understand her.”
She nods.
“That is true, but I have found a solution. Oanoa informed me of the existence of translation stones. If you have one of these stones on you, you’ll be able to understand, speak, read and write in the language it’s enchanted with. Can you explain them how it works?”
The Beholder holds his hand up and a grey stone appears above it. It’s polished, flat and oval-shaped, making it perfect to play skipping stones with if it weren’t so important to keep with them.
“Normally, these stones are created by the advisors of diplomats. Then they can discuss trades, truces and other important things. They edge a rune into the stone and if the owner puts his finger on the rune, it activates the spell and enables the owner to perfectly communicate in that language for about one hour.”
“I see a few problems with that”, Bruq interrupts.
Oanoa holds up his hand and grins.
“I know what you’re going to say, but my enchantments make the effect last permanently. You also don’t have to keep touching the stone. If you have it in your bag or pocket, it will affect all forms of languages within its reach.”
He presses his index finger against the stone and a deep green glow lights it up from within. Several squiggly lines appear on its surface, surrounded by a few dots. They presume it’s the rune that makes the stone tick, but they’ve never seen a symbol like this before, making it nothing more than an uneducated guess.
“Take it”, Oanoa commands and exact replicas appear from the original translation stone. The objects float towards their new owners and keep levitating in front of their noses until they catch them out of the air.
“So, this takes care of one of the problems”, Cyrzana says, sounding rather positive for someone listing obstacles for them to face. “Abaddon has a different currency than you have. I don’t know how much money you have, but it’s all useless there. We have a different currency, but you can acquire a lot if you have interesting items to trade. Here, take this.”
Cyrzana whips back her hair and lays her hands in her neck. She loosens two of her many necklaces and holds her jewelry in front of them.
“I think these will be worth a couple thousand azmal, at least. The gemstones alone should be enough to make sure you can eat for a year.”
Lyssa grabs the necklaces before anyone else can.
“I’ll keep them safe”, she says and she hangs them around her neck. “They’re safe with me. I think gold and silver suits us. We are, of course, ladies with class.”
Cyrzana smiles at her, but shakes her head.
“Class? Yes. Silver? No. Most demons are allergic to silver. You can compare it to what happens to you when exposed to fire. A piece of silver jewelry would be torture for almost every inhabitant of Abaddon. Luckily, it’s quite rare to find and most mines that provide silver are closed for the public.”
“That is good to know”, Dargothoth says ominously as he slowly rotates his sceptre in his hand.
“But hopefully we don’t have to use it too often”, Oslando says reassuringly and he looks at the priest, condemning him.
Oanoa floats further up into the air.
“Come”, he shouts, “I’ll bring you to the portal. We can have this smalltalk on the way there.”