The following morning arrived beneath a sky of clear blue.
Warm sunlight filtered through the curtains of John's room, illuminating the journal still resting on his desk. Beside it lay the three books Aerion had given him the previous evening.
John woke earlier than usual.
For once, it wasn't because of danger or habit.
He was genuinely excited.
After washing and dressing, he sat at the desk before anyone else had awakened.
He opened **Introduction to Ancient Scripts**.
The first page contained a simple sentence.
> **"To understand history, one must first understand the people who wrote it."**
John nodded to himself.
It was a simple idea, but an important one.
He had spent so much time searching for answers that he had overlooked something obvious.
The records weren't written for him.
They were written by people who lived centuries ago.
If he wanted to understand their world, he needed to understand how they thought.
Not just what they wrote.
---
