Charles Lancastor (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=93697.msg4147939#msg4147939)<br/><div align="center">Translating an ancient tome from a forgotten language</div><br/>Busily working on translating an old tome to another language for one of the Viziers was not Charles Lancastor’s favorite work in the library, but it still gave him a chance to study while performing his duties. Even though he has only been in Alamut a few months, he is still familiar with the cold wind that always accompanied the elder Zahira Naqvi. He had been present at her visits to the library many times. At the first hint of the wind he looks up from his work while clamping his hands down on the pages, one hand on the old tome with other one on his own work.<br/><br/>The young American watches the elder vampire expecting her to consult with one of the Viziers, and then leave again as she usually does. He is quite visibly shocked when she sits in the chair across the table from him. After she addresses him he is even more shocked and it takes him a moment to recover and close his open mouth. He listens intently to everything she says, closing his eyes trying to picture in his mind when she describes the visions. When she relays the poem he silently mouths each and every word making sure he gets every word exactly into his memory.<br/><br/>The images of the lush green landscape bring thoughts of America to Charles’ mind as well as places in Europe. The words of the poem do more for narrowing of the possible locations. The word isle eliminates America and much of Europe and the vision excludes Australia, this leaves Britain. He concludes that it is about a lake in the British Isles, but which one?<br/><br/>One of the reasons Charles is such a naturally linguist is that he does not think in any given language. He has the unique ability to understand the meanings and images the words represent, it occurs to him that the key to this riddle may be in the words themselves. Having concluded that it refers to a lake in Britain he mentally translates the poem to English. As he runs the poem through his mind in English something about the words tickles at a memory of something he read somewhere. Standing up he politely excuses himself and rushes off to a section at the back of the library. He scans a couple of the shelves of books and finally selects one and brings it back to the table.<br/><br/>Setting back down in his chair, Charles begins to carefully but quickly page through the book. He stops upon finding the page he wants and turns the book so it is upright for Zahira. The page shows a very well done hand drawn map of a section of England. He points to a large lake and says, “Wast Water considered to be the deepest lake in England. It gets its name from the proximity to the town of Wasdale.” He takes his hand away from the book to allow Zahira to study it for herself. After waiting for a moment he asks, “Is there anything else I can do you, Lady Naqvi?”