Tethers - Part 1
By Oluwatoni Adesanya
Tinfoil-Tim: This one took me a SOLID minute but I got there eventually…! There’s several alphabet systems in this. One I was able to translate directly into English - what the author appears to call “Universal” (interesting that this is the same on our planet! Extra-terrestrial links to Earth? The aliens of the pyramids??). Still working on decoding the rest but I’ve got this so far… There’s a couple of sections I couldn’t translate - I tried using a frequency analysis tool, but the plaintext I got back didn’t correspond to any other ciphers. They’ve been torn out of what I believe to be a diary, so if anyone has experience with decoding other languages - especially Afrosasiatic (Farane) or Romantic (Safikani) ones, I’ll pin/repost any reasonable looking answers.
It was a beautiful day in Safikana.
Deciding to go on a walk is somewhat out of character for me - my usual disposition is one of a “healthy but laid-back” lifestyle - but today I thought I might need a distraction.
Today marked the fifth anniversary of the day I’d failed my language comprehension test, and the reminder cast a sobering air over all my daily activities. Normally flunking a test would hardly phase me; I reasoned that tests were just a useless way of “marking” or “measuring” proficiency and would be of no use later on, but this one had had singularly disastrous results.
Hence why I found myself on the dusty road winding into the Town Circle. As I meandered along the path the hubbub of noise I heard in the distance grew ever closer, until I crested the hill overlooking the Israti Common Market. Sheets of colour topped the various stalls, offering everything from tunics to water to my much beloved savoury dough balls. And shielded by the hill I stood on towered the Town House - the pride and joy of the Safikanians. I always felt kind of intimidated seeing it looming ahead, but I settled myself as I prepared for the awkward jog down the hill. I swiped at my forehead, trying to get at the stray beads of sweat gathered there, and steeled myself.
I heard a voice over my shoulder.
. . . in a sonorous baritone behind me.
My name, my glorious, majestic, full name. One I hadn’t heard in five orbits.
Whirling around I locked eyes with a towering caramel-skinned specimen, someone whose own curls were bound in a bun at the base of his side-shaved head. His cornflower blue cloak floated on a light breeze, suspended as if it, too, was in disbelief of such a coincidental meaning.
I met a gaze that was caring yet confused, alight in recognition yet disbelieving.
And suddenly I remembered.
. . . I shrieked as I bounded towards the familiar stranger and drowned myself in his embrace. I breathed him in, the best friend I hadn’t seen in the longest 5 orbits of my life.
I felt his warmth suffuse my being, reaching out to me like he always did all those years ago before everything went horribly wrong. Seconds before everything went wrong.
It was all going so well. We had a nice conversation in Safikani as we’d strolled around the market, eating snacks and roaring with laughter. He told me he’d left the colony briefly to undertake some travels and become better versed with the planet, and was on his way home. I’d successfully evaded questions about myself and instead took up the role of tour guide. 3 clicks came and went, and he decided to return to his accommodation. I had the gall to think I would escape unscathed. I was wrong. He’d already taken 3 steps away, but turned back, and effortless Farane spilled from his lips.
Everything went wrong.
The words seemed to come flying at me, taunting and eluding, dodging ducking playing chase around my ears so that all I heard was one set of rushed consonants may be? interspersed with some vowels here there everywhere nowhere where were the actual w or ds?
This was why I had left.
Not this exactly - after all, the Leaders had offered to help me, give me free private tuition to ensure I learned Farane, and when I had packed up my things my parents rushed after me, begging me to stay and try to absorb what little I could. But there it was - what little I could.
Flickers of my lost community filtered through my mind.
This is the closest translation I could get- not entirely accurate but when is translation ever? Hope this helps.
———————————————————————
Mo fe bé'ere l'owo e, ki lo dé t'o ti japa látì kólóni wa? O dùn mi gan. Ẹni nikan ti sọ fun mi pé o'ò ṣé dada ninu "teèsti" wa, sugbon o'ò lé jẹ iyẹn tó ṣẹlẹ, abi?
Translation:
I wanted to ask, why did you leave our colony? I really felt your absence. Someone told me that you didn't do well in our test, but that can't be what _really_ happened, right?
Just offering some potential matches and translations for the languages here! I was gonna do a whole frequency analysis graphic, but I'll give you the long and short.
All the non-English writing in this seem to come from the same language (notice the consistency in letter formation patterns) and as far as I can tell, the first two segments are names. The first is "Mojoyinoluwa", which means something like "God's Honey". The second is "Demola", likely a shortened version of "Ademola", meaning "arrived with wealth." These are both matches with Yoruba names. For the longer segment, I'll post the plaintext then the English translation in a separate comment.