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Gansey pressed on "And I speak Latin?"

"Dude, you speak Latin in real life That’s not a good comparison Yeah, fine, if you’re there But usually, it’s strangers Or the signs -- the signs are in Latin And the trees speak it"

"Like in Cabeswater"

Yes, like in Cabeswater In fah Ronan surely hadn’t been there before this spring Still, arriving there for the first tiotten

"Coincidence," Gansey said, because it wasn’t, and because it had to be said "And when you want so, I have to be, like, aware enough to know that I want it Almost awake And I have to really want it And then I have to hold it" Ronan was about to use the exaht better of it "I have to hold it not as a dream, but like it’s real"

"I don’t understand"

"I can’t pretend to hold it I have to really hold it"

"I still don’t understand"

Neither did Ronan, but he didn’t kno to say it any better For ato the floor to pick at the corpse of the envelope

"Look, it’s like a handshake," he said finally "You knohen sooes in for the shake, and you’ve never met him before, and he puts it out there, and you just know in thatto be sweaty or not? It’s like that"

"So what you’re saying is you can’t explain it"

"I did explain it"

"No, you used nouns and verbs together in a pleasing but illogical format"

"Idid explain it," Ronan insisted, so ferociously that Chainsaw flapped, certain she was in trouble "It’s a night bit and when you wake up your arm hurts It’s that"

"Oh," said Gansey "Does it hurt?"

So out of a dream, it was such a senseless rush that it left the real world pale and unsaturated for hours after Sometimes he couldn’t ht he was drunk Sometimes, he really was drunk

"Does that , anyway?" Gansey had picked up the wooden box When he turned one of the wheels, one of the buttons on the other side depressed

"A puzzle box"

"What does that mean?"

"Fuck if I know That’s just what it was called in the dream"

Gansey eyed Ronan over the top of his wireframes "Don’t use that voice on me You have no idea whatsoever?"

"I think it’s supposed to translate things That’s what it did in the dreas were letters and words The buttons were so small and the letters so precise that it was impossible to see how it could’ve been made Also impossible was how the wheels of characters could have been fixed into the box without there being any searain of the wood

"Latin on that side," Gansey observed He turned it "Greek here What’s that -- Sanskrit, I think Is this Coptic?"

Ronan said, "Who the hell knohat Coptic looks like?"

"You, apparently I’m pretty sure that’s what this is And this side with the wheels is us Well, our alphabet, anyway, and it’s set to English words But what is this side? The rest of these are dead languages, but I don’t recognize this one"

"Look," Ronan said, pushing to his feet "You’re overco to Gansey, he took the box He spun a few of the wheels on the English side, and at once buttons on the other sides began to ical

"That hurts lish side to him The letters read tree He flipped it to the Latin side The letters had shifted to read bratus Then round to the Greek side δένδρ&olish into all those other languages That’s ‘tree’ in all those I still don’t knohat language this is T’ire? That doesn’t sound like" Gansey broke off, his knowledge of perished linguistic oddities exhausted "God, I’ave him a look It was a look that asked how Ronan, of all people, could be so stupid to think that sleep was just a thing that could be so easily acquired

Ronan said, "So let’s drive to the Barns"

Gansey gave him another look It was a look that asked how Ronan, of all people, could be so stupid as to think that Gansey would agree to soal on so little sleep