Khasekhemwy took one look at the tiger under the table and decided he'd prefer to eat
his pie standing, thank you very much. He hunched over his plate out of a long-standing habit in trying to seem small and insignificant while nibbling on the pie, which was as good as anything Rana could make.
Improvisation was not one of the Palestinian's strong points. He still stuck strongly by the old-fashioned notion that teaching was imparting knowledge upon a pupil, and balked at the idea of student-led activities. What if a student asked a question he couldn't answer? What if he didn't know something? What if -
'Stop it,' Khase scolded in his head, using a tough macho voice. In the security of his own mind, he could use whatever voice he liked. 'I'm the god of knowledge. No one knows more than the god of knowledge.'
Then Danny asked about the ancient language, and Khase thought he might cry.
Losing his magic had been an enormous blow, largely because he was completely dysfunctional without it. Simple things like eating and drinking suddenly became enormous chores, because he had to work out where food and water came from. It was more than that, though... Khasekhemwy felt like his entire being had been ripped apart. He was no longer himself anymore. He couldn't do any of the things which made him him - like, like... practicing magic, or reading in any language other than English, or translating works into other languages. Like the ancient language. He stared in dismay at Danny's scribbles.
'Pull yourself together,' The Voice growled, 'You invented the ancient language! You can read it!'
'But that was thousands of years ago,' he whimpered back into his mind.
'Enough! You're The Man!'
Tentatively, Khasekhemwy picked up one of the tomes. Danny's last words registered then, and he brightened visibly.
Oh, that's because the ancient language is ancient, he replied, sounding more relieved than lecture-y. It hasn't been updated recently either. Many of the words in your book will have no ancient equivalent, because they refer to medicines we could not have conceived of at the time the language was finalised. You'll struggle to translate an English tome fully into the ancient language if it contains technical terminology. As for the vice versa... he peered at it, trying not to feel daunted by the unreadable glyphs. I have already given you the best English to ancient language dictionary. The best ones only translate the English language into Arabic. Can you read Arabic?
khasekhemwy
patron deity of palestine
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