"Ugh, don't remind me about Meridian right now." Xaiden said, waving Jax away. "You know how hard I tried to make '42' and 'Meridian' make sense with any of those books? Not just the ones referenced in the transcript, I tried all of them. I got nada, just gibberish."
"There weren't any other slip ups on the other transcripts?"
"Not a single one." Xaiden said sullenly.
"Man, so you're just left with pages and pages of code you can't decipher."
"I literally just said don't remind me." Xaiden smacked him with the book lightly, mostly to protect the book.
"Alright, alright, easy now." Jax said, holding his arm in mock injury. "Anyways, I've left it broadcasting morse code for now. Now 'Writer' is calling for anyone out there to respond, so if anyone does have a working radio paired to this one, hopefully they respond."
"Why would someone respond?" Xaiden asked rhetorically, "You know it's been over 400 years since the very last transcript in the pile."
"Yes, yes, but if the 'Reader' was located outside somewhere, not here in the forbidden lands, maybe they managed to secretly maintain it and pass it down from generation to generation." He tapped his temple twice, clearly pleased with himself.
Xaiden considered it for a moment before responding, "I suppose it is possible, but it's extremely unlikely. Do you know how thorough the Caelus family is when it comes to anything connected to the forbidden lands?"
"You say that like it's not your own flesh and blood." Jax observed shaking his head, then added, "We haven't seen anything that would indicate that anyone knew Writer was ever set up here, I mean from the transcripts at least, and Writer's not easily traceable either, especially since it's on such a high encryption level."
"Is that the name of this radio now? Writer?"
"You guessed it!" Jax laughed. "And it's my new life's mission to find its partner, Reader. They belong together after all."
"Then can you please leave this writer alone with this book so I can read?" Xaiden mockingly pleaded.
"As you wish, good sir!" Jax saluted as he stepped back towards the radio, walking backwards most of the way until he bumped into Eliana. "Woah, s-sorry!"
"Oof, what are you doing?" Eliana asked sharply. At some point before Planting ended, Eliana became noticeably colder towards Jax. Though Xaiden wasn't sure exactly when it began, he suspected she'd realized her feelings weren't returned, or at least not in equal measure. Perhaps she'd even been rejected.
"I didn't expect you to be there," Jax explained sheepishly, unfazed by her cool stare. "You haven't been here as much since Flowering began."
"Well, it's a little hard to explain why I'm hanging out with boys like you all Flowering long when we don't even need to study." Eliana replied coldly, "No offense, but you guys don't exactly have the best reputations you know."
"Hey! What did I do?" Xaiden chimed in, hoping his joke would diffuse the tension growing between the two.