A weird encounter with an old friend

*ding, ding* The bell above the shop's door rang when the door slowly opened, ‘Hatter, are you,’ a hat fell down from the sky and landed on Fenrir’s head and interrupted him. ‘What in the world,’ he took it off and started to inspect it. It was a bordeaux red bowler with a gold accent around the edges. ‘No no no, that hat is not right for you at all’ Fenrir looked up trying to find where that voice came from, ‘but what would work for a head like yours, mmm’. ‘Hatter is that you?’ Fenrir walked further into the store. The second floor covered half of the store and looked out on the bottom one with a balcony covered in all kinds of fabrics, it had to be Hatters workshops. ‘A fedora, a half hat, a straw hat or maybe a turban?’ a shadow moved across the top area and Fenrir recognized the silhouette as Hatters. ‘Hatter, STOP!’ Fenrir yelled and you could hear a quick breath escape Hatter's nose when he heard him and dropped all the hats he had collected. ‘Fenrir, hello, good to see you!’ the crazy Xero glided down the stairs to the shop floor, ‘to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, do you finally want a hat, or do you need me to join you on one of your adventures’ that last one he said pulling out a needle out of his ear like it was a sword. Fenrir took the papers out of his bag, ‘Cronus this is serious I need your help’. Suddenly the mood in the room changes, Hatter puts the needle back in his ear without even flinching ‘Cronus is way too fancy for me, now show me what it is you need help with’. Fenrir knew that Cronus preferred to be called Hatter, but he also knew that somehow that name seemed to pull him out of the madness even if it was just for a second. 

They sat down at a table in the back of the store and Hatter made some fresh tea for them to drink. ‘I found these notes during one of my recent travels but can’t seem to figure them out, there is no logic in them’ Fenrir layed out the papers across the table ‘it feels impossible to crack’. Hatter turned around, almost spilling the hot tea ‘impossible!’ he shook his head ‘no no Fenrir, I thought you better’. Fenrir sighed ‘nothing is impossible, improbable maybe but not impossible’. Hatter sat down and started looking at the papers. 

He was talking to himself, moving his paws around like he was moving invisible things around the air. Hatter wasn’t dumb, not at all, he was just mad, or maybe very very different. Whatever it was he was always able to find logic in the most illogical things, just what Fenrir needed right now. 'That's it!’ he suddenly yelled, Fenrir almost dropped his tea ‘did you solve it?’. Hatter enthusiastically moved his tail and started showing Fenrir his discovery. ‘It looks very random at first but that's because the code changes a few ticks every paper’ Fenrir stared at him, ‘from the start please, Hatter’. ‘Oh right sorry you couldn’t see what I drew and wrote’ he grabbed a piece of paper and started drawing. ‘It’s kinda like a very complicated Caesar Cypher,’ he drew 4 circles 2 big and 2 slightly smaller ones and started writing the alphabet on the two bigger ones and one of the small ones, on the other small disk he wrote the weird symbols that were on the papers. ‘So how do you know the order of the symbols?’ Fenrir asked and Hatter lifted his shoulders ‘if you had a few days I’d explain’. Fenrir blinked a few times, he really didn’t understand what went on in that Xero’s head. 

Hatter looked at the circles he made and looked satisfied. ‘So to decipher the first page you set the ciphers to their base positions like this, but then every few sentences you switch it one to three spots to the left or the right.’ he glanced over at Fenrir and continued, ‘ever new page you have to turn the cyphers a few times as well’. 

‘So how do you know to turn it left or right?’

‘That’s random’

‘Mmm, okay, and how do you know how many sentences use the same positions?’

‘Also random’

‘Uh, and the steps of the ciphers between the sentences?’

‘One, two or three steps, but never the same on both discs’

‘And let me guess the amount of turns between pages is also random?’

‘No, no, no Fenrir my friend, those are based on the number of symbols on a page, divided by 3, times 7’

Fenrir sighed deep, ‘please tell me you already deciphered all the pages so I don’t have to do it’. Hatter laughed, but just a little bit too loud and exaggerated ‘give me a little bit more time, be back in an hour or two and I’ll hand you the translated pages’. 

While waiting for Hatter to finish the pages he visited the library of Harbor to find out about the old language the notebook was written in. The librarian instantly recognised the language as one used by his ancestors a long time ago. They gave Fenrir a big greenish book and pointed to a table where he could sit and translate the notes. He also offered to scan the language pages of the book so Fenrir could take them home. The time went by quickly, Fenrir thanked the librarian and walked back to Hatter’s place to grab the papers. 

*ding, ding* the shop door opened ‘you’re back!’ Hatter slided down the stairs and grabbed a stack of papers from a table ‘these are all of the papers translated plus some ciphers to help if you find more of these. ‘Thanks Hatter, I’ll remember this’ he stook out, Hatter looked at it for a sec and placed a feather in it ‘who knows you might need it’.