Julien notices something

“Look at what James?” Julien stepped further into his brother's workspace and looked at the map he was unrolling. "You know you have to explain more than that."

“There’s something strange about this map" James answered vaguely, "have you ever seen anything like this before?” Julien looked over his twin’s shoulder and did see something he was familiar with. Not in the map itself, but in the decoration around the edge of the map.

The border was decorated with the stick figure notation used by fencing masters to assign drills for their students. Guard in forth, Cancer parry, thrust high, etc. He had seen hundreds of similar drills in books, but these drills made no sense at all. Thrusts were made from reserved stances, ripostes were called for without the preliminary parries. The most likely explanation was that the mapmaker had just copied random pictures around the border, but if Grandpa Wilhelm drew this map himself, that made no sense.

All of Julien’s preliminary training had been under his Gramp’s direction, and even after his first few years training with a fencing master, his grandfather could still win more matches than he lost. His grandfather knew more about the theory of fencing than anyone else that Julien knew. No, if grandpa drew the map, then the odd decorations were not random. They must have some meaning, or they would not be there.

James was pointing to odd notations along the coastline of an island, but Julien felt he was on to something and ignored his brother’s question as his mind searched for a possible explanation. He probably should just tell James immediately, but if felt good to know something his brother didn’t.

Could he figure this out by himself?