Seriously, I almost have zero ideas on this one. Chessboard, except a black dragon isn't a symbol I'm familiar with and the numbers aren't right. Not a cryptography grille either, I don't think, nor sudoku-style number games. I've tried folding the pages to get the little shadowy markings to line u...

Don't worry, I got it, but still think it could go a few different ways.

But add what? that's what i'm getting at. Are we adding the words together? So A plus S equals T? Or the difference between them (minus one for some reason is 17) and the next two letters? Does that form a simple sum or a longer number? Are we combining three numbers, two more and then three more? ...

okay, I have the two keys for to and bottom. I'm trying alpha numeric substitutions but am I adding 17 to the first box, or is that the cake if the top, bottom or sum? Same with -14. Also what kind of answer are we looking for, letters, numbers, if so, how many? There's just a lot of ways to work t...

Thanks, as i'd been doing it pen and paper style that makes a lot of sense.

Seriously, I've gone about three or four different directions on this, but none of them seem to help.