#debukefarmhold

Not all lessons are highschool and down

And Zara finds herself moving the letters of an antique scrabble set as Mountain Emmit watches "Frustrating isn't it? So close"

Huff.

"How do you Know what letter to change, to get what you desire?"

"Nickname, that makes sense. But Names aren't... they aren't just names."

"Nickname is a temporary scramble at best... True names are more like cement settled mmm?"

"Urk and Urc and Irk are all very different. I can see it." Arranging scrabble tiles to illustrate.

"But how do you know which one is the serial killer, and which is the pacifist?"

"You can't just look at the letters, you have to look at the space between the letters..." he says "it's an imperfect analogy but the distance between the essentials changes the results if that makes sense?".

"Oh! Niqqud!"

"Let me guess, there's a Rabbi who had this figured out already?" Good humored

"well, probably..."

"Tell me about Niqqud?"

"They are diacritical marks... ah.. the dots."

"SOmetimes a vowel, sometimes a pause, sometimes a breath..."

"Diacritical I know" he nods "I see.. yes. True names aren'tt letters alone... the true tongue as it were includes the counting of breaths between the syllables"

"Exactly" He nods glad to see

"I must needs understand this. I know, I am a wilder yet. But I have aught that must be changed."

"I did sense an urgency." He ssays "I take it you must needs do this yourself?"

"I think it must be a sluagh. And I know no other namers of my kith."

"You realize I am several shades of curious now?" He looks a bit amused

"Seems to me that fair is fair."

"mmph" Amused grunt

Brow!

"Well, you shan't tell anyone?"

"I won't unless you allow it," he says more somberly "or unless it threatens the farm. Though I figure you knew that proviso would be there"

She nods.

"It is a treasure, one which was forged explicitly to harm sluagh. I wish to neuter it so my brethren will no longer be at risk. But... after the incident with Tantalus' cane, I am hesitant to try just straightforward destruction."

"I can see why.. you fear a backlash or another bond?"

She nods.

"And the cane was not keyed to sluagh."

"Interesting... I think I know part of it's name already" He says

"I know its Name."

"tied to sluagh, it probably has...simliarites in it's name to your kith's dreams"

"I hope, in that, it may hold less of a threat to me."

"it does." The troll assures

"Oh, the Ý¿." Nod.

"now, you can read it, you're learning what parts mean what..a nd the spaces, those dots. What happens if you change the scale of some letters and not others?"

She frowns. "I'm not... I'm not certain."

"I have thought to ask your help with this - that the treasure may be too dangerous to wait for me to unravel the secrets of reweaving."

"I have also considered smearing it with butter and feeding it to a redcap."

He raises a brow "Given how you feel about shielding things of magic, I'm surprised at that last." He ponders this "Zara, have you tried locking it up? There's a reason I'm asking"

"I have it in a chest..."

"But hiding it, that just means it is a matter of time until it is found again."

"Do you know the chest's true name?" A brow "And the true name of the lock that shield's it?"

"...no?"

"You might find that it gives you..advantages, to alert you to disruption of said box and lock."

"Mayhaps. But again - eventually, Emmitt, I shall die."

"It is not enough to guard it during my lifetime."

"It must not get into sidhe hands again."