#dreaming

"Miss Zara, Miss Zara.. ahem, I mean... Sister River" the little girl whispers "I think I know where we can go to learn what to do with a bookwyrm skin"

"Aye, Sister Lily?"

"We need to go to the great library! The greatbook wyrm would know, and even if she did not grant us an audiance, the lore there is rich"

"This is true. Though have you met Book yet? Minerva can share."

Minerva looks up at that, then with great will power, "Of couse. Here, Sister Lily. I have.." She looks about "I may have been with him for hours" A blush.

"I mean no ill, Sister Minerva. And you will find that your hat shall bring you here, whenever you desire."

"How wonderful" She rises and makes room for Lily

Lily sits down, "You should pick out a cat, Sister Minerva"

"I have one at home." She smiles

Then Minerva looks at Zara, "THE Great library?" Yes she heard the childling's whisper

"Mmm." She demurrs.

"Given the nature of cats, I suspect one shall choose you, as in Earth Runes. Cats do as they please."

"Perhaps the cat will know somethin of the Great Library annd be willin to talk?" The Eiluned has not lost ALL her chekinness

Kay laughs a that

"I am a Librarian, not a library. Surely, you do not expect me to be an open book?"

Clem mutters in her cup "Took me years to learn half the stuff I know about you, including stuff I didn't think WOULD be a secret"

Minerva mmms "I suppose not" She eyes the childling, happily talking to Book, then sighs. No, she won't try to manipulate a child. that's beneath her "I'll go see these cats I suppose"

"There are also owls. Rather fitting, for a Minerva - nu?"

"Owls?" She looks intrigued. "thank you, please excusse me" She stops "Do I bow or something to you three?"

"Only if you're tying your shoes," Field says

Minerva blushes

Zara nods at Clem.

A pause. "This one is for free - if you see Grandmother, be polite."

"I try to be, and... Grandmotherr? Ah." She nods "I thank you"

Who is 'Grandmother'? Zara doesn't seem inclined to say. Sluagh.

Kay /Flame snorts "Frankly, among witches, the older the more you better watch your ass ticking them off"

"One must needs respect the crones."

"The three fold. Yet most here seem non grumps?" Minerva notes

Her forehead crinkles. "Why do I fear I am somehow in the 'mother' zone?"

Clem whispers "Agnes will be so pleased you and earl finally had some"

"Those with less power have greater need."

Zara pinks. "We are not. There is no 'finally' - I am but twenty yet!"

"River is right," Sister Flame grins with needle teeth, "Crones, TRUE Cronnes, don'tt need protection. You ever hear Of Endora Gentle? Commoner girl during a witch hunt craze in Scotlad..either that or upper england. NNow she was a hag of a crone. To this day, three kiths claim her a least. Sluagh among them. "

"I can't say I have" Minerva says "She surviveeed the purge?"

"Survived ? they grabbed that old woman, put a bag over her head,, thought she couldn't get the evil eye that way. Then... tied her to the post , ready to light the pyre. her long hookeed nails scratched at the wood, unable to break i, annd they furkin laughed. One by one, she heard witness, lies about the evil she had done. They wanted her land. "

"Two kiths claim. One kith knows for certain." A little sip of tea.

Clem decides to tease a bit "Me, I believe the pooka"

"That IS a choice you can make."

"What did Endora do?" Minerva doesnn't want half a story and is sure she wasn't a sidhe so has no skin in that game

Kay smirks "One by one, the witnesses gave their names to work against her. One by one, each official arranging her murder set false evidence, using ttitles like honorable, and just... and she scratched helpless , or so i seemed. Then, they pronounced her guilty, and set the wood on fire. And... they burned. Not she, THEY. Their nnames they had given, their oaths they'd lied on agreement to justice... but they did nnot say the Court's justice, no. Each nname along the wood she had scritched and scratched, they were not true names, but they were names enough. Sympathetic enough... and they each caught fire, while her pyre barely smoked. Not just them, but their houses, their fields... the few who had donne her no wrong but had done nothin fled, impoverished, but alive. Gentle removed her hood, free from effort, and claimed the village , what was left of it, as her own. No one disputed her for 70 years until she got bored with the place. Her full fate is unknown, but the fear of her stopped THAT Century's witch purge in it's tracks"

Zara smiles, like a cat.

Minerva beams "What a wonderful tale"

"History," Clem adds, "Endora Gentle was not the most powerul witch, or the greatest, or the oldest, but she was great, powerful and old, and was fondly thought of by those who knnow and love witches. She was a walking three folds rule kinnd of woman. Whatever you gave her , specially trouble, she gave you back 3 fold." A pause "i believe there's a story where she helped a peasant lass win a mortal aristocrat just because the girl saved her cat"

"Also, she was a furrkingg NOCKER" Sister Flame adds

Minerva notices Zara's smug look, then looks to the nocker's certainty, then looks to Sister Field "So, Sluagh, Nockers, and Pooka? No trolls claim her?"

"Oh we have plenty of heroes already" Field says with a casual shrug, "And yes, there were troll witches of yore. Big women who were best to leave be and no forr their physical power"

"Of course she was." Teasingly patronizing to the Flame.

"darn right she was...quick thinking, mean boned..." Flame says

"Mm." Sip.

Clem gives Zara a shake of the head and grunts ("Gonna have to separate you two?")