#earthrunes

"I... pardon, sir..." A blink at the Lion's wake.

The Jester looks concerned

"He may need comfort, Sir Jester."

"My comfort appears to be flacid of late, " Wryly and sad at the same time, and he looks back at her, "I did not mean to leave him out, the Baron gave all 12 volumes of the set but I only got to book 3."

"Aye. What do any of us really remember of that place? Dreams and shadows. No more substantial than cobwebs in the waking world, no matter how raw they may be beyond the silver."

"Aye, the research kept him up so much he forgot his mid day naps." Memories, "oh how he plotted. Studied her, and by studying her, studied them... and at last, their favorite colors were revealed."

"Studied Coradel?"

"Oh would that I could talk in the language of El, where only the truth in that house can dwell- " A sigh, "MY lord was Da'an bender, a fate forefender, and he paid the coin over his own eyes for that, all to delay and hold back the black flood! All waiting for the right one. And poor lamb was forced tobecome a lioness far too quickly. Her life was often threatened before she was sained, some she doesn't know...and of course, pull in a branch and you get the tree... and my sire was tidy in his workings you see? Ignorance is dangerous you said? You and my lord would fit in a pod."

"Mayhaps."

"I... have known something of that house. And have studied da'an, a little."

"Oh, he loved to FIsh. To follow the eddies and currents. To see wheree the stream would lead and how it might flow if he put this or that stick in it." The pooka looks sad, very sad now. "And when he saw he could die easy and soon, or hard and further? He chose the path that kept the river from being polluted."

She pauses, and pulls out a book with twining serpents tooled on the leather cover. "A sacrifice, aye. And one that seems to have been worth it, to see this place now..."

A smile at that, "Aye, but if say your August had made that choice? I think you'd not be jesting as well as you used to." the smile turns sad.

"No. I would not." A pause. "I am sorry for your loss, Sir Skunk."

"Please, call me Emperor Shalimar" He says then "And I would never hurt anything that grumpy arse loved." Asssurances, "But you couldn't know that as I hadn't put it on wiipedia yet so... apologies for all." A look at hte snakes book, "Why are you looking at that one?"

"It..." She looks down at the book. "Curiosity."

"Regarding?" Looking not just at that book, but others

"Well, the Lion... I.. I hadn't looked here. Not yet..."

"I would think this one concerned Balor blood." Her whisper is thin, something uncertain and vulnerable in her tone.

The pooka looks at her, "You would defend August, would you defend Coradel because he cares for her?"

"Of course. Because he cares for her."

He rises up from his spot, "Do you play poker?"

"He loves her." A catch, a wound.

A sympathetic look at her last, but he does not ask what he could.

"I have played poker..."

"Well, I only ask because I'm about to." He takes the balor book from her, and two other books, and then slaps them open on a stands, putting them side by side...

She tilts her head, watching. "Ciphers."

ANd opens pages, and lines them up.

Around the words are pattern, just art work anyone would think. August thought so. She thought so. And almost anyone would. Except, when yo uline them up, the patterns from one form against the pattern of another and...words.

"Oh....." Blink, blink... a step closer...

Now it's complete, and yet still a cipher she'll have to translate with study. It woudl not have been possible at all without the pieces.

The Jester looks at her, "Eiluned eh? They'd make a grocery list that requires an enigma machine."

"Hidden in plain sight. Clever moon and stars..."

She holds her hand over the open pages, as if feeling heat radiate. "He fought the Shadow, your Baron. I respect that."

"Oh, yes, he was a great man, the savior of his people. So what? I was a much better dancer" A scoff, but the pride in his eyes is undeniable

"I am certain you danced a storm." A pause, head tilted. "Ah. Enigma. Hello, Turing..."

"You know... they used cards, yes? To set the encryption?"

"I never watched a movie in me life" He smiles though, "Do you have a lad, my lady? I only ask, because he is veery lucky. If he ever forgets his razor to shave he just borrows your mind and ...clean as a baby."

"Oh, you've met him."

"Ah, tall fellow? the one with the hair." He nods

"Earl. DeBuke. Tall, like.. like an elder tree, aye. Not an oak, more graceful for all his stature..."

A smile at something, "Me thinks, lady, you are a forester of some merit to hear of the trees about you. But now you turn to the s ecrets of the trees of the dead, and I suspect would like to be alone for your...literary intimacies."

She ducks her head slightly, and nods. "I would like to study these, yes. As they were meant to be..."

The pooka smiles actually, then takes a deep breath muttering something before saying "Fare well then. " And withdrawing

"Aye, shalom..." Distracted, her eyes already hungrily devouring the patterns before her...

As she grows distracted, the pooka having left, a certain boggan finally comes out of hiding. Delores notices the sluagh now DEEEP in thought, and thinks on all she's heard. She departs, and is pleased indeed on some levels thinking Ha! Second best information gathering kith prize goes to the sluagh

(End Scene? or did you want the last word /thought 😉 ? )

Zara is lost in her puzzle, and the Custard Dragon is set out for Bronte's perusal... the books returned, the library quiet, all is well.

(Now end scene)

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