#earthrunes

"I read it before sending, and... to be honest? It's solid. Better than I would expect from a first attempt - honestly, better than many of MY first submissions - if this is your first, and I don't mean to assume."

She flips the CORRECT copy open to a flagged page. "Now, here - I think you should either tighten up this prose, or elaborate on it. No half measures, and making the Vicar a sympathetic character rather than the traditional theme of naughtiness, I though that a stroke of genius myself. A thought was that incorporating some of the UK alternate spelling will also help create a sense of immersion in the timeline."

"Rather than play counter to nature, you doubled-down and it made him more... relatable, and melancholic, at the same time... if that was your goal?"

"I... it isn't the first I've written, no... I... tis... fan-fiction. Scribbles."

"Zara... my first twelve submissions were rejected. I had a whole SERIES planned about an heiress names Natalie with a handsome cabana boy that was utter TRASH. That was a scribble and little more than self-insertion fantasy. This? You have something here."

A raised brow. "And if you needed more proof, at least one other person thought it worth publishing..."

A finger taps the offending folder alongside.

She frowns at it.

"That... I can prove it is mine... I... I've drafts, from two years ago..."

A pause. "You... you liked it?"

"I did! It shows real promise. I would flesh out the roots of the E- " A delicate pause and she sips her tea, a small curious smile on her lips, "That is, Mister Buchanon's backstory, there is a lot of good family drama in there that heightens tension. Little tweaks, but that's just set dressing, icing, you know? The bones - it has good bones."

"His family is very traditional, aye... "

Earl says to the satyress "I tell her it's good and she doesn't believe me"

"I brought you a little something." And she brings out a small wrapped package, just about the size of a tissue box.

"Oh, you shouldn't have..."

"Nonsense!" She brushes that off. "It takes some doing to write something, and even more to get up the nerve to set it before someone else's eyes." Lightly pushing it across the table to her.

Zara takes it, delicately.

A prickle, through the paper. Not quite a cantrip, not near a treasure or even anything truly chimerical but something that feels... rich, and somehow familiar.

Head tilt, curiosity stirred. She unwraps.

And when she opens it, it's a small box made of wood, aged wood, with simple brass fittings. Rather, it's a drawer, outside of a chest- a small holder at the front where a slip of aged paper labels the contents as "Fiction - S". She is not so young that she doesn't recognize one of the icons of yesteryear hardly seen anymore, it's a drawer from a library's card catalog.

Within are several actual cards for books, nothing specific, listing books and their location in the library from authors in the designated range - There's a Sargent and Saramago, Salvatore and Salinger, among others.

She pages through the cards.

"There was a library that was shutting down and they were selling everything - I had to beat some hipsters that were going to toss the cards and repurpose the wood for some sort of reclaimed... something or other, coffee table probably? The cabinet was broken down, but the drawers still intact, so I use one to keep my story ideas in. I mean, you can do whatever you like, but... I'd be honored if you thought about maybe the same." A smile.

"Feh, hipsters..."

"A keen woodworker could fashion a lid for it as well - maybe with a lock and key." She muses.

"Oh, aye..."

"Nice" earl offers

And she gives Earl a grin. "I was hoping you'd appreciate it to, Sir. I had faith in one that Zara had chosen. After all, “The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.” She quotes with a grin. "And I don't think Miss Zara suffers stupidity, not in HER library."

A chirrup from Bronte at the quote!

Swooooop.

Earl blushes then chuckles "Please, meet Bronte, she's a Bookwyrm"

"Well, one must serve all... ah, Bronte. Be nice, we have a guest..."

A start in surprise, and then her mouth drops a bit, and she admires!

And a grin, as she offers a hand out to the little dragonet. "Bronte, is it? "I try to avoid looking forward or backward, and try to keep looking upward." If I had looked up, would I have spotted you first?"

"“but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.” Bronte laments.

She bumps her head against the satyr's hand. “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.”

A laugh of delight! "She speaks! No, better yet - she READS?" Carefully giving the dragon a delicate scratch.

"Bronte is, well, let's just say, we've been on quests where treasures most amazing were found, where creatures of great wonder were seen, but I think Bronte is the most precious to Zara of all, and perhaps myself as well."

"Oh she reads like a fish drinks" Earl nods

"We help keep her - she is quite young. But aye, she loves to read."

"The one time she thought i had a book I wasn't sharing in my room she started to tear through the stuffing after a week" A sigh

A coo, and Natira offers to the little dragon, "I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through me like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind." Of course you must keep her close, she is a gem as precious as any in this room." High praise indeed from one who loves books so.

And a grin over to Earl. "DID you have one, though?"

“Happiness quite unshared can scarcely be called happiness; it has no taste.” Bronte chimes.

"She is a wonderful friend, aye. And, truth, it is a pleasure to introduce her to new things - though she is insatiable."

"Not in the bed, no" Earl sighs "I actually forgot about I had gotten one... but it wasn't in the bed"

A gleam of challenge. "Maybe I can find something for her. It would be a fun challenge. But, oh. What shall we do about your manuscript?" A small frown down at the duplicate folders.

"Someone is plagiarizing Zara.. she wouldn't steal it, and her memory is amazing. I don't think she'd 'accidentally' copy anything" Earl says. Loyal paramour but he may have a point

“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” Bronte wheedles, she heard that promise of a new book.

"And.. this other, it is unpublished? So how could I copy something unpublished?"

She nods in agreement. "Not unless you had done the same and snagged a copy put out through self-publishing or online. But it had your FEEL to it, if I dare say."

And to Bronte, unable to ignore, "Do you know the tale of Temeraire, dear creature?"

"“I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.” Dragonish head tilt - not unlike Zara's own.