#earthrunes

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Adam paces down a hallway, periodically peeking in through unlocked doors, seeking..... ah-ha! He slips into a muffled room, artfully dusty, and lined with books.

Dusty, and dim. A flicker of movement from the corner of his eye.

"Hello?"

"Salutations are greetings. It's my fancy way of saying hello." A friendly chirrup as the tiny dragon lands near him.

"Woah.... hey. Uh. Are you going to try and eat me?"

"Fee...fi... foe... fum... I smell the blood of a kin-ee-un!"

"Look, is there someone here I could ask about books?" Adam remains slightly on guard.

"And whom wouldst ask?" A whisper.

He checks to see if that came from the little dragon.

Bronte is sniffing him!

Bronte may note he smells of sidhe, but ... it's like a lock on a cover. You know there is more story inside, but you can't read it as it's all bound up

"“And he grew and grew strong as a boy must grow who does not know that he is learning any lessons, and who has nothing in the world to think of except things to eat"

"Aye, Bronte - tis a man, but not." A beat. "Well, a boy."

"Hey!" Emphisis not volume, perhaps oddly.

Another half-caught motion.

"So, you seek books?"

"Yes. About the Houses. And the Escheat."

Zara kenns him.

"Aye? Tell me, what do you already know?"

Where IS she? The whisperer seems to keep eluding his gaze.

"Who are you?"

"I? I am the Librarian. Who are you?"

"Adam Thomas."

"Would-be-scion of Rivervale, Fortune's Pawn."

"Not a pawn." with some heat.

"We are all buffetted by da'an. Only a fool would think himself master of it."

"Didn't say I was that either. Do you have books like that?About Houses and the Escheat?"He peers around the room.

"Aye."

"Can I see them?"

"Mayhaps. Again - what do you know, already?"

Adam tells her; an imperfect grasp of basic concepts. He sounds like a reluctant childling reciting lessons.

"Mmm. So you have been instructed, but still... well... there is aught you may not understand, in your state. Betwixt, between, neither kith nor kin."

A sigh, trying to swallow frustrated agitation. "I got the books, and I've read them. But now I have questions, and I need more books. New ones, different ones. The regular library doesn't have anything that really helps."

"Rivervale's? Nay, it is mostly trollish. And that is not you now, is it?"

"An unfledged nightingale amongst the falcons..."

"No, the mortal one. You can get e-books. Igot a book from Sir Vali, and some from Professor Wayburton. He's a satyr at Rivervale."

"I know of the Professor."

"Right, so....." he fidgets "..... do you have better books than that?"

"Mayhaps."

"The Professor is a learned man - have you truly studied all you have already been given?"

"Yeah?"

"Aye?"

"So - how would an unseelie interpret Right of Desmense?"

"There's still stuff I don't understand."

"And think you more books are the answer, when you have not yet mastered the books you already have?"

He huffs. "Unseelie..... Right of Desmense.... a ruler can do whatever he wants in his own place. Probably use magic to enforce what he wants."

"Aye. So what would the difference be from Summer?"

"Summer? Seelie? Iguess .... not a lot? The ruler is still going to do they want to but... maybe less selfishly?"

"Mmm..."

"Is that right?"