#earthrunes

August maybe Baron, and a leader of a Banner House, but he is also a scribe. And papers need to be written. Works transcribed. And so it is that he's surprised when someone has left a book to copy, not an easy task, but what surprises him is it has no source. It certainly needs recopying, it's falling apart, the ink is fading.

He gently lifts it, determining the damage. Repair or replace?

Oh it it can be repaired it will take cantrips and a lot of time

Replace, recopy is what they want it seems

He goes about getting his supplies ready, and starts to copy.

The words take shape as he learns it is an journal or diary if you will, during the years preceding World War 2 and into World War two... and the rescue of jews and other disadents from the Nazi party

It's about ready to fall apart. Looks like it was written in German mostly, some Polish, as if someone moved through both languages.

Happily, he is copying symbols, not reading the languages since he doesn't have more than very topical German and no Polish at all.

Lovely, he begins to assemble it

It's a full afternoon's work, but nicely centering. Grounding.

If she walks by, Zara might smell.. very old ..decaying.. book

And newer ink?

The door cracks open, softly.

August's raven head is bent over his work. She has seen him in this pose so many times....

A soft expression, full of fondness, as she silently watches him work.

The book he is copying is a poor broken thing, it is dying. Unable to be saved, not in it's current body. So August, like a necromancer, gives it a new one

And yet, there is something familiar about the crumbling tome he's transcribing

She squints - not that she could read it from here. Perhaps she could get closer without disturbing him...

She slips like a shadow closer.. German.. Polish? The word Nazi...

She reads - German is close to yiddish, yes, but, well... she cheats.

By virtue of a little seek-n-spell. August might notice the touch of magic before he notices the silent sluagh.

He does look up to ..... "Oh." softly, with a smile. "Hello Zara. I was just thinking of you."

"Aye? I did not mean to disrupt..."

And the writing translates to Zara's eyes and segments feel all too familiar

"You didn't." he assures her.

"Please, continue..."

August nods and turns back to his work. "I can't read it, of course, but it was left here to be copied. Was it you?"

"Nein..." She sits at the chair beside him, looking at the book with an odd expression.

"But it seems familiar, nu?"

"Does it?" He carefully traces the letters onto the new pages.

"...aye..."

Oh August is an artist too. No denying it. Breathing new life to half faded words. Words describing a young woman who must use her gifts to free these odd and brave people who are hated by so many. She too knows what it's like to be different, to be other

Zara leans in, mentally grasping at something.

Oh she must be careful, of course, August is, but to touch a page too roughly would cause it to dissolve

She does not touch. But this... the rhythm of it, she knows it.

Indeed, August is wearing white cotton gloves.

"Melke... hast thou seen?"

As what is dying in one form is reborn in another... Zara sees mention.. slipping them out, by passages of river, with the help of others.

"Aye, there, the river..."

August looks up. "What's that?"

"Melke was a sluagh."

"There, fluss. Fluss is river..."

August blinks at the words he's transcribed. "I'm just copying the letters. I can't read them."

"It's German, mostly."

"Haste thou seen the name Melke? On the cover, mayhaps? On an entry?"

"M-e-l-k-e?" he flips through the copy he's made.

Oh there it is

"Here." He points it out to her.

"Aye, so!" A little sparkle in her dark eyes.