#earthrunes

Adam goes to his room.

"How'd it go?" Earl asked Brenda

"oh, he forgot the guidelines around me so fast you'd need a stop watch to catch the moment fast enough. Pretty sure Chief Clem was watching as a cockatoo or something"

"Hawk" he corrects "if she was feeling fancy, a hawk. But if she's sneaker, a field mouse"

"Lovely" Brenda says "He tried to recover, so I hope she takes that into account. I just... I don't know. He was not happy to have me teaching again. Maybe it's too much."

"you can't be expected to give up your job because he's upset"

"I know. Excuse me. I'm going to go write some ansty everyone hates me poetry" She trots off

Earl nods and goes on.

**********

Adam gets his dog for a walk.

Elsewhere, Zara is bent over a laptop. She is, mercifully, alone in the library (save her menagerie).

If he passes by the training tower (or pooka climbing spot, depending on how you look at it), Adam might see Coradel finishing a bit of a workout.

Bronte, nosy, stubborn, curious and charming thing, is trying to read the story as it is written. Less than helpful.

It is then that Vashti knocks on the library door

a soft rapt on the frame

She hastily closes the laptop. "Aye?"

"Sister, your clone came to me and whispered your wishes"

The computer is stashed underneath the endtable.

"Ah, aye... "

"Writing your confession, Madame Amur?"

eyes sparkling

"Vashti!"

"Hush! You hold that in confidence!"

"who believes poooka, sister? why we could write our own slash fiction of that llusturious person, Shalimar and I, and folks would merely think them.. oh, fetching outfits?"

She does take a seat "I do not know why you're embarrassed about your wickerbasket weaving and burial rites studies. You're quite good at both"

"I... oh, it's... I do not wish..."

"You may like the lamplight, but does it not grow unbearably hot beneath?"

"But if I may see others delight from the cool shadows..."

"More like I cannot resist it. Perhaps something I like about my paramour.. he makes a stink and others gather, and I get to ride the currents?" A sigh "oh how unladylike to say it" She touches her sister's hand "but of course, you are who you are and then some"

She tangles her fingers together in a delicate nest. "It is... fraught. And, may I confess? Frightening."

"Feh, sluagh would laugh at me. Me, afraid."

"oh your kith has never known fear, how better to teach it?"

"Aye, I know. But heart and head? They do not always agree."

"In truth, even when they agree on all else, they still fight over who gets which sink in the bathroom" Sympathetic

A touch on Vashti's arm before she crosses to prepare some tea.

"Indeed. And so... let Miss Amur draw both the praise and the ire."

"And maybe it hurts less that August hates Miss Amur's novel."

"Fah. he hates it because he thinks you were under inquistion and your secrets stolen by a cad" She says wings fluttering

"He hates it."

"I see." She ponders "If one punctures the left lung of a critic, they don't have the wind to make petty slights against literature- proven method"

A feathery sigh. "Tis fraught, sister."

"how am I to be a true sister if I am not allowed to dance on the ruins of those who upset you?" A pout

"It was not an act of ill intent, nu? Earl cannot be trusted to judge the work, his bias is welcome, but also.. ah.. expected?" She offers Vashti a cup of tea.

"mmm he does worship you like a tribe member delighted to under go the knife to appeae you by giving up his heart" A sigh "I envy that Aztec like adoration"

"But does Shalimar not also adore thee?"

"Well, mildly.. but .. betimes, he finds me FUNNY" Serious , OH too Serious brow "And doth tease"

"The cad!"

"Indeed. At times, when I over react, he hath told me.. oh I can't bear to say it but I MUST.. he had told me that I was indeed over reacting, often by use of Billboard"

Eyebrow. "Billboard?"

"Pardon, troll isms will slip into my vocabulary"