#earthrunes

"Dame Gladiola. I trust the air did you well?"

"So true, Bronte." softly, not to disturb sweet dreams.

He peers a little closer.

"Some good, thank you, Miss Zara. The hold here really is lovely"

Art moves to one side, gesturing for Gwen to join him

"As I was asking before - do you wish for me to cast upon the creature? I have some small skill in the art of augury."

"I would like to see it, but it felt better to wait for Gladiola first. I'm only here due to her kind offer of escort."

"If Arthur doesn't object then , please do" A nod .

Zara nods. "Allow me to gather my supplies."

"Even if I wasn't a fledge, I'd want her escort. I'd probably never make it otherwise. We passed this tree that had leaves that looked like pages, just a step or two off the silver..."

Even now, he sounds a bit wistful.

"We all get tempted by things in the Dreaming, Arthur. " She assures "Trust me. I have been lured as well"

"My Earl is oft plagued by my own fancies, I fear. Trolls a'times protect their friends from themselves."

"Still, you're the one who noticed the bones." He clarifies for the others, "There were skeletons under the tree, wrapped up in roots that fed it. They all had pages in their grasp."

She nods. "And this is why they are good friends to have. So..." Zara goes about, lighting candles.

Gladiola notices the praise "Thank you, Arthur. Just my duty"

August straightens and backs away to allow Zara room to work.

Art watches intently, curiosity gleaming in his gaze.

"August, would you please fetch the silver pitcher?"

Zara sets a mirror down in the middle of a table, arranging candles around it.

August sets down his book and goes to do as asked without question.

Bronte flutters to August's discarded book

"Here you are." he brings it over.

"Thank you, my friend." She gently picks up Fornax and sets him in the middle of the mirror.

August hesitates, then retreats so she can work.

Sightless lids flutter a bit as he awakens, and realizes that the book he rested upon has disappeared. "Word??"

A light hand on August's arm, to keep him close by.

Art fidgets a bit, but doesn't interrupt.

"Shhh. Aye, little one."

Gladiola makes a mental note to suggest a basket of books to rest on for the little guy

Zara claps her hands twice, and the electric lights dim. (Yes, she has a clapper. For the theatrics.)

Art starts, and is impressed by the legerdemain.

Gwen looks about, impressed

(For Clappers are an ancient tech understood by few)

Now, by candlelight, she takes the pitcher from August.

(And who but the Librarian herself would dare make such an abrupt sound in her domain?)

He freezes, and remains.... a blink at the little one speaks.

"In the beginning was the Word..." he murmurs.

Zara smiles.

"Word!" He peeps again, sitting up awkwardly.

"And from the word flows truth and knowledge." Zara runs with it, and anoints the little wyrm with a dribble of water.

His face wrinkles up at the drip and his tongue lashes out to grab a taste. Tiny snout smacks. numph numph

"Reveal to us here the babble of the brook, the sigh of the weaver's shuttle, the whispering winds of fate..."

Art can feel the building of Power as Zara constructs her magical working. She claimed a "small talent" in soothsay...

Impressed, clearly, his feelings written plain as words on his face. No Eilunid here, Zara suspects, he couldn't keep a secret any more than pause a river with a sieve.

Gladiola observes the magic with quiet focus

The mirror glows faintly in the darkness, as ghostly images begin to form...

Gladiola hums a bit

Not meaning to intrude but this reminds her of ..something she can't remember

Ghostly images, like mist over a lake, fog shrouding a town, cobwebs dancing under a hidden breeze. Those watching can see vague shapes forming and fading - figures that spin and twist and break apart, the round curve of an egg, cracking and breaking and drifting away, faces that come into view and then vanish as quickly, and a final spinning twist of a draconic figure, bursting free on spread wing into the sky.