Bookbinding Page165

The next page is here: faile35.deviantart.com/art/Boo… . For more information on the entire series, read the "'Demon's Due' Defined" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… or the "'Demon's Due' Plus" journal entry here faile35.deviantart.com/journal… .

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Once past the mirror chamber, Elina approaches her former cell with mingled anticipation and trepidation, but the Scholar's eager mind is several steps ahead of her emotions. Placing the gremlin's cage down on the flagstones, she kneels carefully next to it and works her way into the cramped space. Her candle illuminates the wall much better than the mischievous wisp had done during her period of captivity, and Zirena's writing is immediately visible and easy to discern. With a slight nod, Elina chides herself under her breath. "And you call yourself a Scholar, Elina? It's not 'Luther, the boy is the key,' but 'Luther the boy IS the keystone.' If only I had spent less time and energy trying to bypass the runes and escape this miserable pen I might have gained this insight days ago. But," she breathes deeply, observing the scratches on the wall as if she could see the writer making them even now, "at least it is gained at last, and Luther will know about it, by myself or by my wisp, very soon."

Leaning forward over her knees, the scholar looks at the other markings drawn on the wall. "More will have to be discovered," she continues aloud, half-turning toward the caged gremlin behind her. "That's where you will come in, little terror, for we will need to learn if the symbol we seek is only the keystone, or if it is the arch figure in its entirety. The drawings here suggest either could be the case, as does Zirena's message: Luther as a child may have had some connection to the missing identity fragment, and that connection may still exist, but the symbol will need to be fairly precise in order to grant its power, especially if it is runic in nature. By the similarities of these other, more crude drawings of the same figure, it would seem likely that such is the case."

As if in response, the gremlin rattles its cage in frustration or anticipation, but Elina's mind and eye are still fixed on the wall's message. "But it does beg the question of who Zirena intended or believed,... or perhaps saw would end up reading this message. She left her mark to identify her as its author, but to whom was she speaking? Perhaps there is more to be found?" Pulling back slightly, the Scholar glances around the remainder of the pen's short wall, her eye at last falling on another smaller script written in the corner, difficult to read even in the candlelight.

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As always, Elina was drawn using the references provided by Emily at Feathered-pics . Thanks, Emily!

Enjoy!

Note: Bookbinding and Demon's Due are a work of fantasy and fiction. The artist/creator in no way condones real mistreatment of this kind toward any woman or man, by living person, gremlin, plant, assassin, ratman, viscous fluid, programmed device, animated home furnishings, or otherworldly spiritual beings. Furthermore, the artist opposes the marginalizing and restriction of women in general by any institution, political and/or religious, including those which have individual women amongst their membership touting/promoting their own happiness within that institution as evidence that ALL women should feel the same way. This includes the religion I was raised in and which I have utterly discarded from my life over this and other issues.