Chapter 11
The hour went fast both of them working hard, after Rayne had completed watering the garden the witch had gotten her to begin grinding down some herbs and storing them in labelled jars to be put on shelves, before long the witch with three baskets of books and a single basket of strawberries called out to Rayne “Child! Help me by carrying these two baskets of books please, Casper come on we’re going to Bruno’s.”
As the small group set out, Casper chasing butterflies with joy, towards the city Rayne wondered aloud “Where does Bruno live Madam Estelle?” The witch startled a bit at the mention of her name but replied easily “He and his wife, Rosemary Abel, run an antique shop and library. Findings for the lost, Rosemary tends to run the antiques side of things and Bruno the library although most of his time is spent translating books.” Rayne lit up at the familiar name “But Madam isn’t the antique shop closer to the café?” The madam in question laughed at this response and hummed a bit thinking whether or not she should expose the shops secret seeing no harm she answered, “Findings for the lost as its name suggests finds you when you need it the most, seeing as you’ve been there before I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosemary had wanted to meet you, it works using witches magic of course I don’t believe there is a god for the lost… Well unless you include the god of mercy and loss, but their work usually focuses on people moving onto their next lives, or you could consider the god of need but its more desperation then just needing something. There's too many minor gods to even consider if there is one for the lost, there’s no doubt at least thirty different ones.” Rayne nods along is strange understanding as they reach the antique shop a street or two into the city.
Entering quietly Rosemary Abel greets them at the door. “Ah hello Madam Estelle! Oh, and Rayne Sirius, follow me my husband’s been expecting you in his office.” Taking them to the back of the store Estelle offers the strawberries to Rosemary along with some kind words as Casper goes through already to Bruno and decides to nap directly on the translation book he had been reading seconds before. Huffing at the disruption of his work and the small creatures antics Bruno turns to greet Estelle but decides to just grab the three baskets off books and reads through each title, half-heartedly noticing the young girl standing by almost vibrating in her skin.
“Estelle, let the girl next to you know that if she has questions, she can ask rather than explode from the amount she’s vibrating… I think that’d make a mess of my books so if she does feel like she is going to explode tell her to do it outside of the shop, we reorganised just a few weeks ago.”
The girl in questions’ mouth runs a mile a minute with how fast she’s talking questioning about the number of books, the content, how they can all be translated, what’s the oldest and so on. Everyone but the witch stare wide eyed at the girl who’s still talking as the witch decides to cover her mouth tutting about how the child will pass out if she forgets to breath. Continuing after a moment to get his thoughts together Bruno stands and directs the two to follow him, weaving through the library Bruno points to a shelf. “Here you go child these should all be in a language you can understand the oldest books are towards the back and newest towards the front, you damage the book you’re going to have to rewrite it understand?” The girl nods her mouth agape at the potential of reading the books.