Is it a warning? Or is it prophecy? the false Adjunct had heard this endless debate between Scholars concerning the final illustration many times. He found that his senses were heightened. He, too, wondered what would happen when the illustration was finished. And he reflected that, besides the old Scribe and his son, there would be none closer to witness the event. He was not reassured when Haloch considered the illustration and sighed, as if to say, It is an illustration, albeit an evil one. Nothing more.
Yet the false Adjunct had to smile at what he was seeing, and shook his head. To others, the Öht Nürn Adhii was an object of such eminence, some would even say “worship,” that the mere sight of this artifact, with pages that glowed like Moonstone, with Runes like lines of eldritch fire, with illustrations that seemed alive (because they appeared as though one’s hand could pass through the very page they were set upon, into the worlds contained therein, some possessing a terrible beauty, and others seemingly too great or terrible to be borne); the mere sight of this artifact now daunted those who had forgotten its more humble origins.
As was usual for Haloch, his mind wandered to other things as he worked more or less mechanically. And as he did so, he began to talk rhetorically about what had once been a simple, gentle lore; that of tree and leaf, of wind and water, of seasons and of weather, of all Nature’s many varied faces. He said that none could speak of its origins, for they were rooted in the dim past, long before the written word.