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He notes, in passing, the bookmark; dead bone among pages of dead tree. It's an odd little juxtaposition to catch on--his own people would find the former unremarkable and the latter uncomfortable, over bound vellum.

Thinking of Palamedes among paper when they first met, he wonders if she might also find the book the much stranger object. He puts a pin in that question for later. For now, her House seems the topic to pursue.

"Will you tell me more of them? I confess, of all the Nine Houses I have heard tell of, the Ninth is reminding me most of my own people." While he's not in his gorgeous, grotesque costume as Warlord today, the Hunter leathers he's got on are worked here and there with bone buttons and bone motifs--a pattern most familiar--, and it's to this he gestures as emphasis. "I am wondering, how deep the similarities may go."

The hihihihihihi from Stasya began while Harrow was talking, or maybe while Ilarion was, and it has finally begun to taper off as she rolls on her side and invites warm belly-space if Iskierka wants to have a nice puppy cuddle. Harrowhark needs them so often, after all.

"I admit an uncertainty of where to start," Harrow confesses. "We are the House of the Sewn Tongue; we keep secrets."

That's a good enough beginning. The emotion behind her eyes has warped from uncertainty to a cool satisfaction. "We are the best of the bone adepts, the producers of construct adepts of the Cohort," until about six years ago, "and most importantly the keepers of the Locked Tomb."

Properly, the Tombkeeper is she, heiress of the Tombkeeper line. But in some ways they are all Tombkeepers.

As a--sort of--living being, Iskierka gets a great deal more out of cuddles than her Sleeper. (Or so he'd say.) She's not shy at all about taking Stasya up on the offer, snuggling herself up in a tiny loaf of wingscale and feather at the larger Omen's side. Then she begins singing (quietly) her friend's praise in a continuous, contented gurgle. This is lovely!

"The Locked Tomb," Illarion echoes, rolling so portentous a name around his fangs. "And how came your House to this charge?"

He is, of course, also curious about what resides in the tomb, and why it must be locked, but that seems fraught to ask of someone whose House epithet revolves around secrets. The shrikes, too, have their veil of secrecy.

A good call, that, whether or not Harrow would offer anything up about the resident of the Tomb; it would be far, far less than she knew, either way. More likely that she would say nothing at all. She is already struggling not to look at the adorable going on underneath the table, as Stasya starts to softly lick a mothwing.

Social grooming would never be one of Harrowhark's skills, either.

"We were founded for it," she explains, instead of acknowledging the Omens. "Once there is a Tomb, there is a House to provide its guard. And so there has remained."

The Omens are being disgustingly adorable under the table. Illarion's not paying any more attention to it than Harrowhark is--in some small part, he'd admit (if forced to it) because he doesn't know what to make of Iskierka taking so much of her own initiative. It had long seemed like they'd only one soul and one attention span between them, and now... She's off preening Stasya without any direction from him.

A mystery for another time.

"What has such a charge made of your people? I have gathered you are admirably faithful, but I know little else of your customs or attitudes. Is the Ninth honored for your service?"

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