[crow]

Thus the question remained as to what he ought to do with the discovery.

The tall man stared at it for a long moment, before breathing a sigh and opening the tome in his hands.

It was a large book, hard cover and intricately bound, with a surface that seemed almost mirrored, framed by artfully crafted black material whose texture gave away little of its composition. It looked a little like wood and a little like metal, and yet not quite either.

[crow]

In a similar vein, it looked simultaneously very old and also pristine, as though it were new, or at least impeccably preserved. But the binding of the book gave away nothing about its contents.

The tall man flipped through the pages as though he knew exactly which he was looking for. When he reached it, he laid it open on one hand.

"I found it," he said, wasting no time with pleasantries or any other opening comments.

A moment later, soft laughter emanated from the book.

[crow]

"So you did," said the voice--- the voice of the shorter man that had accompanied the taller before. A small furrow etched itself into the space between the tall man's brows.

"Is something amusing?" he asked. He did not sound annoyed, necessarily; perhaps he was only confused. But there was a quality to it nevertheless that approached interrogative.

"No, no. You've done wonderful work," said the book, though likewise it was hard to tell whether the voice was simply saying this to humor him.

[crow]

"I have done as you asked," the tall man reiterated. "What do you wish to do with it?" He turned the book, as though to give the object a better view of the flower. Writ upon the page he had landed on were a series of runes, and a sketched portrait of the shorter man's face in soft, smiling profile.

The image did not move, but an appreciative murmur emanated from it all the same. "In the absence of anything else, it really is quite vivid, isn't it?"

[crow]

The tall man was silent, and the voice from the book laughed again. "Very well, you do not wish to listen to my platitudes. Tell me this then--- was there any difficulty in finding this flower?"

"Only in that there was too much space to search," replied the tall man. "It was not a matter of method so much as blind luck, and there is nothing here to indicate to me that it could have been aught otherwise." Nothing remarkable at all about the flower except for its color.

[Color Harvested]