"Aylen," Agatha whispered, and for a moment she completely forgot herself. His opacity had slowed to a stop, leaving him translucent as murky water, as he struggled to maintain what little he had with what little was provided him. His voice was in her head, and she was fascinated by the strange movements of his mouth, as if his lips spoke a language different from the one she heard. She felt that he was trying so very hard not to startle her, and the tension eased from her limbs and she took a curious step forward, while Pinafore watched with a reluctant eye.

"You need knowledge?" This poor man had been trapped inside that little figure, with nothing to see but dust and cobwebs for centuries upon centuries. His question confirmed her suspicion that he must come from a great time away indeed. She smiled; she so loved to play teacher.

"Well!" She tipped her head up and turned around slowly, scanning the high shelves and cases full of boxes and jars, but there was not a single volume that might at once appear to be a picture book. When she had turned fully toward him again, she said, "A picture book is a a volume, like a scroll with a binding," she wasn't entirely sure what era he hailed from, "that contains drawings and paintings instead of words. People used to draw pictures on cave walls and temples, you know. They would show in pictures all the stories of their rulers and wars and miracles. A picture book is like that, a story in painting, only you can carry it anywhere."

She finally spotted a wide-looking book, and she skipped around Aylen's illusion to pluck it from a shelf. It dropped open easily in her arms, and she smiled and held it up for the earth god to see. There was a long stylized painting inside, of a man in a kimono, brandishing a sword at a wide-mouthed white fox. She turned the page, and the fox had leaped into a tree, its jaws gaping in mockery down at the hapless hunter.

"Do you mean that knowledge will return your body to you?" She smiled up at him, hopefully -- but at a thought she tipped her head. "Can you see through those eyes? You look rather transparent, Mister Aylen."