"They left out some things I would have liked to read about - he did a few versions before he got the kind of hertasi we have now and there was barely enough about those I could be sure he didn't outright kill them, let alone find out what he didn't like about them or how they felt about the whole process - but they were pretty usefully structured, and I think gryphons didn't have versions so if we copy the outline we won't be leaving out important gryphon facts. There was also a first generation hertasi memoir, I might do one of those since gryphons have a hard time writing and would want help but probably don't need your help with that."

"Oh, you read that!" Urtho lights up. "I spoke to the author of it, you know, twenty years ago or so..." He frowns. "Maybe thirty, it gets so hard to keep track once you are my age. He was delightful. He might even still be alive, you know, hertasi have longer lifespans than humans." 

"Ooh! Do you know where he might be?"

"Hmm, let me think. He'd settled out in Ketaran when I saw him - that's just outside Ka'venusho, cute little town on the river - but it's been a while. I am sure someone among the hertasi here would know if he is still alive, and if so where he lives." 

She can put this down in her to-dos. She has his name from the book, naturally.

Urtho waits for her to finish. "So - where do we want to start on this book project, and how do you want to divide it up? I - confess I will have difficulty freeing up time to work on it aside from the occasional meeting like this, but I can give you a section of my notes to read through and then get your suggestions later?" 

"Sure! I can work from your notes and talking to gryphons and the hertasi who brought them up, and send you letters with questions occasionally and we can meet whenever it's convenient for you to look over how it's coming along."

"Of course! I really am grateful you are so enthusiastic about this project, Azabel." 

"It's an exciting project! I've never published a book before."

"Hardly anyone has at your age! I am sure in time you will write others, though." 

"Probably! How much of a volume of notes are we talking about here?"

Urtho looks a bit sheepish. "...You know, I am not sure, I never organized them all in one place before. Probably much of it is very repetitive and can be skimmed over, though." 

"Okay... well, are they in chronological order or something?"

"...I might be able to ask the hertasi to help organize them." 

"I bet they would be happy to help," Aza says diplomatically.

"They generally are! There are quite lovely that way. Anyway, yes, I think my plan for our next steps would be to ask them to help organize the notes, and send you a section to start with, and then you can write to me, and tell me once you are ready to meet in person again. Anything else we ought talk over first?" 

"Do you have a general idea of how you want the book to be in - tone or length or anything?"

"Hmm. I confess I have not thought about it much. Obviously it will need to be much shorter than the total volume of notes I have produced during the process." 

"Yeah, I can summarize. Are we doing a history book or a technical record sort of thing...?"

"I...think closer to a history book, is what I had been envisioning? But, as I said, I have not considered this in enough depth to really have a detailed vision for it. Which do you think would be of greatest interest to future students?" 

"That's a good question! I guess it depends if they want to make a new species or not."

"Well, very few people embark on such a project, so I imagine most readers would be picking up the book out of general curiosity." 

"So probably more history but maybe I can have some bits on the technical stuff."

"Yes, that seems right. We can try to find a level of it that is interesting and not repetitive, and perhaps put somewhat more in the footnotes? ...I do not especially want this to be a detailed instruction manual on how anyone can make a species, to be honest, I think it - goes better, when doing this requires substantial proactiveness from someone." 

"Do you think proactiveness is particularly predictive of - care and ethics?"