The people are a bit wary, especially around mentions of magery, but they nod in acknowledgement.

Well, that's just great.  "...I don't know much about your prior experiences with magic, folk of Brancrug, but I can promise you that sigils, such as I used to accomplish this, are nearly the exact opposite in nature as what local lore I have yet encountered.  They're safe, predictable, and repeatable; their nature is such that no matter your method of approach, you will find the same Sigil and the same spells. Though the initial derivation of them may deal with the analysis of stranger powers, they are works of man, through and through; they behave according to the will of man, not some strange power with stranger demands.  They do exactly what they say they shall do, and they will do no further.  Should I use the Sigil of Life to heal a wound, it will promote life and growth, and do naught else.  Should I cast the Sigil of Vigor, it will sustain one's vigor, and naught else.  That's something of a problem when you're using it to keep an army on the march, actually, but I can attest that a General who would sooner die himself than subject his men to needless risk trusted that Sigil for that exact purpose.  I will not risk harming people who have come to me for help, not unless I've exhausted my options to help in any other way.  This I swear upon my honor and my oath, and may the Justice I'm sworn to strike me down where I stand should I fail to keep it."

This doesn't especially serve to reassure them, though they're certrainly impressed by the speech.

Only time will tell, then.

She'll be heading back to the bridge now, unless anyone wants to talk to her.

Denzil has finished cleaning up the debris, and started patching the bridge up, closing up holes and reinforcing weaker parts. He briefly looks at Ophelia when she approaches, before returning to his work.

"Upshot of my investigations on Stone is that it doesn't seem to like to create out of nothing, unlike some other Sigils, and the cliffs are now a ramp because I was doing magic anyway.  I'd probably have better luck with making a bridge out of ice if I wanted to do things with just what we have on-site.  Even with the question of how to get the dang thing to stay un-melted afterwards.  ...There a quarry anywhere on the island?"

Denzil shakes his head, without interrupting the work.

"Thanks.  Anything that'd be a help, if I could do it?"

He shakes his head again.

"Alright.  I've got plenty of projects to start in the manor, so I'm going to go work on those.  Let me know if something comes up, I suppose."

...A little while later, she's come back from surveying the groundskeeper's house - seems to be in pretty good condition, considering, and she did find the physical key to the House - with a jug of ice-water, since she'd been meaning to brush up on Frost and Fire anyway.  "Thought you could use something cool to drink, given you're out working in high noon.  Going back into town, despite my earlier plans; realized I forgot to send a letter."

Denzil takes the jug and nods. 

And she will...do that, presumably, and perhaps see to lunch if it's around that time.  Up next on her agenda is reviewing the rest of the things from the groundskeeper's cottage.

Sending a letter is just one pence, and doesn't cause any trouble.

Keeper's Lodge has, besides a large iron key:
- A fireplace
- A bed and a basketful of laundry
- Some potted plants
- A pair of mirrors, one of them cracked
- A set of plates and glasses
- A bottle labelled 'Dandelion wine', packets of tea and coffee, and some bread. Which looks fresh, despite presumably being here for seven years

As well as some books:
- Travelling At Night, C.I, first and second volumes.
- To a Pale Lady, F.B.
- De Horis, book 2.

Well.  That is interesting.

She'll read the books.

Travelling at Night: Annotated dream journals of Christopher Illopoly. Most of the first volume references something called 'The Wood' - a dream of a dark forest inhabited by snakes, various giant insects and other creatures. "The Wood lies outside the walls of the Mansus. As any student of the Histories knows, the Mansus has no walls". It suggests that cutting a lock of your own hair, and burning it, can help guide you through the Wood. 

Second volume focuses more on comparions between Illopoly's dreams and those of Emperor Elagabalus (implied to be a long-dead historical figure), and makes mention of such things as 'The White', 'The White Door', 'Sun-in-Rags', and suggests connections between all those things and silence.

To a Pale Lady: A collection of letters from Franklin Bancroft to Eva Dewulf. Between vaguely (or sometimes overtly) erotic poetry and discussions of collaborating on a comic opera, it's hard to figure out whether anything of this is useful information.

De Horis: She quickly realizes that she can't actually read the language. It's similar to the local one she can inexplicably read, but not similar enough to be comprehensible.

Well, that's rude of it.  If it's linguistically similar to the modern tongue, does working backwards seem like it helps any?

Two names seem repeated throughout the book, and it looks like it describes some sort of conflict between them, but beyond that, hard to tell.

Rude of knowledge to be cryptically obscured by mere linguistic differences.  If glaring at this with the full weight of her powers as Librarian does not fix this, for some inexplicable reason, then she will be heading into the Library proper and looking for -to-English dictionaries.

Frankly she's glad of the inexplicable correspondence between Court tongue and this place's, but it is still annoying.

She has a choice between continuing exploration of the main building with the suspiciously magical stairway, or checking out either of the two towers near the gate.

Well, she'll check those two places, but it's probably going to be in the places with books, so, braving the Spooky Magic Staircase it probably must be.

The closest tower (the one with broken glass roof) does turn out to have books! The first floor room is in rather poor conditions, and the stairway up is blocked by debris, but there's a large secretary desk with many drawers, some of which happen to contain books.

- On Thirstrlies, Ivories and Lovelies, F.A.
- On the White, S.H.
- Journal of Thomas Dewulf.
- It Is Written, M.D.
- Letters from a Fugitive, L.W.
- And, be it whims of fate, or just luck, Gildersleeve's Latin Grammar.

There's also a rather dusty armillary in the corner.

...

Books should be in the Library.  What is this mess.

Alright, she's just going to fix the roof, once she's cleared a way to get up there and see what she's actually doing as she's doing this, because that needs fixing, and she thinks she has a good idea of how the Sages would have done Preservation now that she's doing this and she knows the Sigil which means she can do it -

But then she has books to organize - or rather, prepare to organize.  She has thoughts.

"On The White" goes in her "read this sooner rather than later" pile, though, because it seems like it's not going to be incredibly fucking obfuscated like everything else gets.

She's probably going to want to make a whole townsfolk holiday event thing out of going over the damn Manor and finding where all the books are, really.  Clearing up the place.  Making it a bit less fucking bleak.  Once she makes sure it's not going to eat anyone that's not her, because she doesn't, in fact, know that.  That is an immediate priority.