That's how it always started.
It's just a book. No harm can come from a book right? Sure, if you read incantations out loud then yes, you could end up summoning a hell spawn demon that could destroy you...but usually, it was just a book. If you were smart and you just didn't read things aloud, you'd end up safe and sound. But what happens when the book is intelligent? What happens when the book is able to reach out to your mind and influence what it does? How do you handle that? How do you work with that?
The book knew what was coming. Eventually there would be the right person that came along the path...and that would be when it strikes. The previous owner, who hadn't been all that interesting, had been forced to drop the book, despite wanting desperately to read it. Then...he was made to forget it. The book, to him, no longer existed. He didn't even know why he had been out there. But now it just lay in wait.
Like a snake, waiting to strike at an unwary passerby.
And indeed, someone did come. A most unusual and strange someone. The book had never met anything, or anyone like this before, and it was excited! Even after the person picked him up and began to flip through the pages, he began to to take hold. As if a seed had been planted in their mind, he began to understand them, and they would, in turn begin to understand him. It would be a most strange thing, to see as words became clearer, as sentences began to form and soon entire paragraphs. It wouldn't take long, this person was very good at reading, and very fast, though it helped that he gave them focus, such...powerful focus.
It was slow at first, his creation. His body would be slowly forming somewhere nearby, just behind her out of her vision and out of her senses. She wouldn't notice it at first, the strange outline of a humanoid figure as it came to be. Long graceful ears like an elf would form...the crimson bookmark would slowly vanish as hair began to sprout, the same colour and texture as the silken object. Slowly but surely the graceful looking teen would appear, now in his late teenager years. As the woman began to finish the book, his skin began to grow, an athletic build appearing and giving him form. Sharp angular chin, black eyes as deep as night but filled with life and curiousity. His skin, which one could see all of, had many strange runic tattoos upon it, all done up in dark reds and black that had an eerie shine to them.
Then the last page was done...the book would melt away into nothingness, and he would take a gasp, his naked chest filling with air. Oh it had been so long! The naked man would look over the shoulder of Venri, a smile on his face. "You talk to your hat, and it talks back. Is this normal for clothing?" It had been a long time since he'd been free. He had so many questions!
