Necromancy doesn't quite cover this

Hella probably looked as tired as she felt. Her hair was done in a loose ponytail, a big sweater on over her jeans. She had spent many hours already at the library, unsure at first of even where to begin. She wanted to help Aura, to find a way to get her back to a semblance of normalcy. The way that Aura herself helped Hella feel when she had shown her the extent of Ebonyridge's abuses on her. But these books were confusing beyond what she could even begin to understand. Butterfly Dictums and Howling Dreams and Hieroglyphic Monads. Strange magic that she couldn't even begin to wrap her head around.

But she wasn't going to stop looking, even if it took her years to figure out. She had mastered necromancy, and she would master this. Eventually. Somehow. But in the meantime it was frustrating. So here she was again at the help desk with her thermos of plain black coffee, asking for even more basic books on the so-called unknowable. No. More basic than that. She had already read that and it hadn't stuck. "Think, Eldritch Horrors for Dummies or Baby's First Abomination," she told the receptionist. Joking, but also not. It almost made her wish she hadn't dropped out. At least if she was still a student she could have taken classes. Picked the brains of teachers who could explain the basics.

Hella turned her head slowly, wiping her face gently as if that could remove the mild frustration from her expression. It was one of the Oricenta talking to her, but not one she knew directly. Or wait, this was the one that Destra knew, right? Hella couldn't recall their name, but smiled nonetheless.

"Ah, yes. I don't know if that's a real book but that's the level I need to get started. The entry level books I've been reading so far are still too hard to understand."

Her mouth twitched a bit as she widened her smile. Hella extended a hand towards Smokey to shake, adding, "I'm Hella. I don't recall if we've formally met or not. Apologies if we have, I've had a... busy few months."

"If love some help, actually," Hella said, pulling a small smile in Smokey's direction. "All the books written by experts are too technical. I kinda know what it feels like now, for an outsider learning necromancy."

Thanking the receptionist, Hella gestured over to a table where the two of them could sit. "Over here? We might as well sit and be comfortable."

Once she was seated, her sleeves rolled up to reveal the scars across her forearms, Hella say her coffee down and gripped her hands together. "I don't even know where to begin, you know? I want... need... to dispel something Eldritch. But I can't even begin to figure that out when I don't even know what the word even actually means."

Eldritch signs. That was basic enough. Her family's old necromancy books had similar concepts. Series of runes that would turn or rebuke the undead. Hella nodded slowly, not sure she understood the bit about seeing another realm. But it seemed almost like what she had dealt with with Ebonyridge's music reaching her even on the island. So that was close enough.

"So these symbols. Are they specific to specific entities? Or is there a catch-all, like a crucifix for most demons?"

Gods it sounded so weird talking like this. Hella absolutely kept her voice down, realizing pretty easily that it could sound like she intended to murder someone.

And for that matter, was there any sense or classification to these creatures? Or was it like throwing darts at a board, with no two being even tangentially related?

Right. Of course there were variations and exceptions. That was something she knew well enough from magic. At least that was a basis that she could understand well enough. But not having standard classifications made things more difficult than she really wanted them to be. Hella paused and reminded herself that nothing worth doing was easy, and that Aura was absolutely worth it.

With a small nod and a smile Hella, who had been taking some loose notes up until now, carefully stood up. "That might be helpful, yes." A pause as she inhaled to collect herself. "Thank you." As they walked, Hella looked through the notes that she already had, scarce as they were. "Do you know," she asked, looking at one page in particular, "if they're hostile? I mean, clearly they are dangerous, but is that... intentional?"