Voldemort paced around the office, his feet sinking into the soft wool carpet.
He came to the desk and saw the scattered books and notes atop it. He couldn't recognize the writing in the notes; he had never seen it before.
He didn't look through them. They were, after all, very private.
He glanced over the books on the desk, but still didn't pick up a single one.
Turning, he went to the bookshelf, deciding to find a book there to read.
His gaze swept over the spines, all covered in writing he didn't recognize.
Frowning, he took one out. The cover showed the back of a tall woman gazing toward a battlefield beneath three red moons.
A silver longbow was slung across her back, and she held two bayonets pointed downward.
Beyond her striking figure, Voldemort noticed that her ears were long and pointed, with a faint suggestion of facial features on them.
He searched his memories for a moment, but couldn't find any creature with similar features. Vampires used these weapons too, but their ears were completely different.
"Kakusuka..."
Voldemort stared at the writing he couldn't understand at all, yet instinctively read aloud the four characters.
Kakusuka meant darkness.
The meaning of the word seemed to rise from within him.
"Much like runes: writing that conveys meaning through a special kind of energy. Very interesting."
Voldemort murmured softly as he opened the book and looked at its contents.
In the middle of the dense writing was a hexagram. Voldemort glanced at it, but saw nothing that seemed particularly noteworthy.
He tried to make sense of the writing again, but didn't get very far.
Every so often, he could identify a character or two through intuition, but most remained unknown to him.
"Origin, nature, change, god... Perhaps 'evolution' would