Sava sat beside his low worktable, smoothing a flat sheet of polished engraver brass before passing a rounded stylus carefully to the quiet little girl.
Sava pulled the sharpened engraving tools farther down the bench and waited until she chose how to hold the rounded stylus on her own.
The young child took the slender tool with cautious fingers, resting her small elbows against the smooth surface of the table.
"Engraving is not about forcing the metal," the archivist explained softly, tracing a gentle curved line across his own test surface.
"You only need to show the plate where your hand wishes to go, and the stylus will answer."
"What if my hand wobbles?" the child asked, glancing up with nervous uncertainty behind her dark bangs.
"Then the line bends slightly," the archivist replied with an easy chuckle, guiding his own stylus across a practice plate.
"Metal does not judge an uneven stroke, and neither will anyone in this room."
