[ it takes all of ness's decade-plus of practice being cool not to verbally express her dismay, which gets worse with every word out of astrid's mouth. ]

Yyyes, [ is an inoffensive place to start, ] editors exist for books. That's... a slightly different process depending on if one is editing pure fiction or history, though.

[ now to the hard part: how can she possibly explain something that seems so basic without being a condescending asshole? ]

In my previous life, there was a group of monks whose sole and only job was reciting the prophecies of a great seer of our home. They recite it day in, day out, constantly, with no changes—until a prophecy comes true, and it's removed from the chant. We name our years by these prophecies, we use them to predict calamity and ruin.

We know they're unchanged, because the prophecies were also written down. If we didn't have the written record, and had to rely only on the memory and whims of the Chanter, and the Voices of the Winds...

[ do you see? do you understand why the fallibility of memory and the editorializing of history is To Be Avoided?? ]