Entry 2
Just got out of my meeting with Ebb and I do mean that in the sense that I barely escaped with my life once he noticed the marks I left on Signaswun.
But before that point, he hadn't much insight to offer on that odd coastline. He examined my hastily-traced reproduction of the map and said it seemed like the western continent, close to the hall of faces. But this headland is currently submerged, which is why I did not know it.
It appears water levels have changed over the years. The visor is pointing me at a patch of ocean which appears largely uninhabited. Reader, I know what you're thinking. I thought the same. But I don't dare hope. Seafarers have seen every inch of coastline in the world and there are NO reports of any kind of structure or Precursor habitation in this specific area.
I checked it against our map of navigation masts. These towers were scattered all over the surface of the planet by the Precursors; it's how the visors can be used at all. Ebb tells me there's no mast in the indicated position, the closest being that of the Hall of Faces.
Signaswun is an extremely powerful artifact and Ebb offered to use its rare skill of divination for me, to communicate with someone at the Hall of Faces as though he were standing in the same room as them. I have witnessed Mia-kef use Signastoo to this effect and it is extremely impressive, so I eagerly accepted. If Ebb could request someone at the Hall do a quick fly-over of the indicated site, I could put my imagination to rest.
That is when Ebb noticed the scrapes on the visor. He is typically calm and jovial, a relaxed presence. He proved to me then that this is not a permanent state. I apologised profusely and offered the remainder of my smoked scalefish, but he was not amenable to it.
Now I'm back at my desk with this accursed cylinder, barely any wiser than before. Perhaps Ami-var can put in a request for another audience with Ebb-a-vef or Mia-kef. I am not aware of any other visors with such powers, the Hall keeps such a tight grip on them…
Well, I talked to Ami-var. I had no choice but to reveal my misadventure with the cylinder and the map and my mishandling of Signaswun… he was in no mood to offer much assistance, however. Just back from a meeting with his thesis master Gania-vas.
"He agreed to Iunti-vay-or's edits," was the dire cause of Ami's despair. Gania-vas, it appears, has flung his student off a cliff to save his own hide. The work will be published without Ami's contributions, or the appendix on his evolutionary theory.
I've had my fair share of arguments with Ami-var about that theory but it's not without merit. If Junta-vas can get his execrable work on comparisons between mid sea and Spiral knotwork writing published without the faculty ordering he burn it and start over, Ami-var should surely be able to get his own work accepted.
"Junta-vas wasn't making comments about phocids during a visit from the Dominion," Ami said, when I brought it up.
We both agree that Junta-vas is an idiot of the highest order but that was beside the point.
"Is that why Iunti-vay-or has no time for meetings?" I asked of Ami, and he said it was indeed the case. I swear the yearly visits from those people come with ever less frequency.
Nothing I said would cheer him. He is despondent still, and has given up singing. Every so often I see him turn a page of his stillborn appendix and sigh. He has no interest in my findings.
I told him it upset me to see him in such a state.
"If Gania-vay stood up for me, I would be in a new cape and collar now," Ami-var said to me, leaning very heavily on his master's new suffix. So old Gania-vay has been judged worthy of a mastery, while Ami-var cannot even call himself Ami-vas after four years of work. "And he's tasked me with letting his other students know of his mastery."
I tried to comfort him but again I was rebuffed.
But Ami-var has given me an idea. Some small seed of hope amidst the despair. You see, Gania-vay has students abroad studying inland phocid ancestry in the West and that's close to the Hall of Faces and that submerged headland.
Some prying earned me a name: Idda-var. I took responsibility for penning the letter containing news of Gania-vay's mastery. I believe it is more than adequate for my purposes:
Esteemed colleague Idda-am-o-var, I am writing to inform you of the Mastery of your supervisor Gania-o-vay, whose excellent thesis contained your contributions [I believe Idda-var penned the abstract when Ami-var was too hung-over to write properly] . I also enclose a request: a quick inspection of the site marked upon the attached map, with a particular aim of identifying Precursor artifacts. It should be within a day's flight from your location.
The above written personal communication was prepared by Qedi-am-o-var studying under Master Timna-o-vay of the Spire and so on so forth.
I feel a bit guilty co-opting Ami-var's disappointment but I cannot ignore the opportunity. I'll just run out and drop this letter off at Mia-kef's depot. Should have a response in two weeks.