The Undying Absolution

What follows was found inside the destroyed sections of the Nortaq Codices. A second text had been placed within the stone itself, visible only under sustained thaumic attention. The longer one looks, the more legible it becomes. This property has not been explained.

The inscription resists transcription. Scribes report a sensation of recognition that intensifies with exposure and does not diminish when exposure ceases. Archivist Donal Veris abandoned his position on the fourteenth day. He was found months later in the outer villages, thin, silent, drawing circles in the dirt with his finger. He appeared content. Scribe Elara Mohn was discovered in the lower stacks having not eaten for nine days. She had been inscribing passages onto her forearms with a bone stylus, deeply enough to scar. When restrained she said: "The skin is thinner than the stone. It goes in faster through the skin." She has not spoken since. She smiles constantly. Scholar Tomerin Gale entered the transcription chamber on the twenty-second morning and did not emerge. The chamber was locked from inside. There was no other exit. His stylus was on the floor, still wet. The stone he had been transcribing was warm to the touch for three days afterward.

The two remaining transcribers completed their work. Both report an inability to sleep that they describe not as insomnia but as a reluctance to close their eyes. One of them, when asked why, said: "Because when I close my eyes I can see the text on the inside of my eyelids and when I see it there it is in a language I can read and the language is not one I was taught and what it says is true and I do not want it to be true." She has requested reassignment to the texts four times. Her requests have been denied. She has begun copying fragments from memory onto the walls of her quarters.

These texts are published because suppression was deemed more dangerous than controlled release. They should not be read aloud. They should not be read in solitude. They should not be read in states of grief, exhaustion, or spiritual seeking. If the text begins to feel familiar, stop. If you find yourself agreeing, stop. If you cannot stop, you have read too far.

- Professor Meridia Ashworth, University of Rivermount
(Addendum: Professor Ashworth was found in her study eleven weeks after authorising this publication. She had removed all the furniture. She was sitting in the centre of the empty room with her eyes closed. On the floor around her, written in chalk in a spiral that filled the room from wall to centre, was a single sentence repeated four hundred and seventeen times: THE OCEAN REMEMBERS. She took early retirement. She is alive. She does not read.)