The Weaver Fish

by Robert Edeson

  There was another meaning. For the Resurrect from Copio sitting beside her, Abel was the point of departure, and his quest was very different. It was a going back to be well, to being at peace again in silence, to being the Edvard Tøssentern of before.

  This day had changed everything. And miraculously, they had been there. All the tenuous history, mythology, conjecture and imagination investing the weaver fish had been summarily shaken and resettled into witnessed fact.

  Of course, notwithstanding its drama, the event would bring no scientific advance, no taxonomic triumph, no fame to naturalists. But for the Ferende people there was something far more important. The weaver fish, visitant protector and keeper of conscience for their nation, had accorded them not a sighting but a benediction, received by every individual as their word.

  And now, perhaps, Edvard would remember, and be free to deconflate the word and thing, the idea and the act. Then, finally, he might abandon Abel and return to his first love, which was language, and that would complete his healing.

  For Anna, too, there had been a blessing taken from this place, though not today; and nor was it a word. It was a secret, held in trust, and carried on her person all these months.

  She felt inside her pocket for Edvard’s watch, and held it out before him. Edvard took it slowly from her hand—it was a token and an act of returning for them both. Yet to Anna there was more: a communion of their strengths, which in its solemness and touch was like renewing a betrothal.

  Now quietly kiss, while the scholar keeps

  vigil, and the sorcerer sleeps.

  Those lines of rite from Satroit, once dangerous and distancing, seemed now to belong. She placed an arm around Edvard’s shoulder, and drew him closer. Yes, she too was optimistic.

  Worse and Millie had been consulting a map and talking quietly on their side of the table. At this point Worse stood up abruptly, saying, ‘Excuse us for a few minutes.’ Nicholas supposed they were going to the fountain, and was slightly surprised to see them cross the square and disappear into a narrow street. He had wondered a few times if a romantic connection might be developing. He wouldn’t mind. He liked Worse, of course. And a Magnacart– Misgivingston union would be nicely apposite; historical, in fact.

  They had been planning how to get to the LDI station without inconveniencing Paulo to collect them. Nicholas offered to charter a four-wheel drive bus and driver for the transfer from La Ferste the following day. He had taken his mobile from a pocket to make arrangements when he received a text message from Worse.

  Look at palace.

  He passed his phone to the others, saying quietly, ‘It’s from Worse.’ From where they were sitting, it was easy to turn in their chairs for a view of the overbearing walls of L’Orphania, unobstructed by the café awning sheltering their table. They watched expectantly for a minute or so. Tøssentern and Anna, who were not yet well acquainted with Worse, had no idea of what might happen. Nicholas, knowing Worse, thought it could be anything.

  Suddenly, above the Palace, there appeared a dense black cloud that billowed and spread, expanding rapidly to momentarily half darken the sun, and seemingly fed from a choking black geyser erupting from the roof. Nicholas was shocked. Jesus, Worse, he was thinking, what have you done? His eyes fell to the lower walls, anticipating flames and explosions to account for the smoke. Jesus, Worse, we’re in big trouble.

  But when he looked back to the roof, the geyser had ceased, and what he had thought was a cloud of smoke had separated into discrete, floating cinders.

  ‘Swints,’ he almost shouted. ‘The swints are free!’

  And as they watched, those graced and gilding birds circled the Palace once for orientation and once for salutation, then set their tidings course north-west to a haven most had never seen: a consecrated English belfry in a hidden-away village called Postlepilty.

  THE END

  O Lord.

  I have deceived; how so am I rational?

  That my faith is come by the misery of swints, and my Evensong a raven call? That my testimony is clothed in a Parsan word, or the sayings of a mute man, or the silence between them?

  My son.

  Reason and unreason are one, as are truth and deception one, like glass beneath water and above.

  If I speak of two things, prayer and pestilence, these are made of one voice and borne on one breath.

  Both are sounds on the wind. They are equal-blinded in the sun; nor by my hand do they differ in darkness.

  Each is a vessel, sent forth, but the two are a fleet. Together they hold meaning or together they founder.

  When one is pure the other is pure, for then is my voice pure. But if I am mute in one, I am mute in the other.

  Wherefore my words are one word, as my silence is one silence.

  Then also my word and my silence are one.

  For each is the other’s keeper, as two watchmen of the fleet are watchful for both, and call aloud the sounding, or strike their bells at night-sea figmentations.

  My word and my silence are like the warp and the weft. Without one, there is not the other, and I am unclothed; but when I have both, my garment is woven, as your testimony also is woven.

  My word and my silence are each embraced, one in the other, as lovers in arms are both holding and held.

  My word and my silence cannot be parted. Where the parchment is bare we see what is written, and by all that is covered we see what is not.

  Even then, the two will come forward in taken turn, as do ships in the weather, or lovers repose, or the parchment is lighted, or the threads of the weaving are brought into view.

  Now what I sent forth is a vessel of word and a vessel of silence, and you have received them.

  So too is the prophecy of the Syllabine this word and this silence, yet the Roman listens in wonderment.

  Leonardo di Boccardo

  Conversaziones e Silenzio

  INDEX OF FIRST AND FINAL MENTIONS

  A

  a Portage man?, 1, 2

  Abel, 1, 2

  Abel, N H, 1, 2

  Abelian group, 1, 2

  Acarcerata textor, 1

  accent, French, 1

  accent, German, 1, 2

  acid, 1, 2

  Acridaria Music, 1

  Ahorte Boulevard, 1, 2

  al-Fakr’mustiq, 1, 2

  al-Jabr, 1, 2

  Allegorio, Martin, 1

  allotropy, 1

  alpha privative iterative, 1

  Altimeter magazine, 1, 2

  amber, 1

  amulet word, 1, 2

  anabasis, 1

  antimony, 1

  antinomy, 1

  Apostolikon, 1

  apostrophe plague, 1, 2

  Arc de Triomphe, 1, 2

  Arch and Lintel, 1

  Archimedes, 1, 2

  Architecture of the Sufi-Qurq, 1

  Aristotle, 1

  arithmetic in prehistory, 1

  Arnaba, Crown Prince, 1, 2

  Asiatic condor, 1, 2

  Aviation Reviews, 1, 2

  ayeless in Parsa, 1

  B

  Banco Ferende, 1, 2

  Beckett, S B, 1

  belief, 1, 2

  BenchPress, 1

  Bending, Rev Barnabas, 1, 2

  benediction, 1, 2

  Bergamot Sea, 1, 2

  Bernoulli trial, 1

  ‘Betrothal, The’, 1

  betrothing kiss, 1, 2

  bewilderment death, 1, 2

  Bilbao, Bishop of, 1

  binomial distribution, 1

  bitter almond, 1, 2

  Blitt, Sigrid, 1, 2

  blot, 1

  Bokardo Trust, 1

  Bokardo, Barbara, 1, 2

  Bonaparte, N, 1, 2

  Book of Teachers, 1

  boreal burial, 1

  Brimstone Assizes, 1

  buoyancy, 1, 2

  bursa alchemica, 1

  Bystander, Timothy, 1, 2

  C

  Caesa
r, J, 1, 2

  Caesarian selection, 1

  calculus, 1, 2

  Calvary, 1, 2

  Cambridge, 1, 2

  Camenes, Anna, 1, 2

  carbon, 1, 2

  catechism, 1, 2

  catenary, 1, 2

  cavaedium, 1

  Chain rules, OK?, 1, 2

  Chalmers, Lydia, 1, 2

  Chalmers’ Farmers’ Embalmer’s Palace, 1

  Chaucer Road, 1, 2

  Chinese envoy, 1, 2

  Chinese problem, 1, 2

  Cinnamonte, Paulo, 1, 2

  circular man, 1, 2

  circular woman, 1, 2

  Cisalpinus, 1, 2

  Citroën pressé, 1

  Clement House, 1, 2

  Coaxingly, Lady Caroline, 1

  combinatorics, 1, 2

  complex number, 1

  Compton Institute, 1, 2

  Condor manuscript, 1, 2

  Condorasiaticus fugax, 1, 2

  conflation (of word and referent), 1, 2

  conscience, 1, 2

  Constance, 1, 2

  constant conjunction, 1

  constants, 1

  convolution, 1

  Copernicus, N and Vesalius, A, 1

  Copio, 1, 2

  correlation, 1, 2

  Craven Soul, The, 1

  Creation myth, 1, 2

  credule, 1, 2

  criticality conditions, 1, 2

  cuckoo program, 1

  cunnilingus, 1, 2

  cyanide, 1, 2

  Cycladic art symbology, 1

  D

  Darian, A B C, 1

  Darwin, C R, 1

  death and masterpiece, 1, 2

  death and number, 1, 2

  deduction (logic), 1

  deduction (subtraction), 1

  defective pixelation algorithm (DPA), 1, 2

  delta function, 1, 2

  delusion, 1, 2

  Democrasi, 1

  Denari, Mr, 1

  denarius tossing, 1, 2

  die casting, 1, 2

  diffraction, 1, 2

  diphthong fission, 1

  dream theory, 1, 2

  E

  eigenvalue, 1, 2

  eigenvalue problem, 1

  eightfold math to enrichment, 1

  Elements of Belief, 1

  elliptic man, 1, 2

  elliptic woman, 1

  eloquence and silence, 1, 2

  Enorem, 1, 2

  Enright, Lawrence (Lord Enright), 1, 2

  Entente Ferende–Chinoise, 1, 2

  entropy (information theory), 1, 2

  entropy (thermodynamics), 1

  erythrocyte, 1

  Evensong, 1

  evolution, 1, 2

  Exegesis Christ, 1

  existence and uniqueness, 1, 2

  Expectoratus, 1

  F

  factorial function, 1

  Famille Oblige, 1, 2

  Feckles, Linda, 1

  Felicity, Mr, 1, 2

  Feng Tong, 1, 2

  Feng, Admiral, 1, 2

  Ferendes, 1, 2

  Ferent language, 1, 2

  Feynman, R P, 1

  fidelity function, 1

  Fidelity Function Approach to Sampling Theory, A, 1

  Fiendisch, Karl, 1, 2

  Fierssenbad, Karl von, 1

  Figment Tree, The, 1

  figmentation, 1

  Finistere, Charles, 1, 2

  Finite Halfpenny Sets, 1

  Fitrina, Otavio, 1, 2

  Fitzsimmons III (theorem), 1

  Fitzwilliam, Rosalind, 1, 2

  Flatland, 1

  Flight Control, 1, 2

  FootNotes: A Walking Guide to Unpedestrian London, 1

  FotoZeit, 1

  four-ringed octopi found here?, 1

  free fall, 1, 2

  Fremantle, 1, 2

  fullerene, 1, 2

  Fumblément, Henri, 1, 2

  G

  Gales, Martin, 1, 2

  Galois, E, 1

  gambler’s ruin, 1

  game theory, 1, 2

  gamma function, 1

  Gauloise, 1

  Gaussian elimination, 1

  generational succession, 1, 2

  geodesic dome, 1

  gibbous pi, 1

  Glasgow Coma Scale, 1

  glass beneath water, 1

  glassy calm, 1, 2

  glyph chirality, 1

  gold, 1, 2

  gravitation, universal law of, 1, 2

  greenhouse, 1, 2

  Grosvenor Apartments, 1, 2

  ‘Guardianship of the Holy Land, The’, 1

  Guide for the Cataplexed, A, 1

  H

  haemoglobin, 1, 2

  Halfpenny Set, 1, 2

  Halfpenny, Daniel, 1, 2

  HCF, 1

  HCN, 1

  he’s aiming for the long shot, 1

  headless in Naza, 1, 2

  helium, 1, 2

  heteroglobin, 1

  HMS King of Kent, 1, 2

  Holy Communion, 1, 2

  Holy Grail, location of, 1

  Home Counties, 1

  hoodwinking, 1, 2

  How to Walk Away from a Midair Collision, 1, 2

  Humboldt Bank, 1, 2

  Humboldt currency, 1

  Hyffen-Dascher, Penelope, 1, 2

  hyperbolic man, 1, 2

  I

  Iacta alea est, 1

  Iconoclastes, 1

  Iesus Solus Ambulat In Aqua, 1

  ‘Imitation Believers’, 1

  Immaculate Conception, 1, 2

  implicative signature, 1, 2

  In Gold Blood, 1

  induction (electromagnetic), 1

  induction (initiating), 1

  induction (into office), 1, 2

  induction (logic), 1, 2

  induction (mathematical), 1

  induction (of anaesthesia), 1

  induction (of labour), 1

  inductive graph, 1, 2

  intensionality, 1

  intentionality, 1, 2

  Interpretation of Error, The, 1

  is==, 1, 2

  iterated negative, 1, 2

  iterated personal identity, 1, 2

  iterated pseudonym, 1

  J

  Jerusalem, 1

  Joseph Plateau, 1, 2

  Joseph, Captain, 1, 2

  Jubius group, 1

  Judas Iscariot, 1

  K

  Kaldor, Julian, 1, 2

  Kardia, 1, 2

  kenijo, 1, 2

  Keplerian arc, 1, 2

  Kev and Ritchie, 1, 2

  kindness in women, 1, 2

  kinematic equations, 1

  Knielsen, Enisfor, 1, 2

  Kohl, Madam, 1

  Kondomov, Yuri Groynyich, 1

  Kremlin Ties (Soviet connection), 1, 2

  L

  L-99 balloon craft, 1, 2

  La Ferste, 1, 2

  Lagrange point, 1

  Language Diversity Initiative (LDI), 1, 2