THE APPLE OF SNAKES

second interlude

Re: It's been a while...

E.M. Lark <emlark@nisaba.edu>

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Diana!

Sorry for making you wait. I've been holding off on responding to your email for a couple of reasons. First, it forces you to take a break. I have no idea how any human being is able to work as much as you do. Do you ever sleep, Di? Second, I've been waiting for the results from the dating. According to the lab, the paper at the very least is between twelve and fourteen hundred years old, meaning the timeline matches.

The experts want to run a few more tests before the university makes any kind of announcement, just to be certain, but between the results of the dating and the dialect it's written in—they had another linguist confirm that it's a northern Ecekasurian dialect, most likely native to Ecekasuri's famed giant forest, or the Ever Forest as you've translated it—I feel pretty confident that it's legitimate. Then again, I also fell for that hoax seven or eight years ago. I can't remember if you did or not. We might not have been talking at that point.

It's best not to think too much of the past. The real point of this email was to ask, given all of this information, how likely do you think it is that we've actually stumbled upon something real? Just... give me a rough number.

Dr. E.M. Lark

Professor of Modern Literature From Across the Continents

Director of Nisaba University's Modern Ecekasurian Literature Program

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Re: It's been a while...

Diana Aylin <dianaaylin@kx.lit.com>

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96%

Before hearing the results of the dating I'd say I was around 82% certain. If the dating gave an inaccurate timeline, I'd still be 79% certain. Machines can be fooled. So can people, though.

The content is what convinces me. The words are exactly what I'd expect. The writer made mistakes but they're the kind of mistakes native speakers make. Non-native mistakes look completely different. It's also definitely written in a north-eastern Ecekasuri dialect. More so, it's in a script that was only popular for a brief period of time. It makes it a bitch to translate but this thing was definitely written between 900 and 950.

What convinces me most, though, are the details embedded within the work. Fragments have been discovered detailing Ecekasuri's mythical history and the magick its denizens supposedly wielded but this... this is unlike anything I've ever read before.

I'd like to read more of it. Send me more. Now.

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Re: It's been a while...

E.M. Lark <emlark@nisaba.edu>

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My dear Di,

I am vaguely familiar with Ecekasuri's magick but I wouldn't call myself an expert by any means. Whenever we begin the unit on Ecekasurian literature, I have my students read a couple of articles on the subject since references to magick show up in a good chunk of even contemporary Ecekasurian literature. Unfortunately, my knowledge of the subject doesn't extend much beyond these articles. I've attached them below in case you're interested in just how little I know.