#ephemera day

[rosalind-of-arden]

Ephemera: Two journal entries

Excerpt from the personal journal of Scholar Christopher Wolfe.

Interdicted to the Black Archives.

"He is a fool who tries to withstand the stronger, for he does not get the mastery and suffers pain besides his shame." 

In these sleepless nights, I keep coming back to Hesiod’s fable. Its warning that I completely failed to heed. They called me stormcrow, and I thought that put me on the level of Hesiod’s hawk. But I know now that I am merely the nightingale, helpless in its talons.

 Excerpt from the personal journal of Captain Niccolo Santi.

Not yet available in the Codex.

Chris won't speak. Not a word. Remembering that awful old myth from Ovid, I checked his mouth. They didn't cut out his tongue. Thank God they didn't cut out his tongue. Still, he says nothing. Like Tereus, they have broken him and robbed him of his ability to speak and reveal their crimes. But even Philomela found her voice and her revenge, in the end. And powerful though they may be, the Archivist and the Curia are no gods. They will not turn my stormcrow into a nightingale.

Explanatory notes:

First of all, why yes, I am totally taking the “Stormcrow” bird metaphor and running with it. Guess what the working title of my post-Rome stuff is?

This is the fable that Wolfe refers to. There are longer, more developed variants in which the birds talk more, but this one is the original.

The story of Philomela in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Content warning: graphic violence, rape, mutilation, murder of a child, cannibalism, period-typical misogyny. Seriously, if you’re not already familiar with this story, it’s disturbing.) (This translation actually has Procne as the nightingale - it varies, but most versions have her as the swallow and Philomela as the nightingale.)

[thegreatlibraryfangirl]

Migraine Ephemera

If you can fight your way through me having way too much fun with medical jargon, this is actually quite a lot of a spoiler for chapter 2 of my fic Denial. But hey!

From Medica Kelada of the Great Library in Alexandria to Lead Medica Torrez, of the Spanish royal court. Entered into the Santiago family files and a copy sent to Don Santiago.

Greetings Torrez

I know you prefer to maintain current health records of all royal family members wherever possible. Dario Santiago is the only member under our care at this time, as a silver band Scholar, and I enclose an update to his records. As detailed below, we would appreciate a copy of any relevant areas of his parents’ records to complete our diagnosis.

Patient, seventeen year-old male, called Medica assistance to scene in the Reading Room with acute unilateral head pain, photophobia, nausea and generalised hemiplegic weakness, including difficulties with speech.

Patient was greatly distressed about the possibility of a stroke. Tests back at the treatment centre, carried out within half an hour of summons, revealed this was not the case.

[Note found only in draft version: Can we restrict Santiago and Seif’s access to medical literature? For everyone’s sake?]

Symptoms were alleviated with analgesics and anti-emetics (details below) along with sleep, though patient remained fatigued and experienced clouding of consciousness.

Patient reported that the pain came on quite suddenly, though with assistance from a fellow Scholar a longer precursor stage of at least an hour was identified. After a difficult history-taking, it was established that the patient had suffered regular severe abdominal pain throughout his childhood and teenage years. Stress has caused these in the past; patient was unable to identify any particular stressor in his life currently.

Initial diagnosis is hemiplegic migraine, after examination, history-taking and consideration of pain, relieving factors, onset and duration of symptoms, and alleviating effect of sleep. Patient was not able to provide information on any family history of migraines.

Patient was discharged with a supply of painkilling medicine and instructions to go to his room and rest.

I hope this is useful information for your records.

Blessings of the gods upon you,

Kelada