The Persistent Archivist

Elian read Kaelen’s message with a sense of professional validation. It was exactly the kind of response he had expected from a senior historian of her caliber: thorough, logical, and rooted in the known complexities of the archival system. He felt a small flush of pride that his own research had led him to a query that required such high-level attention.

He was not suspicious. Kaelen was one of the most respected figures in the historical division, her dedication to the integrity of the Loom of Ages beyond question. Her explanation of a probable re-indexing delay was perfectly plausible. It was, in fact, the most likely scenario.

But Elian was nothing if not diligent. He was a young archivist, eager to make his mark, and his entire training was based on the principle of thoroughness. A loose end, no matter how logical its explanation, was still a loose end. Kaelen’s suggestion to set a watch-query was a good one, and he implemented it immediately, his console confirming the automated search would now run at the start of every cycle.

Then, he took it one step further. His own research into the pre-Schism era had given him a deep familiarity with the data-strata of that period. He began to cross-reference the fragmented designation of the missing reel with other, contemporaneous entries. He reasoned that if he could identify other reels that were cataloged in the same batch or stored in the same physical sector, he might be able to find a pattern. Perhaps other reels from that series were also experiencing “indexing delays.” If so, it might point to a more systemic issue, a data-degradation problem that would be a significant finding.

He drafted a new message, this one not to Kaelen, but to the general archivist-grade query board. He outlined his discovery of the missing reel, noted Historian Kaelen’s plausible explanation of an indexing delay, and requested any other archivists who had encountered similar missing pre-Schism data to share their findings. He was, in his mind, simply doing his job—collaborating, researching, and pursuing a promising line of inquiry.

He had no idea that his diligent, entirely innocent research was now a far greater threat to Kaelen’s secret than his initial, simple question had ever been. He had, without knowing it, just recruited the entire archival division into his search for a truth that one of their own had gone to great lengths to hide.