When the vial from the fisherman's shelf finally reached them—carried by a traveler who collected curiosities from river markets—it became an object of fascination. The faint etching on its side, when magnified and enhanced, revealed two discernible symbols: a stylized circle and a line passing through it, the mark once used to indicate calibration complete.
The Circle debated for months whether the inscription's origin was deliberate or accidental. To them, the vial was not sacred relic but an invitation. "A message," one archivist said, "can be true without having an author."
Their study culminated in the publication of On Fluid Memory, a text describing societies as self-correcting rivers—never static, always remembering by moving forward.
The Polar Colony
