Oculomorphomancy Confirmed, Fellow Unaccounted For: Part One

Being the Institute's First Report on an Investigation Still Very Much Underway

(Drawn with coloured pencils on paper. - Chaiga T. Cheska)
~~~

I record here, for the Institute’s files, that Fellow Petalmourn failed to attend Tuesday’s symposium, at which he was billed to present eleven years of theoretical work on Oculomorphomancy to a room that had, for once, actually turned up to hear it. I sent three colleagues to Fernhollow Lane on Wednesday morning to establish the cause of his absence. They report the front door standing open, the hall swallowed whole by potted growth of a height none of us can account for, and every leaf in the vicinity disinclined to blink first. Of Fellow Petalmourn there was no trace. What they did recover, wedged beneath an overturned pot in the passage, was a single torn page of his diary, included below precisely as found. The remainder of the volume has not yet come to light.

Director Wendeline Ashgrove, Institute of Liminal Phenomena

Noted by the search party that evening:

“The hall wants clearing before anyone goes further in. Gloves, and something for cutting stems that doesn’t need explaining to whoever’s holding it.”
Fenwick Grubb, Groundskeeper (seconded)

“The fern by the door turned to watch me leave. I would like it on record that I did not care for it, and that I shall be bringing a colleague next time who arrives at the same view I have, rather than laughing about it the whole way back in the carriage.”
Perpetua Simonson, Junior Fellow

“None of us is quite prepared to discuss what happened when Grubb sneezed, and every leaf in that hall turned toward him at once.”
Unattributed, though the hand is widely recognised

Author’s note:

As you can see, I can only offer you part of this scholarly report this week, as the investigation is still very much underway. I suspect our full findings will not be apparent until next week, so do stay tuned if you’re concerned about whatever has happened to Fellow Petalmourn.
-Chaiga T. Cheska