Phantasmal Ephemera

Phantasmal Ephemera are catalogued holdings within the Tower that possess no material substrate and no sustained belief-structure, yet are recorded as passing through the archive between two moments of non-existence. Unlike the broader class of Ephemera, which may persist through repeated intention, Phantasmal Ephemera are held to evaporate upon the conclusion of the archival act that summoned them, in accordance with the depreciation schedules set out in the Manual of Phantasmal Bookkeeping.

Definition and Ontological Status

The Sub-librarian for Ephemera defines Phantasmal Ephemera as "that which is lent to the Tower by a glance and reclaimed by the turning of the page" (Second Concordance, Floor Directive 11-B). The Department of Applied Ephemera maintains that such items are real within the Tower only during the interval in which a clerk has opened the relevant drawer; the Curator of Ephemera has ruled that the interval closes at the striking of the next hour-bell, irrespective of whether the drawer has been shut. This ruling, recorded in the Annals of Applied Ephemera, remains contested by the Department of Tattered Ephemera, which holds that certain Phantasmal Ephemera have been observed clinging to the margin of a folio for up to three days before dissipation.

The Manual of Phantasmal Bookkeeping, Book II, sets out the canonical form of the Principle of Spectral Depreciation, under which a Phantasmal Ephemerum (plural: Ephemera) loses one-seventh of its catalogued value for each hour it remains uncited. The Custodian's Manual supersedes prior departmental guidelines unless explicitly incorporated by reference, and the Manual of Phantasmal Bookkeeping is so incorporated; thus the depreciation schedule remains in force on all floors above the Sub-basement of Uncounted Ledgers.

Historical Incidents

In the winter of Cycle 204, a clerk of the Department of Applied Ephemera named Hestram Voil recorded the passage of a Phantasmal Ephemerum described only as "a complaint fashioned as a small blue coin." The coin was logged at Floor 88, Annex 3, at the second hour, and was reported missing by the third. A subsequent inquiry by the Procedures for the Cataloguing of Ephemera office found that the coin had been returned to non-existence by a draft from a neighbouring stairwell, an event the Third Concordance later classified as "an act of weather outside the mandate of any wing." Hestram Voil submitted a grievance against the Department of Phantasmal Logistics, citing the Directive on Phantasmal Architecture, which established that department to oversee the movement of incorporeal components; the grievance was dismissed on the grounds that a coin lacking substance was not an architectural component.

A second incident, dated Cycle 211, involved the brief manifestation of Phantasmal Ephemera within the Botanical Register during the flowering of certain Phantasmal Flora. The Treatise on Phantasmal Horticulture, Vol. VII notes that Spectral Grow Lamps may cast light in which such Ephemera appear as pollen; the Metaphorical Engineers who maintain the root systems of Phantasmal Flora declined to issue a statement, citing the Directive on Phantasmal Architecture, which holds that "a distillation is not a testimony."

Scholarly Disagreement

A long dispute concerns whether Phantasmal Ephemera may be converted into Persistent Ephemera Practice through repeated citation. The First Concordance, Annex 9, states that "no second summoning of a vanished item shall be mistaken for its persistence." The Fourth Concordance, however, Annex 2, counters that "what is named thrice in one cycle acquires the dignity of a habit." The Sub-librarian for Ephemera has refused to adjudicate, noting that the Manual of Phantasmal Bookkeeping provides no ledger column for dignity. The Bureau of Phantasmal Architecture may be consulted for structural integrity assessments during the Locus Designation stage of Bureau Directive 88.2, but has issued no finding on the matter of Ephemeral dignity.

Classification and Inventory

The Procedures for the Cataloguing of Ephemera recognises four subordinate varieties, recorded here as an inventory of the classes currently held open:

• Architectural Ephemera — dreamt lintels returned each dusk to the Department of Phantasmal Logistics
• Gastronomic Ephemera — flavours sampled by the Sub-librarian for Ephemera and immediately forgotten
• Volitional Ephemera — intentions without substance logged per the supplementary ledger protocol of the Manual of Phantasmal Bookkeeping
• Combustive Ephemera — brief heat noted in Wing Seven's Annex 7 during the dispute over the Directive on Phantasmal Architecture

Administrative Note

Visitors to the holding floor of Phantasmal Ephemera are prohibited from bringing mirrors, as the reflection of a non-item has on two recorded occasions been mistaken by the Department of Tattered Ephemera for a duplicate holding. The Custodian's Manual requires that all such visits conclude with the sealing of the drawer by a clerk reciting the closing line of the Second Concordance, Floor Directive 11-B, in a voice not exceeding the volume of a turning page.

"A Phantasmal Ephemerum is the Tower's courtesy to the absent; it asks nothing and leaves no stain upon the shelf."

— Annals of Applied Ephemera, Entry 44