harbour
The tide brings the seeds. About once a fortnight, at the morning ebb, a Wardian case is found on the Wharf's slipway: a small sealed box of glass and wood, its seed dry inside, sometimes crusted with salt from a sea it should never have crossed. The Wharf is a stone landing with a customs house, a crane, and a bell that is rung once for every case. Agafya's clerk carries it to the Granary before it is opened. The fishermen of Glossolaria do not fish on the morning a case is due, and nobody has ...
Located in The Architecture of Babel.