He nods to the archivist, then back to Blai. "You may go."

The archivist will lead the way. The two pseudoclerics trail after. They archives are at the back of the huge main palace library, down a flight of stairs, past magically sealed doors into a large underground hall full of stacks and stacks of books that go from floor to ceiling, the tallest shelves needing ladders to reach. There's a smaller office that's still the size of a small library in itself, where the archivists' desks sit and with back rooms full of indices.

"So what are you looking for?" asks the archivist.

    Hamil looks questioningly at Blai.

The professor is milling to the side looking at the drawers of indices, trying to get a head start figuring out the filing.

"I am looking for the oldest references to gods you have. Anything with the word 'god' in it no matter what else it says as long as it's from as far back as this library goes. I don't have Comprehend Languages today but if the language has changed a lot I can prepare it for tomorrow."

"The script from that era is still intelligible with some effort, if it's from this region of Chandrar, but takes getting used to. Let me try... [Locate References], 'god', 'gods'..."

The archivist walks down the aisle, waggling his fingers at the drawers without opening them. Finally, he stops near the end of the row and pulls one open.

"One hundred and three years Before Khelta. That should be 21,174 years ago." He fingers through the drawer and pulls out a card. "Here it is. 'Irrigation in Arid Soil'. Might not be what you're looking for. How about..." Two drawers down, "22 BK. 'On the Tyranny of Dragons', by Leto of Vern. Do you want me to get them?"

"Yes, even a relatively trivial reference might matter if it's the best we can do."

The archivist will go fetching and come back in fifteen minutes with two identically bound books in his arms. He'll flip them to the relevant pages.

Irrigation in Arid Soil:

[...] When I demonstrated the runoff problem in a sand model as described above, he was shocked. "Dead gods," he said, "Is that why my yellats are dying?" Partly, but not quite, I confessed. If it were only the issue of runoff, at this stage, the soil would still retain enough infiltrated moisture for growth, albeit stunted. The other part of problem is the tilling technique [...]

On the Tyranny of Dragons:

[...] I do not dare say that the Dragon Tyrants were unjustly villified. However, while the gods are dead, it is evident that there is still Something in the nature of men that compels them to worship. The breaking of the reign of Dragons and their withdrawal from our Land only allowed lesser men to step into their place. [...]

Blai picks through these. Shakes his head slowly. "Is there anything older?"

"Not in Khelt. Not in most of Chandrar. If I had to guess..." He shivers. "A'ctelios Salash may have the oldest records. But safer and closer to home, Ger may have answers. The Quarass has been known to transcribe ancient poetry from memory."

"...'from memory' might be disqualifying for the sorts of reference I have in mind, but I suppose that's no reason not to check. Can you request materials from these people?"

"Not A'ctelios Salash, not easily. I can try sending to the Historian Society of Ger, but Ger's... being invaded. Still worth a try. Same request, oldest mention of the word 'god' or 'gods'?"

"Or the names of any specific members of the class, but those would probably be harder to find."

"Do you have a list of known ones?"

"Kasigna and Laedonius Deviy. So far."

"Alright. I'd expect two days to a week for a response, and if it's longer than a week it could be months or never."

"Do you mind checking for those names here while we're at it?"

[Locate References]?

"Nothing."

"How does that skill work?"

"[Locate References]? It searches for any mentions of a word or thing in a set of texts. Works better on preindexed or more familiar archives, but if you're asking if it might fail—yes, but I can tell if it's failing or if it's only covering part of the body. It does have to be a reference. Mentions and idiomatic phrases work, as you've seen, but it can't be a misspelling of a different word, or a word that meant something else at the time or context. But in the same way, it can identify a reference if it's misspelled or spelled or said differently at the time of writing. There is an amount of drift that means it's not the same word anymore, but I can feel it a bit and—aim it, to correct, if I want—I don't think that's the case here. We've got solid matches.

"On names, specifically, it usually works across different names and titles of the same person, but it'll fail sometimes for titles that changed owners between contexts, and won't flag fully generic uses of a title. So, for example, 'The Siren of Savere' and 'Revine Zecree' always get matched to each other, because that's a personal moniker, but 'His Eternal Majesty of Khelt' will not always match the reigning monarch of Khelt at the time of the text's writing, depending on context and intent and the Skill usage, and a law referring to 'The Monarch of Khelt' will never be flagged by a search on any specific monarch of Khelt, contemporary with the law's passing or not.

"The inverse is similar. If a title is unique, [Locate References] will find where the person is named directly. If a title is inherited or generic, [Locate References] will only identify usages of the title, and never any specific owner of the title, unless used with very specific intent and knowledge."

"If you, in deploying it, had a mental block about - considering a concept - a really strikingly robust one - would that affect it at all?"

"An interesting question! I would need to be able to consider it to formulate the query in a first place, so I'm a bit at a loss for an answer without more specifics. Do you believe there is one operative right now?"

"Quite likely We've got a couple [Clerics] of the gods I mentioned and the gods in question seem to be alive."

"Gods of your world, I presume?"

"No."

"Gods of... a third world?"

"You are pretty definitely experiencing the mental block."