The Earhorn

The earhorn represents the book’s central mechanism for transferring, storing, and weaponizing memory. Characters speak into it to make deposits and withdrawals, turning private experience into something that can be handled like property. When the Sheriff forces the Antidote to take conscious deposits, the earhorn shifts from a tool of relief to a conduit for coercion and evidence.

Numbered Slips and Record Books

Numbered slips and record books represent the attempt to make pain legible, trackable, and controlled. The Antidote’s system resembles a bank ledger, suggesting that forgetting is administered through rules and procedures rather than pure magic. As withdrawals fail and counterfeits begin, the numbered system becomes a symbol of institutional fragility and the violence that follows when accounts cannot be settled.

Dust Storms

Dust storms represent the environmental and moral catastrophe that strips away the town’s illusions of stability. The...