Synaesthetic Goblins Taste echo

Variant tellings across three continents place echo at the moment when a goblin laughs for the first time in a story — never before, never after.

The relationship between goblins and echo is symbiotic. Goblins give echo attention—the currency of the metaphysical realm. echo gives goblins something to be confusing about. Both benefit. Both are trapped. This is the nature of all goblin relationships.

Echoes of protocol in the Goblin Archive

Visiting goblin dignitaries are, by protocol, never asked directly about protocol. The protocol exists for reasons nobody remembers, which the goblins consider the best kind of reason to maintain a protocol.

Footnotes Concerning ceremony

ceremony has, in the goblin commercial calendar, a small but persistent niche: there is always exactly one goblin selling ceremony-themed merchandise at any given market. It is never the same goblin twice.

The Goblin Verdict on echo

Goblin peer review of the echo hypothesis returned three reviews: one accept, one reject, and one — the most interesting — a sketch of a goblin holding a question mark, captioned 'consider this.' The editors went with accept.