Avedictory

The formal term for the salutation used by wizards on errantry to identify themselves to other wizards, or to other sentient beings of astafrith cultures. The commonest English-language version is "I am on errantry, and I greet you." The Avedictory does not have to be delivered in the Speech, though doing so tends to lend it a certain official quality.

Other species naturally have variations of their own. There are, however, ten or so variant phrases in the Speech that have wide usage right across the known worlds: one of these, "Well met on the Journey", is much used in our own galaxy in endless vernacular forms.

There is also an emergency-use or "distress call" version of the Avedictory, which translates more or less as "I am on errantry, and in need and haste I greet you." It is often accompanied in such cases by the