Fable solves the Cyphral Distich

What's this about?

Fable 5.1 found that each number pointed to a word in one of 32 nearby paragraphs; the first letters spell a historically plausible prayer for Charles II. It also mostly decoded a longer companion cipher, with nine letters still unresolved.

What exactly is a book cipher?

A book cipher uses an existing text as its key: coordinates such as page, paragraph or word numbers point to letters. It is like giving someone shelf and line coordinates instead of writing the secret directly.

What's the community saying?

1. Historians were excited that agents can spend sustained attention on neglected archives and puzzles.
2. Skeptics asked whether a prior solution might have leaked into training data and called the selected puzzle unusually tractable.
3. Many proposed harder targets such as Kryptos, Voynich and Zodiac, while others stressed independent archival verification.