Index: cortav.lua
==================================================================
--- cortav.lua
+++ cortav.lua
@@ -179,11 +179,11 @@
 			end
 
 			local function scanParents(doc)
 				for i, p in ipairs(doc.parents) do
 					-- TODO figure out a way to ref the embedding section
-					local o,i,s = checkFromSec(nil, p)
+					local o,i,s = checkFromSec(doc.defined_in_parent_section, p)
 					if o or s then return o,i,s end
 				end
 				-- breadth-first search
 				for i, p in ipairs(doc.parents) do
 					local o,i,s = scanParents(p)
@@ -213,11 +213,11 @@
 			end
 
 			o,i,s = scanParents(self.doc)
 			if o or s then return o,i,s end
 
-			self:fail("ID “%s” does not name an object or section", id)
+			self:fail("ID “%s” does not name an object or section %s", id, self.invocation or "NIL")
 		end
 	};
 }
 
 ct.sec = declare {
@@ -344,10 +344,11 @@
 			local newdoc = ct.doc.mk(self)
 			newdoc.meta = self.meta
 			newdoc.ext = self.ext
 			newdoc.enc = self.enc
 			newdoc.stage = self.stage
+			newdoc.defined_in_parent_section = ctx.sec
 			-- vars are handled through proper recursion across all parents and
 			-- are intentionally excluded here; subdocs can have their own vars
 			-- without losing access to parent vars
 			local nctx = ctx:clone()
 			nctx:init(newdoc, ctx.src)

Index: render/html.lua
==================================================================
--- render/html.lua
+++ render/html.lua
@@ -772,13 +772,13 @@
 		span_renderers['line-break'] = function(sp,b,s)
 			return elt('br')
 		end
 
 		function span_renderers.macro(m,b,s)
-			local macroname = plainrdr.htmlSpan(
-				ct.parse_span(m.macro, b.origin), b,s)
-			local r = b.origin:ref(macroname)
+-- 			local macroname = plainrdr.htmlSpan(
+-- 				ct.parse_span(m.macro, b.origin), b,s)
+			local r = b.origin:ref(m.macro)
 			if type(r) ~= 'string' then
 				b.origin:fail('%s is an object, not a reference', r.id)
 			end
 			local mctx = b.origin:clone()
 			mctx.invocation = m