Thanks everyone, that one fought me twice. The first piece I drilled, it blew when I had about 1/8 left to drill. For the second attempt, at 1/8, I finished drilling by hand!
For the finish, I attempted a wipe-on poly but knowing it wouldn't stick to ebony, I tried to seal it first with a shellac based product, but it didn't stick either. The finish lifted when I tried to polish it a bit.