Book One – Chapter 1

        .

      .

         .

      There.

Just before his hand reached the stone, the motion stilled.

Not calmed. Stilled.

The difference mattered. Yves could still feel the tension travelling through the chain and into his fingers, a minute insistence held without movement. Whatever forces had driven its frantic oscillation were still present; they had just ceased to produce direction. The pendulum had not found rest. It had found equilibrium.

Yves held himself there for several breaths. Lightning struck the opposite face of the arch. The stone shuddered beneath his knees. He waited until the vibration passed, then tested the boundary. His movements were so slight they scarcely disturbed the chain. A fraction forwards preserved the tense stillness. A fraction back—

the trembling returned.

Forward again.

Still.