Chapter 1: The Door Opens

By midnight, the plan has already failed in the most useful possible direction.

a watch that can remove one painful Sunday from any life

An ally makes the wrong decision for the right reason, and repairing it costs more than the original mistake.

Silas Bell keeps the larger goal in view: return the missing days before the city forgets an entire generation. The immediate problem is smaller, sharper, and impossible to postpone.

They disagree without leaving. For both of them, that becomes a more intimate choice than agreement.

Silas Bell accepts that the impossible event is real and cannot be ignored.

The recurring signs of watches, brass, Sunday light return with a different meaning, linking this choice to what came before.

Before the first night ends, the danger speaks Silas Bell's name.