Chapter 17: Elian Reconstructs the Architect's Geometry

The notebook was forty-three pages in.

Elian sat cross-legged on the neutral hub's floor with his spellbook open to his left and the notebook open to his right and three pages of notes already spread in a rough semicircle around him, weighted at the corners with nothing because there was no wind here, which was itself a data point. The air in the hub didn't move. It maintained a constant temperature that wasn't warm or cold but simply present, the way a well-designed laboratory maintained temperature: not for comfort, but for controlled conditions.

He had noticed that on arrival. He had not noted it until now.