Chapter 26: The East Tower at Midwinter

The solstice fell on a Thursday.

Elliot had known this for six weeks — had marked it in the intake calendar Sable built from the maintenance logs, had watched the date approach with the particular quality of attention he gave to things he was trying not to think about too directly. The way you watched a door. Not staring. Just knowing, always, exactly where it was.

The morning of the twenty-first he woke before his alarm and lay still in the east-facing room while the sky outside went from black to the specific dark grey of a Scottish winter that wasn't planning to become anything else. The East Tower was visible from his window. It had always been visible from his window. He had stopped considering whether this was coincidental approximately ten weeks ago.