Location:The Pavilion — The Workshop · Six Valleys of the Lower Realm
Date/Time:24 Flamefade 9943 AZI, Restday, dusk to the second bell after midnight
Realm:Lower Realm
There were twelve of them in the locker behind the second bulkhead, in two rows, in a case lined with something gray that gave under the finger, and Cangwei had watched the doctor lift seven of them out one at a time and lay them on the workshop bench in a line, as a smith lays out the tools for a job, and not one of them looked like anything.
A band. Dark, smooth, the width of two fingers. A flat face no bigger than a thumbnail, black, with nothing on it. They did not look like a thing that could keep time. They did not look like a thing at all.
"Nine," the doctor said.
"Setting," said Nine, from the far hall, as near as if it stood beside her. "Seven. Six to go, and one for the wall. Now."
