A clockmaker. A city that's forgotten how to breathe. A broken watch that might save them both.

Elias Thorne fixes timepieces in a small town where clocks keep their own imperfect rhythms. When a mysterious pocket watch arrives on his doorstep-one that refuses to obey the laws of time-it pulls him into Aevum, a city built entirely of brass and precision.

But Aevum is dying.

Every gear turns in perfect synchronization. Every heartbeat is measured. Every breath is controlled. And in all that perfection, something essential has been lost.

Vorran, the city's architect, believes that flawless systems prevent tragedy. Six years ago, seventeen people died because of a two-second timing flaw. He's spent every moment since eliminating variation, controlling chaos, building a monument to the impossible dream of a world without failure.

Now the city is suffocating under the weight of its own perfection.

Guided by sentient machines who remember what Aevum used to be, Elias must prove that imperfection isn't failure-it's life. That systems built to never break will catastrophically shatter. That the only unforgivable thing is refusing to repair what you know is broken.

But Vorran will not let go of control easily. And Elias must decide: Is mercy accepting a broken world, or offering someone the chance to let it breathe again?

For readers who loved Piranesi, Becky Chambers, and This Is How You Lose the Time War-a contemplative science fantasy about grief, control, and the beautiful necessity of imperfection.