The clock at the Moran Library was seven minutes slow.
Victor Thorne thought it was just a mechanical fault the head librarian refused to acknowledge, until a manuscript fragment that should never have been returned appeared in the book drop, a note was slipped through the Door, and a ticket bearing his name turned up in his desk drawer.
Three days later, the Gray Fog set sail from Pritz Harbor.
His father had been missing for three years, and the Admiralty had begun compiling the postwar records. Someone told him not to trust the first person who explained the Western Continent. Someone warned him not to board. And someone left him one final message:
Once you're aboard, don't count the thirteenth person.
