The Trend of Rhythm

The clock tower stands on the skyline, its brass rusty for three hundred years. The sky rail runs across the top of the tower, and the golden light belt runs from east to west. The kerosene lamp shines dimly through the cracks in the wall of the wooden house, and the light and rust are hard to distinguish. Behind the velvet curtains silverware clinked against porcelain bowls. Uptown people wore silk and their hands were whiter than the faces of textile workers. The blacksmith's apprentice had just replaced a brass finger. He could bend and stretch it by someone else, but when he held it in winter, his whole body was frozen. The story begins with Akshara after the third mistake.