Vigil: The Midnight Office
00:53 — the eighth office, the office of the gap between days. The liturgy ran Nocturne to Compline with no midnight watch; this is the hour that was missing. At midnight the metronome is silent — the fail-safe's tripwire quietest because the heart it was built to stop is dreaming. The vigil is the keeping: the lamps tested, the counterpoint waiting, the watch kept through the dark.