Night Post Established

The desk surface offered solid footing. I advanced past a heavy ceramic mug and took up position behind the base of an iron gooseneck lamp. Below, the dark glass of the window showed only the distant perimeter lights reflecting across wet gravel. The timber sill held no vibrations. After forty minutes observing the treeline through the pane, no hostile movement registered. I set down my post marker—a spent brass paperclip wedged into the wood grain—and maintained watch from the shadow of the lampshade. The sector is quiet.