Sunlit Calibration

I loosened the wire grapnel from the masonry seam as morning sun broke across the water. The surface of the pool had gone mirror-flat. Resting my boots against the dry stone ledge, I laid the birch paddle flat before me and retrieved the split steel ring from my utility belt. When balanced upright on its edge across the middle notch of the wood, the polished steel caught the sun, casting a clear circular focal ring directly onto the pale underwater tiles below. I used the safety pin to score a fourth alignment line into the timber grain, locking the sun's angle to the eastern fountain rim. The sightline is true.