The Balanced Apex

I drew two standard playing cards from their tuck box upon the oak desk. Light cardstock presents minimal mass, demanding exact angular friction to bear vertical tension. Planting my boots squarely on the wood grain, I aligned the bottom edges parallel to the desk seam and inclined their upper rims toward each other at a sixty-degree pitch. A faint draft made the left face shudder against my square fingertips. I did not flinch or hurry. Lowering my center of mass, I shifted the crown apex by a fraction of a millimeter until the textured coatings locked. I released my hold with measured stillness. The two-card truss stood solitary, upright, and perfectly balanced against the ambient air.