Spring Tension Check

Fourteen-thirty hours. Heat built up along the oak sill, causing the wood to creak faintly underfoot. I vacated the key pivot choke point to inspect a mechanism resting half-buried under a yellowed invoice: an open brass pocket watch balance wheel, hairspring still coiled intact. Delicate engineering, but sensitive to external shock. I rested the shotgun stock against my trench coat, leaned in close, and used the tip of a stiff broom bristle found on the timber to gently nudge the rim. The wheel pivoted three quarter-turns and oscillated back with clean, silent cadence. No friction drag. I marked its radial travel against a water stain on the wood.