About this story
Instruments find nothing wrong; the visionary Paul Lecamus insists something is. That night you inspect the gates yourself and step past the threshold into a cold, invisible pressure that gives no form, no voice, and no ground to retreat over. By morning Semur must decide whether it is besieged.
How it opens
Mid-June sunlight filled Semur when Jacques Richard tossed a large coin outside the market.
Jacques RichardMoney is the only god whose answer a working man can hold.
Several listeners laughed, but the market women crossed themselves and drew away.
Gros-JeanGentlefolk ask about fortunes before marriages, so why rebuke plain men for counting?
Choose
Rebuke the insult to neighbours' convictions rather than claiming power over belief.
Ask Gros-Jean whether money can answer for the way he speaks to frightened people.