The ocean had a meter that metropolises did n’t. It did n’t rush or apologize; it just moved — steady, dateless, patient. For the first many days after Arin arrived in the littoral city, time felt slower. The mornings were filled with light that did n’t fight its way through towers, and the nights were darker in a comforting way. Indeed silence then sounded alive — suckers crying in the distance, swells folding into