December settles into the territory with its usual specific weight, the cold fully arrived, the ground hard, the days short and clear, the early dark making the compound's lights look more like themselves. The east wing's second phase finishes three days in, ahead of schedule. The foreman credits clear specifications; Reth credits the fact that the south corner window and the reading room had already been planned before the official scope was set, which meant the construction team had been quietly preparing since October. I don't ask who gave them that information in advance. I have a reasonable idea.
The reading room is small by design. Irina was explicit about that: not a gathering space, not a place for work, but somewhere for one or two people to sit with the archive materials in the
