January in the compound is its own particular thing.
The construction finishes cleanly in the second week, the east wing phase two complete, the reading room settled, the south corner window in the meeting room installed and confirming Théo's spatial assessment from October. The afternoon light through the second window does exactly what he predicted: it fills the corner that the single window left in partial shade and produces the full afternoon quality that Irina described, the kind that changes what is possible to say.
Irina sits in the meeting room for an hour after the window is fitted.
She does not say what it produces.
She does not need to.
The construction team completes their sign off and leaves and the compound is entirely its own again, no external crew, no staging material
