The Carried Hours

About this book

In the invented straits city of Perigi, nine licensed banks deal not in money but in hours. People sell lived experience and leave with only a thin summary, while strangers can draw the deposited hour and live it whole. Ani Vos, a meticulous provenance auditor, traces a forged spool to Account 1417: a custody account older than the First Vault, holding 4,161 hours deposited over four decades without a withdrawal or payout. The trail leads to the Tideworks, where 214 people were once emptied of the dense marrow of their lives to seed Perigi's miraculous economy. With the stolen decades dispersed among thousands of good-faith holders, Ani must decide what an auditor's oath requires when an honest remedy could take a city apart.