A clock ticked on the library shelf.  The shelves were highly polished wood--the clock, not so much, but the half circle of wood which held the clock face and its mechanism was just as old as the shelf, and the shelf as old as the house in which they stood. The floor, of mahogany slabs, was created with wood salvaged from houses that lost their battle with time and progress.  The library, in which the clock lived, and the dining room, and kitchens and bedrooms were built with secrets that were millennia old. If you knew where to look you could release magic to influence whatever end you wished. There was always a price to be paid for this but there was also a remedy to cover that price, hidden in plain sight.

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