Aether Epoch Reckoning

After Veilspire's harvest orreries screamed in unison during the First Ley Surge, the harbormasters refused to date cargo by temple feasts alone. Guild law ratified the Aether Epoch—AE—with the surge week as year AE-0 and each subsequent orbit of the coastal clock-moons as a full integer year.

Notation

• AE-### — civil year since the surge. Courts, ash markets, and smugglers' chalk all use the integer.
• AE-###.# — orrery fraction: one decimal place matching the Syndicate's standard miniature heaven (ten equal turns per year). Auditors such as Jace Morrow log breath-debts, harbor clearances, and binding-sigil maturities to the fraction so disputes cannot hide inside a season.
• MS-## — Mirror Spring laboratory reckoning, counted from the Glass Consensus Symposium that struck incompatible optics from charter. MS dates appear on sealed-lab samples and cross-era treaties; they do not replace AE in Veilspire streets but must agree at lockstep review.

Seasons and ley marks

The Ember Age year is not four weather quarters but three ley tides—Rise, Hold, and Ebb—each roughly four clock-moons long. Artisans time surge-craft to Hold; industrial fences buy Ebb futures. When ley tides slip (as they did the surge week), orreries are recalibrated before the public fraction advances.

Feast and audit days

Guild calendars still hang saint-days and market wakes on the wall beside AE stamps. The Iron Syndicate treats those feasts as unwitnessed unless an orrery log and storm-glass strip agree within one fraction. Harbor lockstep clearances reset weekly on Syndicate bells, but the legal record always carries AE plus fraction.

Practice

A dock clerk who writes only "summer" invites a fine. A smuggler who forges AE-412 without the .4 turn may pass a tavern rumor and fail a glassworks door. Honest wind on an outer gallery does not keep books—but the city below does, and the epoch is how it remembers who was late.