The Fold In The Map

Alec MacLeod is recently retired, financially comfortable, and quietly unsure what his life is supposed to become.

After years working as a government economist, his days are no longer shaped by routine, duty, meetings, reports, or the steady logic of professional life. He has his flat in Edinburgh, his books,his habits, and the familiar streets of the city around him. Yet something has begun to feel absent.

Then, returning by train from Glasgow, Alec looks out of the window and sees a part of Edinburgh he does not recognise. Old tenements. Warmly lit rooms. Open fires. Bookshelves visible through high windows. A street that looks as though it has always been there, yet somehow has never been noticed before.

The place is called Blackwell.