Ch.2 The Last Acquisition

[Instrumental Break] (the drone continues, but a clock pulse enters beneath — soft, metronomic, too precise) [Build-Up] (cello lifts into a farewell melody, each phrase a final gesture; low brass enters, sustains, recedes) [Interlude] (the middle warms a half-degree — the cello reaching — then pulls back) [Outro] (the clock grows audible as everything thins; it keeps ticking alone after the last resonance dies)