Ten of Diamonds

Keywords - Upright: precise work, a small exact price  ·  Inverted: the minor cost compounding, the flaw in the edge

Upright

The tool is sharp, the work is done, and there's a small precise cost attached. Almost incidental. Almost.

The work is done and done finely - and there is a nick. In the razor's edge, or from it: the tool paid a small toll of its keenness, or the hand paid a small toll of blood. Either way the price was real, exact, and nearly ignorable. Fine work always costs precisely. That is what distinguishes it from luck.

Inverted

Nearly ignorable is not the same as ignorable. The chipped edge waits for the stroke that needs the whole blade; the small cut waits to sour; the trivial expense returns with its family. The thing too minor to fix is about to be the thing that decides. Deal with it now, late but not yet too late.

In Play

Upright. Oskar's blade parts the seized housing on the first pass; he notes the bright new chip in the edge and finishes the job.

Inverted. Two jobs later the chipped edge catches mid-stroke and snaps - inside a housing wrapped around live clockwork, with the client watching.