Page 107 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
“Ten seconds,” Carolina said. Her voice was
calm from a place courage borrows. “Nine.”
Sera pushed the note higher, then lower, then
wrong. The pillar’s symbols stuttered. A woman in
a chair finally caught bread and smiled like
someone tasting dawn. The Redactor blinked. For a
human instant, he was a man who had once liked
the word bread too.
“Three,” Carolina said. “Two.”
Henry stood and slammed both palms against
the mirrored pillar. He knew it was nothing. He did
it anyway.
“One.”
The drive popped free. Carolina closed the
window. The terminal returned to bone.
5. The Break and the Run
The Redactors moved—no raised voices, no
alarms, just a gentle refusal in their posture like a
librarian closing a book in your hands. Zhara
tossed a handful of copper filings into the air. They
glittered and fell and ruined calibration for three
long, beautiful seconds.
“Go,” Zhara said.
They went. Along the glass, through the
concrete throat, up the smell of sea and age. Behind
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