Page 129 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
a wrist. The motion was so small Henry almost
missed it.
The seam parted.
Inside, the air had weight, like a theater just
before the bow. A narrow gallery led to a small
glass room at the heart. No chairs. No consoles.
Only an empty dais and a mirror the size of a page.
Aleph stood before the mirror. He lifted his right
hand and made the sign for Confession. Then his
left, the sign for Debt. He breathed in once, the old
way, the way he used to when he knew a choice
would cost him the next year of his life.
He pressed his palm to the mirror.
Light ran up his arm the way cold runs
downward in winter. Henry startled. Carolina
reached for him, thought better, balled her fist to
keep from touching. Sera’s hum found a lower
floor and laid it under the light like a bed.
The mirror brightened. Words flickered at its
edge, not visible to the eye but present to the body.
Henry felt them arrive as heat.
Aleph removed his hand. On the glass, a
sentence remained etched faint as breath on a
frozen window:
ZERO SPEAKS.
Carolina whispered, “Serpa’s title.”
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