Page 134 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
Henry pried the panel with a crowbar from a
hardware store that had forgiven the theft already.
The metal gave. Warm air rolled out smelling of
damp paper and the sugar-rot of long cables.
They slipped inside and pulled the plate back
into place. The dark felt eager, then delighted when
the headlamp conceded it a shape. The tunnel
sloped and turned, sloped and turned, like a spine
bending to listen.
Every thirty meters the wall wore a spiral drawn
in charcoal. Beside each, one word, various hands,
all caps: REMEMBER. TELL. WALK. PAUSE. BE.
They passed an alcove where candles had guttered
days ago. Melted wax pooled like lacquer. Someone
had left half an orange, not yet rotted, bright as a
sun the tunnel had borrowed.
“This was Chorus’s original archive,” Carolina
said, voice small in the corridor’s strict acoustics.
“Before the labs. Serpa’s secret. He said the city
taught him more than books did.”
Sera ran fingertips along the brick. “It still does.”
2. The Data Catacombs
The corridor opened into a low vault lined with
lockers and flat files rescued from junk: apothecary
drawers labeled in pencil and tape, filing cabinets
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