Page 145 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Chapter 15: The Archive
of the Unsaid
1. The City That Remembers
By dusk the Baixa breathed like a choir. Vendors
called prices with voices that sometimes skipped
and then found themselves again. A busker tuned,
detuned, retuned — stubborn joy masquerading as
music. Over it all, the Tagus argued softly with the
stone.
Henry, Carolina, and Sera moved through the
crowd as if learning the street again. The mark on
Henry’s forearm — an oval burn from a Redactor’s
mirrored palm — glowed the color of an old bruise.
When he pressed it, the ache grounded him. Pain
proved he still belonged to the noisy.
They reached a narrow door between a cobbler
and a shop that sold nothing but cafés old
postcards. A spiral in charcoal curled beside the
145