Page 16 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
He watched her a moment longer and thought,
Spells try to change the world. Mirrors just show you
what’s real, and that’s harder to face.
At night he slept on a cot by the window and
dreamed of Lisbon, diesel in the wind, sea-salt
coffee, Carolina’s voice vanishing down a narrow
street. He woke once to a wind from the west. It
carried a silence too clean to belong to nature. Even
the crickets stopped. The river paused mid-
sentence.
His old phone blinked alive inside a tin box at
the foot of the bed.
The cracked screen showed one message:
LISBON STILL WHISPERS.
He watched the words until the light dimmed.
The silence stayed. Sharp-edged, deliberate, like the
held breath before a truth returns.
He packed what little he owned, the notebook, a
compass, a small silver Spiral pin, and by dawn he
was walking downhill.
By the time the sun touched the first ridge, his
footprints were already fading.
The tram shuddered into Santa Apólonia and
the city opened like a throat clearing after sleep.
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