Page 163 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Sofia spoke once more, not from above now, but
close — as if she stood in the next room with her
hand on the jamb.
“Henry,” she said, and it was not the Curator
then. It was the teacher who had been kind to a
young man because she believed brilliance could
be a kind of service. “Don’t do this.”
He almost answered. His throat moved. He
swallowed the word that wanted to make him
important.
Carolina did the answering for him — not with
a sentence, but with motion. She stepped through
first. She looked back and held out her hand. It
trembled. He took it.
Sera came last, pausing one heartbeat to turn to
the dome, to all the almosts. She bowed — not to
Sofia, not to the machine, but to the versions of
herself she would not inhabit. “Thank you,” she
said softly, and the labyrinth could do nothing with
thanks spoken to refusal.
The passage swallowed them. The dome
reconsidered itself and remained a dome.
7. The Engine’s Breath
The corridor beyond was short. It led to a
platform that looked out over a cylinder as tall as a
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