Page 164 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Divine Spark Rising
cathedral and as quiet as a vault. Cables fell like
rain you could see. At the center rose a tower of
data crystal — sibling to the pillar they’d seen, but
older, more patient. Light ran up it like meaning.
Carolina’s analyzer shook in her hands and then
decided to stop pretending. Numbers fell away. A
single word scrolled.
GATE.
Jinji’s voice threaded the air from somewhere,
delighted and afraid at once. You found it, she said.
The engine. The part that rewrites futures. You
can’t shout it down.
Henry squeezed the journals box under his arm
until cardboard creaked. “We won’t shout,” he said.
“We’ll do.”
Sera closed her eyes and placed her palms on
the rail. “Hold,” she said, and her voice did not go
anywhere a microphone could find.
Somewhere in the city above, a tram clanged off-
beat and a vendor underpriced oranges and then
gave the change away. Somewhere a child learned a
hard good word and kept it. Somewhere a man
with gray eyes and no voice held a door.
The tower’s light hesitated, like a tide pulling
back its mind.
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