Page 179 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
aimed at language centers with a behavioral
feedback loop. The engine’s learning curve is steep.
You bought yourselves a cliff.
“How long before it tries another trick?” Henry
asked.
Now, Jinji said cheerfully.
The tower’s light didn’t pulse; it flowed — a
smooth gradient that looked like surrender and
was the opposite. The platform warmed and cooled
in slow waves. The machine was trying to teach
them a lullaby their bodies would keep humming
after it stopped.
Sera closed her eyes again. “I can hear the room
wanting to sleep,” she said. “It thinks sleep is
peace.”
“Then we give it our lullaby,” Carolina said.
“One that keeps the eyes open.”
She lifted her hand and rolled her wrist twice, a
conductor’s tiny cue. Sera’s hum answered in an
odd meter. Henry did the simplest thing in the
world: he kept time wrong on purpose.
The lullaby failed to latch. The wave met choice
and learned friction.
Sofia sighed, genuinely weary now.
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