Page 195 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal

Nicholas Boothman
“Good,” she said, and her voice came from the
rectangle and the room and Henry’s bones at once.
“You didn’t die. Yet.”
Carolina’s laugh was a sob that loved itself for
being alive. “You look…” She stopped. Words were
a luxury here.
Jinji grinned, undamaged by code. “Like a ghost
with good opinions,” she offered. “We don’t have
long. The Curator can’t see this angle yet. It
believes this archive is a mausoleum. Let’s keep it
proud.”
Henry moved closer, teeth clenched against
sudden heat under his eyes. “If you’re just a
recording—”
“I’m not,” Jinji cut in gently. “But I’m not not,
either. I tucked myself into Chorus’s backup
routine the night it burned. I’m spread thin over
old light. Call it… holographic persistence with a
rude personality.”
Sera tilted her head, studying the way Jinji’s
image moved. “You can listen,” she said, “and
answer.”
“I can do better,” Jinji replied. The rectangle split
into three panes. On the left: dense code scrolling,
annotated by a hand that wrote with jokes in the
margins. On the right: an overlay of the engine’s
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