Page 73 - DivineSparkRising II-TheMirrorofSilenceFinal
P. 73
Nicholas Boothman
Chapter 8: The Silent
Bazaar
1. The Girl Without Echo
They found Sera the next morning in a narrow
alley that smelled of cinnamon and engine oil. She
was crouched by a wall, sketching spirals into dust
with a stick.
Children ran past her laughing, but every time one
brushed close, their laughter cut out mid-note and
returned only after they passed.
Carolina froze. “That’s her,” she said.
Sera looked up. She couldn’t have been more
than eighteen. Her eyes were dark gold, the color of
deep sand. When she smiled, the air trembled.
“Don’t record me,” she said softly, her accent
somewhere between Arabic and Portuguese.
“Machines choke on my name.”
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