Page 165 - DivineSparkRisingFinal

Nicholas Boothman
Before language there was silence. Before
persuasion there was permission.
You are not reading a code. You are returning to
it.
He flipped through the pages. The script was an
impossible weave, proto-Aramaic and early Latin
braided with motifs that looked eerily like
algorithmic patterns. Metaphor nested in formal
logic. Ritual that read like pseudocode.
“This was written centuries before modern
psychology,” Carolina breathed. “Before Aristotle.
Before the word ‘influence’ had meaning.”
“It’s older than persuasion,” Henry said.
She traced the thirteenth arc with a fingertip.
“What is this piece?”
He turned to the last page. The final line was
simple and stubborn.
The last arc is not spoken. It is lived.
They left the chamber wordless, the book warm
under Henry’s arm.
Outside, he sat on a fallen column and felt the
place settle around them. “What we’ve been calling
the God Word,” he said slowly, “was only a
fragment, a partial memory of something bigger.”
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