Chapter 29 - Meditation in the Heart of the Lotus

She didn't speak; she listened, and in that silence, the world became soft.

Twilight fell on the blue tower, not with noise or light, just a peaceful veil spreading over the walls, the windows, the delicate furniture. In the queen's room, the breeze gently lifts the curtains, and on the neatly folded sheets… a small lotus awaits her not picked, not offered just appeared the bud gently pulsates, as if breathing.

Saphira approaches without haste she extends her hand but does not touch it the lotus does not speak with words it speaks with a rhythm, a cadence, an invitation woven with interiority. A murmur glides through the air, like a barely formulated breath.

—"Come, not for me, but for you."

Behind her, Élya stands tall, arms crossed over her pale armor her gaze is more tender than usual.

—"I will watch over the tower," she says simply. "Go listen to your heart."

Saphira nods barefoot, she follows the call the Universe shifts  there are no more walls, no more windows, no more floor she finds herself standing in a perfect circle a lake of violet incense gently undulates beneath her feet the scent is not overpowering it is ancient, like a memory from before birth in the center of the lake grows an immense violet lotus, as wide as a temple it does not shine it breathes on its petals, the folds of an ochre toga Buddha he is not in meditation he is not in prayer, he is there, feet in the water, hands open, feeding small golden carp that come to brush the surface, as if to listen.

When she approaches, he looks at her without surprise.

—"You have come."

She nods, shyly.

—"I just wanted to be here."

—"That is already much," he says.

They do not seek to fill the silence they sit next to each other the world slows down even more. the wind becomes a heartbeat the sky becomes a thought the silence becomes alive inner images they do not speak, but between them, something passes images, fragments, memories carried by the water and the breath. Saphira sees Élya's gaze the first time she held her close. She sees Kael push her away with a clap of thunder she sees Diva screaming in a puddle of syrup she sees Destiny sleeping with a book on his chest she sees  Pink raise a hammer, then lower it, without striking and she sees herself as a child, trembling, standing in an empty room, holding an oversized plush toy, searching for a place to put her heart she blinks and finally dares.

—"Why do beautiful things sometimes scare us?"

Her voice is so low that it seems to come from a dream, yet Buddha hears it perfectly he does not look at her he closes his eyes.

—"Because what is soft is fragile, and the world has taught you to be afraid of what you can lose."

A silence.

—"But you forget," he says, "That you yourself are a solid softness."

She remains there next to him for a long moment she closes her eyes in turn she listens and in the silence that gently sinks into her chest, she hears Diva's distant laughter Destiny's regular breathing Kael's protective silence.  Pink's rhythmic steps in the forge and Élya's voice, right against her ear: "You are not alone."

Her tears fall not from sorrow, but from relief the lotus the moment stretches like a scarf of light then Buddha extends his hand. In his palm, a white lotus.

—"It will teach you nothing," he says. "It will not guide you it will not fight for you." 

He slips it into the queen's hand.

 —"But if one day you forget your light, place it on your heart, and it will remind you that you were never a shadow."

Saphira closes her fingers around the flower, she smiles, then she stands up.

End of Chapter 29 — Meditation in the Heart of the Lotus