Chapter 36 – The Silence That Never Sleeps
The sky above the abandoned temple was not black. It was empty.
The stars refused to gaze upon the stone building, long forsaken, where dust and wounds wrapped around each other.
Enver stepped inside without a sound. Even his footsteps refused to echo. There was a silence inside—not mere quiet, but the absence of response. Like speaking to walls that never knew how to listen.
In the room filled with extinguished candles and stale incense, sat a teenage girl hugging her knees.
Her hair was long and disheveled, her clothes ragged.
Her eyes were not empty—but locked.
And upon her shoulder, leaning like a friend: an astral entity shaped like a transparent body filled with closed eyes. The creature did not move, did not threaten. It only cloaked her like damp air in a season of wounds.
"It doesn't hurt you," Enver whispered, more to himself.
But it was precisely such a being that was most dangerous.
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The Astral of Stillness
The creature was Umbra—one of the astral entities that did not attack.
It only lived in silence, absorbing trauma, feeding wounds from within.
When Enver tried to approach, the girl recoiled.
Not because she feared him—
But because she feared losing the only companion who had stayed with her in solitude.
Umbra opened one small eye on its neck, then shut it again.
No battle.
No roar.
No strike.
Enver stood before them.
Like a mirror that reflected nothing but guilt.
"You locked yourself away so they could no longer hurt you," Enver spoke softly.
"But you also locked away the possibility of healing."
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Purificazione Without Battle
Enver did not raise his hand.
Instead, he opened his cloak, and from beneath the black fabric, a gray light emerged.
Not brightness, not darkness.
But a color between hope and regret.
He let the girl see him—not as a savior, but as a witness.
Slowly, Umbra released its hold on her shoulders.
Its body dissolved like mist touched by the moon.
And the girl… wept.
Not from fear.
But because she realized she had not wept for a very long time.
Enver did not touch her.
He only sat on the temple floor, keeping a sacred distance between forgiveness and sufficiency.
Around them, the small spirits trapped in the temple statues faded away.
There was no longer any need to guard her suffering.
"Purificazione is not about healing wounds," Enver murmured.
"But about allowing wounds to be remembered, without having to live inside them."
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Closing
Before leaving, Enver placed a folded note in the girl's hand.
Not a prayer.
Not a curse.
But the address of a shelter he had built on the city's outskirts.
No guarantee of happiness.
But a roof, a meal, and a place to sleep without fear.
And as he stepped out of the temple, the rain began to fall.
A silence that finally allowed itself to sleep.
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