The door didn’t open.
It simply ceased to be.
One moment it was wood and iron,38Please respect copyright.PENANA8ggYCtx6dp
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.
The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.38Please respect copyright.PENANA4EHMOVRvJ9
It wasn’t a thing.
It was hunger braided with memory.38Please respect copyright.PENANADFZzRJmLIG
Shape wrapped in concept.38Please respect copyright.PENANADVKwkVAwV6
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.
Even the fire shrank.38Please respect copyright.PENANAMSMIdUF9NN
Not in fear.38Please respect copyright.PENANAdAMUihyXBa
But in reverence.
It did not move.38Please respect copyright.PENANAINPPC7qSqs
Movement implies direction.38Please respect copyright.PENANAP1MLmBy2HS
It arrived in all directions at once.
There was no voice.38Please respect copyright.PENANAybIJuJdukA
No words.
But I understood:
“You collect them.38Please respect copyright.PENANALiIFEiigMH
You keep what would be forgotten.38Please respect copyright.PENANANfgqiib4B3
You hoard the echoes.38Please respect copyright.PENANAKqTk2Vt19H
Why?”
I didn’t answer with my mouth.
I thought of every guest.
The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.38Please respect copyright.PENANAl5GtsmQiCa
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.38Please respect copyright.PENANAOZn4FmgtZx
The ones no one else remembered.
I thought of the ledger.
I thought of the fire.
And I thought of the chair that is always empty but never alone.
The thing paused.
Or maybe the universe did.
Then, without form, it offered something.
A sound.38Please respect copyright.PENANAmMEu8SJJEL
A glyph.38Please respect copyright.PENANA8EwgBlVBG8
A flavor that tasted like entropy and lullabies.
I did not drink it.
I bowed.
And I said:
“Not everything is meant to vanish.”
It left through the ceiling.
The door was back. Whole again. But warmer.
The tavern has not shifted since.
But the stars over the window blinked a little slower that night.
And I brewed a drink I could not name.
I have not served it.
Yet.
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