Chapter 10 | “The New Language of Love”

 

The Echo of a Name

The wind had stopped.

But the voice lingered, like a bell whose sound keeps ringing long after the strike. I stood frozen, heart pounding, as if my body remembered something my mind had long forgotten.

"You finally heard me."

The voice didn’t come through my ears — it arrived through knowing. Pure, inner knowing.

"You weren’t looking for me.
You were looking for yourself."

I tried to respond, but my throat tightened. No words came. Then, a soft light rose from the moss beneath my feet — a small, glowing presence, like a creature made of breath and memory. It gently wrapped around my wrist.

And in that moment, I remembered...
a name.

Not the one people call me here.
But the one my soul has always known.

It wasn’t a word from any language. But the instant it surfaced, tears flooded my eyes.

I remembered who I was.

And why I came.

But before I could hold onto that memory, a gentle yet unfamiliar voice echoed from the woods behind me:

"You’re finally ready."

I turned quickly—

But only the trees moved with the breeze.

I knew then:
my journey was truly beginning.