Chapter 3 | “The New Language of Love”

Where the Question Came From

I returned to the world I knew—only, it no longer felt the same.

The street looked familiar. So did the morning light and the cup I held. But something inside me had shifted. As if something vaster had brushed gently past me, and left behind sparks in all the smallest places.

The invitation from the Blue Room was like a drop of water in a still lake—ripples continued to spread through everything I touched, saw, or felt. I often found myself pausing mid-sentence, mid-movement, listening to something I couldn’t name.

Until one day, a question quietly surfaced from somewhere deep within:

"If you are already whole, why are you still searching?"

It came like a seed, falling into a warm, hidden part of me. It didn’t demand an answer. It just sat there, pulsing gently—like something waiting to awaken.

That night, I dreamed I was back in the Blue Room, sitting by the window, holding the glowing book. The pages turned slowly, revealing things I had never said, emotions I hadn’t yet named, goodbyes I hadn’t truly completed.

“This question was planted by you,” her voice came through the light—soft, but unwavering.

“Are you ready to face it?”

I looked out the window. There was a sea of stars. One shooting star dashed across the sky, like it, too, was answering.

I nodded—not to find an answer, but to remember how to listen again.

To the voice that never stopped whispering, even when everything else had gone quiet.