The door didn’t open.
It simply ceased to be.
One moment it was wood and iron,14Please respect copyright.PENANA9O7v4ckw5O
the next, a hole in the world through which meaning spilled sideways.
The thing that entered wasn’t a guest.14Please respect copyright.PENANAiLaUJKzmvD
It wasn’t a thing.
It was hunger braided with memory.14Please respect copyright.PENANAbtbBPiPEgj
Shape wrapped in concept.14Please respect copyright.PENANA3ERGo3GIUm
Its presence cracked the edges of the bottles, though they made no sound.
Even the fire shrank.14Please respect copyright.PENANAjuextYCYhR
Not in fear.14Please respect copyright.PENANArERkKPBMpa
But in reverence.
It did not move.14Please respect copyright.PENANABs4tT1OZY5
Movement implies direction.14Please respect copyright.PENANAwbmdP9RaVf
It arrived in all directions at once.
There was no voice.14Please respect copyright.PENANAP9JfOVddiD
No words.
But I understood:
“You collect them.14Please respect copyright.PENANAOoKOACIukD
You keep what would be forgotten.14Please respect copyright.PENANAKpaJaFFRZs
You hoard the echoes.14Please respect copyright.PENANAO4ZvIrsZne
Why?”
I didn’t answer with my mouth.
I thought of every guest.
The broken, the joyful, the unfinished.14Please respect copyright.PENANAMhrubGaU11
The ones who stayed. The ones who left half-healed.14Please respect copyright.PENANA349mH3GzWW
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.14Please respect copyright.PENANAR5JPnmYtXN
A glyph.14Please respect copyright.PENANAzJYZdgBkSv
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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