Chapter 5
The Azure and Emerald Flash
A breathtaking vision appears: a gazelle, shimmering with impossible green and blue hues, captivating Danguolė with its ethereal beauty.
The air in the Kaunas archive always hummed with a quiet energy, a symphony of rustling paper and hushed footsteps. Danguolė, however, heard a different kind of music in its dusty aisles, a melody woven from forgotten secrets and the faint whispers of distant stars. She loved the way the sunlight, fractured by the tall windows, painted shifting patterns on the worn wooden floor, as if the light itself was trying to decipher the ancient texts. Today, though, the familiar hum felt different, tinged with a restless anticipation, a feeling that the very air was holding its breath.
She traced the spine of a heavy, leather-bound book, its title long faded into illegibility. It felt like holding a piece of the past in her hands, a tangible connection to lives lived and stories told. Yet, a familiar ache tugged at her. The wise, knowing presence she’d once felt, the certainty of being a ‘Solomon’ of knowledge, seemed to be fading, like ink on a page left too long in the sun. It was a strange and unsettling feeling, like looking in a mirror and seeing a stranger’s reflection. She wasn't that Solomon anymore, and the realization left a hollow space where confidence used to reside.
She wandered deeper into the archive, past shelves that seemed to reach the sky, each one a potential universe waiting to be discovered. It was in a secluded alcove, where the light slanted in a particularly golden beam, that she saw it. At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, that the dust motes dancing in the sunbeam had coalesced into something impossibly beautiful. But then it moved.
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