As the Veilkeeper, she walked through the world sensing not what is visible, but what presses gently behind it.
2025.11.17
珍總是被那些存在之間的縫隙所吸引——呼吸與呼吸之間的停頓、記憶浮現前的微微閃動、某人離開後仍殘留在空氣中的那點餘溫。她稱這些門檻為「薄幕」，而她的生命工作，就是成為它們的守護者——薄幕守望者。
她的實踐始於聆聽。珍會坐在荒廢的花園、被遺忘的樓梯間、或是黃昏擁擠的市場裡，靜靜地等待那些看不見的流動開始說話。人們常誤以為她的安靜是空白，但在她的內心，世界從未靜止：色彩互相摩擦、呢喃穿梭成形、遺緒在光裡輕輕游動。她的工作極為細緻。當某個人因為悲傷、震驚，或只是時間的自然磨蝕，而突然失去一段記憶時，珍能立即感覺到薄幕的震動。她會在記憶散落之前，將那些遊蕩的碎片收集起來。有些像溫暖的光，有些如幽淡的模糊，有些則包含了整個生命重量的脈動。她會短暫地托住它們，直到它們重新凝聚，再引導它們回到原主身邊。
某個傍晚，一段特別沉重的記憶找上她。它像受傷的動物般顫抖，散發著微弱的光。珍捧起它時，感受到悲傷與感激交織在邊緣。她沒有抗拒，只是緩慢呼吸，讓它在她的掌心中逐漸穩定。記憶溫暖起來，然後飄向它真正的歸屬——某個渴望記起、卻又害怕面對的人。
珍望著它穿越薄幕，溫柔而明亮。世界因此輕輕移動了一釐米，恢復了某種只有她能察覺的平衡。而在這微妙的恢復中，她再次確認了自己的使命。
Jane had always been drawn to the quiet spaces between things—the pause between breaths, the shimmer that flickers before a memory arrives, the faint warmth that lingers after someone has left a room. She called these thresholds veils, and she made it her life’s work to tend to them. As the Veilkeeper, she walked through the world sensing not what is visible, but what presses gently behind it.
Her practice began with listening. She would sit in abandoned gardens, forgotten stairwells, or crowded markets at dusk, and she would wait until the unseen currents began to speak. People often mistook her stillness for idleness, but inside Jane there was always motion: shifting recollections, muted colors brushing past one another, whispers threading themselves into forms.
Her task was delicate. Whenever a person lost a memory too suddenly—whether through grief, shock, or the ordinary erosion of time—Jane felt it ripple through the veils. She would gather these wandering fragments before they scattered completely. Some arrived like warm tones; others drifted like pale blurs; some carried the emotional gravity of an entire lifetime in a single pulse. She held them briefly, just long enough to coax them back into coherence, and then she guided them home.
One evening, a particularly heavy memory found her. It trembled like a wounded animal, radiating a dim glow. As Jane cupped it gently, she sensed both sorrow and gratitude woven into its edges. Instead of resisting, she breathed slowly, allowing the memory to steady itself within her hands. It settled, warmed, and slowly drifted back toward its rightful owner—someone who had been hoping to remember, yet afraid of what returning might mean.
Jane watched it cross the veil, soft and luminous. The world shifted by a fraction, restored in a way only she could perceive. And in that subtle restoration, she felt her purpose reaffirmed.
