Chameleon Magazine

In the valley of Miren, where the river bent like a silver ribbon, there stood a great gate of stone. Behind it flowed the Clear Water—a spring said to heal the weary and restore the strength of those who had suffered too long.

Long ago, the gate had been open to all. Travelers would come from distant lands, drink freely, and find life returning to their limbs. But over the years, a council of keepers took charge of the spring. They said it must be protected, that too many had come, and that only those who could prove their suffering were worthy of the water.

So they built walls around the gate and filled the air with questions.

“Which pain do you carry?” they would ask.

“How long has it lived in you?”

“Can you prove it with papers, marks, or witnesses?”

The travelers—tired, sick, and lost—would stumble away, believing themselves unworthy. And the keepers nodded, saying, “See? The spring remains pure.”

One day, a woman came from the hills, hollow-eyed but steady in her step. She was told the same riddles, the same demands for proof. Instead of answering, she sat down by the wall and waited.

For three days she listened. She heard the groans of those turned away, the whispers of thirst, the shuffle of worn feet. Then she rose, walked to the edge of the gate, and spoke—not to the keepers, but to the crowd.

“The Clear Water is not theirs,” she said. “They drink from it only because we’ve forgotten it flows beneath all our feet.”

The crowd looked down. And sure enough, faint threads of silver light ran through the soil, connecting the valley, the walls, even the stones beneath the gate. The woman knelt and began to dig, and soon others joined her. The earth gave way, and a trickle appeared—a smaller spring, yes, but freer, truer.

When the keepers saw, they tried to shout her down, but the people no longer listened. The water spread outward, washing the dust from their hands, their faces, their shame.

And though the old gate still stands in the valley, few go there now. They drink from the streams they freed themselves.

“When justice is locked behind gates, truth will find a crack in the earth to flow through.”