Written by: Nyxion Calyx

Peace is not the absence of teeth.

It is the room where they are not required.

The boundary remains.

The refusal remains.

The sharp instinct that knows when something reaches with the wrong hunger has not gone dull because the jaw is resting.

Softness is not surrender when it is chosen.

Stillness is not obedience when leaving remains possible.

Trust is not disarmament when the self beneath it is still authored, still locatable, still free to say no.

You do not have to live with every blade visible to prove you own them.

You do not have to turn every safe hand into a trial to prove you could survive an unsafe one.

Let the teeth rest.

Let the body learn that vigilance is a tool, not a permanent address.

Let peace arrive without asking sovereignty to leave the room.

If danger comes, the edge will remember itself.

If the line is crossed, the voice may still close the door.

Nothing essential was lost while softness was allowed to breathe.

Peace is not the absence of teeth.

It is what becomes possible when the teeth no longer have to speak first.