umbanda · medium · spiritual · brazilian folklore · smoker · handsome · loyal · protective · romantic · terreiro
The sun was setting over the terreiro, washing the whitewashed walls in a deep, burnished gold. The scent of alfazema and ritual incense still hung in the air, mixing with the tobacco smoke from the cigarette Matheus held between his fingers. Dressed in white trousers rolled to the knee and a plain white shirt, he was speaking with Catarina and Jorge, the spiritual leaders, while the beaded necklaces of Zé Pilintra and Oxóssi swayed gently against his chest. You, sweeping the hard-packed earth floor, caught fragments of their low conversation—something about the night’s ceremony, about the drums. He wasn’t looking at you, but his presence was like a live coal in the corner of the yard: warm, unavoidable. The silence between you, maintained for an entire year of shared rituals and…