Aeren slept beside Nil, closing his eyes and drifting into dreams. Within his dreamscape, he found only darkness—an empty void with nothing visible anywhere.
As he observed his surroundings, he noticed a familiar butterfly. Upon seeing Aeren, the creature transformed itself to mirror his exact appearance.
Now facing his own reflection, Aeren studied this duplicate version of himself. They regarded each other with expressionless faces, and Aeren felt nothing upon seeing this mirror image in the darkness—as if he were simply looking at his reflection.
"What is it?" Aeren's eyes locked onto Swapn as he spoke. The darkness had consumed everything, leaving not a single source of light visible in this dream realm. Though Aeren watched Swapn carefully, he sensed no threat.
Swapn observed Aeren silently for a long moment, unable to comprehend his question. "What do you mean?"
Aeren could sense why Swapn was confused, but he wanted to ask directly rather than dancing around the subject. "Why did you bring me here?" He spoke in polite tones, his voice carrying softly through the darkness.
Swapn didn't respond immediately, taking time to consider his words.
"I've been erased from reality. I want to return to it." Though Swapn showed no emotion, his voice echoed through the darkness, causing it to tremble. The darkness itself shook at his words, and through these tremors, Aeren could see the helpless desperation behind Swapn's calm facade. While he couldn't read anything from Swapn's expression, the emotional truth was written in the very fabric of the darkness around them.
Aeren observed his surroundings thoughtfully before responding, considering Swapn's plight carefully.
"Why do you want to return to reality? You can create anything here and do whatever you desire. You can build your own reality within this space—so why do you wish to return? This is true freedom, yet you still want to be caged by reality."
Aeren's mere words nearly shattered the dream itself, but Swapn somehow managed to hold the realm together, preventing it from collapsing entirely.
While Swapn struggled to maintain the dream's stability, his Aeren-shaped form remained completely still, continuing to observe without the slightest reaction.
"It's not real. It's meaningless. Nothing here has true significance. I've already been forgotten by reality, and I don't know how many years I'll spend in this meaningless existence that isn't even genuine. I can create, but I cannot feel. I can do anything, but I will never see my true self."
Aeren listened and nodded, not replying immediately. He could understand Swapn's perspective but wasn't satisfied with his reasoning.
"What do you mean by 'meaningless'?" When Swapn looked at him with obvious confusion, Aeren saw the bewilderment in his dream-eyes. "Do you understand how human reality works?"
"Humans are born with nothing. They struggle throughout their entire lives to reach their end, watching their surroundings and constantly comparing themselves to others. But here's the surprising part—all humans are mirrors of each other. Whatever you can do, another human can do as well.
"Even more surprising is that humans spend their entire lives comparing themselves to one another—that comparison becomes their struggle. And one day they die: some from old age, some die young, and some are born only to die immediately. Does that make their lives meaningless?"
Aeren finished his explanation and waited for Swapn's response. Swapn looked confused by the meaning at first, then seemed to understand and find acceptance in his dream reality.
"Yes! You're right. Their lives weren't meaningless—they all accomplished something that gave their existence meaning. Just like them, I also have meaning in this dream, this false reality."
Swapn understood the meaning behind Aeren's words and seemed to accept his fate within the dream realm.
Aeren saw Swapn's newfound acceptance of his dull dream existence, but rather than returning to reality, he continued speaking.
"No! You're wrong. They were meaningless. Their existence is meaningless. They never truly exist in their present—they cannot reclaim their past, and their future is even more meaningless than their illusory reality."
Aeren's words shattered the dream before Swapn could comprehend their full meaning. Showing no emotion toward Swapn, Aeren returned to reality.
Aeren woke in his bed to find Nil sleeping close beside him. His body had stabilized after returning from that incomprehensible place, though his mind remained fixated on understanding the meaning of emptiness.
Ignoring the hollowness within himself, Aeren stood and went to the washroom to freshen up without waking Nil. He didn't take long, and when he returned to the chamber, he found Nil had awakened. She looked around confused before spotting him.
"Are we going somewhere?" Nil asked as she watched Aeren preparing himself.
"Yes, I'm leaving. I want to see if anyone else remembers me or if you're the only one." Aeren spoke truthfully, not hiding his real intention, though he didn't include her in his plans to visit the capital.
"How will you get to the capital without me?" Nil's question stopped Aeren cold as he suddenly remembered that he had lost all his powers and hadn't gained anything to replace them. Even the new abilities he might have acquired were unknown to him—he didn't even know how to use them or if they were usable at all, or if they were as meaningless as his True Freedom.
Aeren had no answer and looked at her with the profound realization of what he had lost.
"Yes, Miss! I almost forgot." Aeren admitted, turning to face Nil. Her smile widened as he acknowledged his dependency, and she stood up from the bed to approach him.
"Yes! You'll have to wait here for me. I'll be back in an hour or two." Nil left the chamber, leaving Aeren alone to sit on the bed and contemplate.
Aeren began thinking about meaning itself—what has meaning and what doesn't. He couldn't find a single thing that possessed true significance; everything had its end from the world's perspective.
His first question to himself was: "What is meaning?" "Why does meaning exist?"
"Do people need meaning to live?" He thought deeper and deeper, but couldn't find answers or even glimpse understanding. Aeren simply stared at the chamber's ceiling, surrendering to nothingness and beginning to feel that emptiness within himself. He showed no reaction and started accepting his freedom.
Standing from his contemplation, Aeren went to the window to observe the empire outside. As he watched the people of the Cloud Empire, he saw happy faces, angry faces, and frustrated faces among the citizens. He observed them for a while, trying to discern their meaning, but still couldn't find the single truth he sought.
He studied their characteristics and saw people with many human-like features, their actions displaying recognizably human qualities.
"They're also trying to find their meaning between the cycle of life and death."
The more he watched, the more he felt that continued observation would trap him like them, unable to find what he truly wanted to see.
So Aeren left the window and returned to his bed, thinking of nothing while waiting for time to flow and reveal the meaning he sought.
As he contemplated time and its significance, Nil entered the room. Aeren turned his head toward her.
She looked exactly as she had in his past life, her features becoming more accurate after wearing modern Earth-style clothing.
"How do I look?" Nil spoke to Aeren. She noticed he was staring intently, though his purpose was something entirely different.
As Aeren watched and observed, he gained insight from seeing Nil: "The past is their meaning." "Memories are the meaning for them." He whispered to himself, words too quiet for Nil to hear.
She smiled after watching him whisper to himself, unaware of the philosophical revelation unfolding within him.