Chapter 53 — The Shape Behind the Hunger
The dream did not come with images.
It came with absence.
Kael woke already standing, barefoot on cold stone that stretched in every direction. There was no sky, no ground only a vast, colorless expanse that pressed inward, compressing thought itself. Distance had no meaning here. Perspective refused to form. Even the concept of horizon felt like a lie.
He knew, without knowing how, that this place was not a dream.
It was a memory that did not belong to him.
His heartbeat sounded too loud. Each pulse echoed like a footstep across an empty cathedral. When he inhaled, the air did not move but something inside him shifted, as if breath were being measured rather than taken.
You learned to listen, a voice said not aloud, but inside the hollow space where certainty should have lived. Now learn what listened first.
Kael turned slowly. Motion felt optional here, like a habit rather than a necessity. "Show yourself."
