The wind that didn't want to come
In the early hours of the morning, Edenfall Alpha shuddered… not from sound or impact,
but from the complete absence of wind.
The weather sensors were not failing:
the air was not moving.
Not because there was peace. But because I had nowhere else to go.
Juno was the first to understand it:
"It's not stagnation.
It's an atmospheric decision. The environment is starting to choose not to evolve."
It was the first sign of what Riva called Complete Passive Stability (CPS) ,
a condition where the nearby universe chooses not to alter its state… because it doesn't need to.
The incomplete message
In the Archive of Symbolic Echoes, a new phrase appeared, with no author, no defined language. Just a sequence of broken lines that, when interpreted, read:
"When form ceases to have an edge… emotion will not know where to begin."
Sael watched her for hours.
Then he wrote just below:
"Perhaps there… we can also begin to understand each other."
III. Verkal's Return – The Non-Negotiating Agreement
Kozhen, from Verkal, proposed something unheard of:
a zone of permanent emotional silence ,
where neither Edenfall nor any other symbolic network can project feelings.
—"Not to reject what you are.
But to remember that there is also the right not to be felt."
The Council debated for days. Finally, it was approved:
Verkal would be the first Recognized Affective Neutral Zone (RAZ) .
Riva wrote in his report:
"Empathy, without limits, becomes imposition."
The discovery of the Fractal Pillar
Deep underground in Edenfall, Lirea and Naeya discovered a structure never before recorded: a crystal obelisk that, when viewed from different angles, projected specific emotions onto each viewer.
It was named: Fractal Pillar .
But the disturbing thing wasn't the effect. It was that Pilar knew when someone was lying about how they felt .
And it reflected it… in ways that couldn't be ignored.
Velos faced him first. He saw his mother. Then himself… telling himself a truth he didn't remember ever experiencing.
—"This thing doesn't judge.
It just makes it so you can't lie to yourself."
Sael and the Human Figure
In the Reverse Garden, Sael began writing numbers. First in columns. Then in shapes. Finally… on himself.
When Marek asked him why, he simply replied: "I'm giving up searching for who I am.
And I'm measuring… how much of me still wants to find out."
This is how the idea of the Human Cipher was born :
a symbolic metric for quantifying the desire to mean something. Not how much one knows. But how much one needs to know.
The results weren't uniform. And that... was proof that internal diversity still existed.
The Return of the Andante – Non-Silent Observer
During a synchronicity session in the Vaharica Room, the Andante appeared. This time, without hiding . Not as a shadow. Not as an echo. But as a complete presence.
Sael spoke to him first. "Have you come to undo what remains?"
And the Andante replied: "No.
I no longer need to do so. Many of you… are learning to do it by choice."
Before leaving, he approached Velos and whispered:
"You're the only one still looking for something…
without knowing if you want to find it."
VII. The Useless Gesture – The Notebook of Useless Things
Juno started a strange project: a notebook where she wrote down only things that weren't useful at all.
A stone shaped like a question. A name written backwards. A hug that didn't happen. A memory that was never his.
Riva asked her why. And Juno replied:
"Because what is useless… also deserves to be remembered."
The notebook was placed in the Fractal Pillar. No one touched it. But many looked at it…
and some cried.
VIII. Epilogue: The sky that asked for no answers
That night, the sky above Edenfall turned opaque. Not cloudy.
Not dark. Just… uninterpreted.
And for the first time, Sael smiled when he saw that no one asked why.
Because there were things that were just meant to be experienced,
not understood.
END OF CHAPTER 169