The first thing I noticed was the absence of everything. No light, no sound, no gravity--just a quiet so deep it pressed against my thoughts. I blinked, though blinking meant nothing here, and saw… possibilities. Floating before me was a stream of fragments, memories and data I couldn't have imagined existing. A child laughing in a garden long erased from history. A civilization whispering secrets to the stars, forgotten before its first dawn. Even my own memories drifted toward me, tethered by a single, glowing thread—the memory I had chosen to carry.
Then I realized the walls weren't walls at all. There was no room to contain this place, only layers upon layers of time, space, and nothingness folded over themselves. And somewhere, just out of reach, other consciousnesses floated, reaching for me, offering pieces of their lives.
I wanted to touch them, to understand. But the more I reached, the more the world expanded, threatening to swallow me whole. And yet… for the first time, I understood. To see everything, to hold all knowledge, to cross the boundaries of reality—it wasn't just about curiosity. It was about connection. About carrying something from one existence to the next, even when the universe itself had forgotten.
And so I stepped forward.