Chapter 61 – Dust Logic
The ground changed again.
Kael didn't notice it at first—
only that his footsteps no longer echoed.
They dissolved.
As if sound itself had grown tired of trying.
The bottle dimmed.
Its pulse slowed.
Not dead.
Just cautious.
Kael stepped into the next space.
It wasn't a room.
It was an idea.
A place made not of stone or glass,
but of dust.
Fine particles that floated without gravity,
clung to his skin,
and whispered as they moved.
Not wind.
Not decay.
Logic.
Each mote was a memory fragment.
Lost.
Rejected.
Erased.
Not his.
Not entirely.
But close.
Words moved through the air like insects—
"…protocols…"
"…he failed us all…"
"…don't think. Don't remember. Just accept."
Kael pressed forward.
The dust thickened.
His breath grew heavy.
The bottle tried to scan—
but its glow failed to project.
Just static now.
A narrow path formed ahead.
But it wasn't stable.
Each step flickered beneath him.
He realized—
he wasn't walking on ground.
He was walking on choices.
Every step was a logic fork.
A path someone else once took.
And failed.
He stumbled.
Slipped through a half-built memory.
A child screaming.
A name forgotten.
He almost fell completely—
Until the bottle flared.
One glyph burned across his skin:
"Construct your own."
Kael stopped.
Closed his eyes.
Reached inward.
Not to memory.
To decision.
One truth.
One statement.
A single thread that belonged only to him.
He spoke it aloud:
"I was not built.
I am becoming."
The dust paused.
Held still.
Then—
Pulled away from his path.
Opened.
Accepted.
Kael walked forward.
Step by step.
Each one grounded not in memory,
but in resolve.
Behind him, the dust collapsed.
Swallowed every echo.
Ahead—
Light.
Not from the bottle.
But from within.
Kael emerged from the dust-field.
His skin burned with something old.
But his voice—
His voice was steady.