Toward the Unknown

The plateau stretched out endlessly.

It was not Earth. Not any world Aouli had seen before. The ground shimmered with a texture somewhere between crystal and clay, its color shifting slowly underfoot—from deep bronze to pale lavender, depending on where they stepped. Far off, trees with metallic leaves stretched toward the sky like skeletal hands reaching for forgotten stars. And overhead, two suns sat low on the horizon, as if held in suspense by some uncertain force.

Kaero squinted against the light. "Well. This is a step up from burning cities and grief ghosts."

Aouli smiled faintly. "It's still a dead world."

Kaero shrugged. "Sure, but it's a quiet dead world."

They began to walk—no path this time, just a direction chosen by instinct.

Aouli glanced behind him once. The Liminal was gone. Completely. Not even a shimmer in the distance. No portal. No echo. Just smooth horizon and sky.

"What happens if we go back?" he asked.

Kaero gave a sideways glance. "You planning to?"

"No," Aouli said. "But I liked knowing it was there."

Kaero nodded. "Yeah. But that's the trick, isn't it? You're not supposed to live in memory."

They walked in silence for a while.

Wind, thin but real, began to stir. It carried the scent of old minerals and long-cooled stone. Occasionally, it whistled through the hollow trunks of the strange trees, producing a sound not unlike music—a slow, breathing kind of tone, full of slow grief and deep patience.

Aouli found himself breathing in rhythm with it.

"Kaero?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever think about what we're actually doing?"

Kaero snorted. "Every day."

"I mean, really—this path. These seeds. These Echoes. It's not just survival. It's... restoration. Like we're meant to rebuild what was lost."

Kaero scratched his chin. "Rebuild's a strong word. You sure the cosmos wants us to?"

"I don't know," Aouli admitted. "But I think Gaia did."

Kaero nodded slowly. "That I'll believe. She wanted a second try."

They paused at the edge of a broken hill. Beyond it, the ground descended into a valley of strange, glowing fungus. Light blinked in gentle pulses, like a breathing organism just beneath the surface.

Aouli opened his hand again.

Three seeds.

Three paths.

Three legacies.

He didn't yet know where to plant them. He didn't yet know what form they would take.

But he knew he would.

One step at a time.

Above them, the sky darkened—not with storm, but with the slow emergence of stars, galaxies, and drifting fragments of light.

Aouli looked up, and something stirred in him. Not Gaia. Not the Echoes.

Him.

"I think I'm ready," he whispered.

Kaero looked up too.

"To what?"

Aouli smiled.

"To begin."

And they walked into the valley of light.

Together.