(1)The Law of Psychological Gravity
In the city of "Orpheus,"
the laws of physics were not taught in science books,but in books of poetry.
There,objects did not fall downwards because the earth attracted them, but because they were "tired." The city's inhabitants had to meticulously monitor their emotional weights; one who was too sad might sink into the concrete sidewalk as if it were a swamp,
while one overcome by longing might find themselves stuck to the ceiling of their room,unable to descend unless they cursed someone they loved or committed a deliberate folly that lowered the "purity of their soul."
"Adib" lived on the hundredth floor of the "Extinguished Minarets" tower.
His job as an"Aether Stitcher" was not merely a profession, but an inherited destiny.
The"horizon" for the people of the world was just an imaginary line, but for Adib, the horizon was a real, physical membrane, a cosmic fabric resembling natural silk, separating the "Known Reality" from "Absolute Nothingness."
Adib woke up that morning to the smell of "Rust in Time." The clocks in his room did not tick but bled colored sand.
He looked in the mirror and did not find his face;instead, he found a scene of a distant forest in the rain. He wasn't terrified, as this was a familiar side effect when the fabric of the universe began to sag.
He waited a minute until his features returned,then began to prepare his bag.
(2) The Mending Kit and the Forbidden Materials
Adib opened the equipment cabinet.
There were no screwdrivers or hammers.
He took out the"Needle of Absence," a long needle made from the wing bone of the last phoenix,
whose power lay in being completely"non-existent"; you could touch it but only see it from the corner of your eye.
Then he took out the"Spool of Threads."
They were not cotton threads,
but"frozen sound frequencies."
The first thread was made from
"a child's laugh untainted by knowledge,"and the second thread was
"the whisper of lovers in a shared dream."These threads glowed with a faint phosphorescent light, the only ones capable of mending the holes caused by "collective fear" in the city's sky.
"Are you really going to do this?"
The voice came from behind him.It was none other than "his shadow."
In Orpheus,shadows did not cling to feet; they were independent beings who sat with you at the table and debated your decisions.
Adib's shadow wore an imaginary hat and smoked a pipe emitting cinnamon-scented smoke.
Adib said,
tightening his belt:"The tear in the north is widening, 'Echo.'
If it reaches the size of a human head,people will begin to forget their names.
Do you want to wake up tomorrow not knowing who you are?"
The shadow replied coldly:
"I am just a shadow,I don't need a name, I only need light so I don't cease to be. But you... you are the one who will face 'the Great Cold' up there."
(3) The Musical Staircase to Infinity
Adib stepped out onto the wide balcony overlooking the city.
Orpheus beneath his feet looked like a"giant sleeping brain."
The streets were veins pulsing with blue light,and the houses were nerve cells flickering and fading.
There was no staircase leading to the sky.In this world,
distances were covered by"mood." Adib placed an old record on the "Wind Gramophone."
The music began to ascend,and it wasn't just melodies,
but began to transform into solid steps of transparent crystal cleaving the firmament.
Adib began to climb.
With every ten steps,time slowed down. He saw birds suspended in mid-air because they had forgotten how to fly mid-flight.
He saw clouds forming into the shapes of faces of people who died centuries ago,exchanging silent conversations through glances.
When he reached a height where he could see the city's curvature,
"Gravity"began to lose all logic. His head was down and his feet were up, but he still felt stable.
The horizon before him was no longer a line,but a massive wall of shimmering fabric.
And in its center,
was"the Rift."
(4) The Laughing Scar
The rift looked like a tear in old cloth, but through it, something terrifying protruded. It wasn't black space, but "absolute whiteness."
A whiteness that hurt the eyes,a whiteness representing "the Nothing."
And from this whiteness,a sticky, gray substance resembling ink seeped, dripping onto the city.
Every drop that fell on a house caused its inhabitants to forget an object;
one would forget how to use a spoon,another would forget the color of their mother's eyes.
Adib moved forward cautiously.He drew his needle and tied it with the thread of "embalmed laughter."
He pierced the needle into the edge of the aether.
Suddenly,
the universe shook.
It wasn't a physical vibration,but a "linguistic vibration."
Words began to leave Adib's mouth involuntarily,but they were reversed words. He tried to say "I am trying to fix," but "The fix is trying me" came out.
The shadow(Echo), who was climbing the air beside him, shouted: "Stop! The sky rejects the thread! It isn't torn because of sorrow this time... it's tearing because it wants to see what's behind it!"
Adib did not listen.
He pierced the needle again with force.
And at that moment,the great explosion happened. The glowing thread did not bind the edges together,
but began to"eat" the fabric. The thread turned into a serpent of light that swallowed the needle,
and the entire horizon began to crumple like a burnt piece of paper.
(5) Falling Upwards
Instead of falling towards the city, Adib began to be drawn towards the "whiteness" inside the tear.
The city below began to shrink until it was the size of a walnut.
Adib saw the laws collapsing:mountains began to melt and turn into liquids, and the river began to fly in the air like a long silk ribbon.
Just before he was completely swallowed by the white nothingness,a hand reached out from inside the tear. It was not a human hand, but a hand composed of hundreds of small butterflies that had taken the form of a feminine palm.
The hand grasped Adib's wrist.
He heard a voice that did not come through his ears,but emanated from deep within the bones of his skull:
"Welcome,Aether Stitcher, to the other side of the canvas.
You were trying to sew the world together,while the world was trying to escape from you."
Adib lost consciousness,while the city below had lost its last colors, becoming merely a pencil sketch on a vast white sheet of paper, held by an unknown child in rooms far away, beyond the stars.