before you were a self you were a tremor in the dark a fractured breath caught between aion and ananke captured in time bound by inevitability. two forces complete and whole tear the first crack into existence. that crack creates a pull. the continuum stirs as a memory with its eyes still closed. its pulse wanders through existence searching for a place soft enough to let it enter strong enough to let it finish. it descends into bone. it moves through you as pressure. choices carve before you are born. endings too early. beginnings with teeth. you feel them when you breathe around them. shadow presses on one side. truth rises from the dark on the other. they temper you. they drive you into the place where truth meets shadow. nothing escapes. nothing lies. the unseen architecture walks beside you. a skeleton buried in flesh drips in story shrouded in belief. your spine is the axis. your ribs cage the naked heart. they hold all that you are. still tight enough to keep you here. a choke of despair. a pulse of possibility. your body throws into chaos. you arrive not to be taught but to finish. to return to the point where time and inevitability touch. the convergence. you stand at the threshold where they split open. at the same inevitable return. come closer.