Despite the relentless nightmares, the awakening process was utterly peaceful. A hazy consciousness felt itself surrounded by a soft and warm touch, inexplicably, this brought a sense of reassurance.
After a fluttering of the eyelids, I opened my eyes to an unexpectedly filled landscape.
"Wh... what?"
Lower than the ceiling, narrow... a bed canopy? Shorter than the lofty and heavily decorated canopies of nobles, the edges trimmed in not thick brocade but deep purple silk. Ivory-white pillars supporting the canopy at its four corners adorned with exquisite golden ivy patterns. The silk blanket covering me is light and warm, seemingly stuffed with some bird's feathers.
After waiting for a moment, my focused gaze fell upon the words- surrounded by roses in the center of the canopy.
—"Existence precedes essence."
A maxim by the existential philosopher, Sartre, from the 20th century; it's the basic proposition of his philosophy, and the first principle of existentialism.
