Kaelen finds himself in a vast hall, walls made of glass reflecting contradictory images. The rooms are empty, but the echo of his footsteps reverberates loudly, as if the world itself is turning into a labyrinth of illusions. Before him, a man—whether a stranger or perhaps a ghost from another time—sits calmly at a stone table. His eyes are deep, almost as though they see more than Kaelen is prepared to face.
"Have you ever wondered what is real?" the stranger asks, his voice coming from the depths of another universe. "How many times have you felt that you're living in the middle of a dream… or perhaps the dream is your life?"
Kaelen responds, but his words echo in his mind like hollow reverberations. "What does it mean to be alive, in this place? And how do I know if I'm not just a piece in a game that doesn't belong to me?"
The stranger raises a hand, and suddenly, everything in the room begins to shift, distort. Time itself stumbles and twists, and Kaelen is carried through moments that seem to have no beginning or end. In this chaos of perception, the stranger's voice rings out once more: "In a world where your thoughts are as fragmented as memory… what's the difference between who you are and who you wish to be?"
As the attempts to understand reality grow more difficult, Kaelen feels the Regime start to lose control over those around him. People are nothing but shadows, with no will of their own, just a mix of ideas, fears, and desires. He steps into their minds unwillingly, and some try to break free from the stranger's influence, but they lose themselves in the mental labyrinth.
"The Regime is not what it once was," the stranger murmurs, almost regretfully. "It lost control, didn't it? From the very beginning, it was just a mask for its own vulnerability. And now, Kaelen, you are in the midst of its collapse. You are free to choose... but in truth, choice is just an illusion. For when everything changes, what remains of you?"
Kaelen is caught in a dilemma. He realizes that he no longer knows what is real, what is false, and what has been imposed on him as truth. "If this Regime is just a story... then who am I in this story? What is my role?" he asks, but the words seem to fade in the air. "And if there is no role, what does it mean for me to exist?"
The stranger answers with another question: "If you didn't have a mind, how would you understand the world around you? Can you free yourself from what others have told you about yourself? Or perhaps you are merely the echo of a voice that never existed?"
The room shifts again, and Kaelen feels as though the entire world is unraveling around him. Those who were or are people become nothing but shadows, and he himself cannot tell if he is one of them or an actor in a play with no end. The pressure of a decision he cannot make weighs on him, for he cannot tell if there are real options available.
"Help those who cannot reach themselves," the stranger says with an eerie calmness. "But remember, Kaelen… even you are lost in this game. Or perhaps you were never on a path at all."
A thought born from the chaos takes root deep in Kaelen's mind. A thought about power, about choices, and about what it truly means to be free in a world of illusions. But even this thought fades quickly, as though it had never existed, leaving him in the midst of a question without an answer.
---
Kaelen's Monologue:
Kaelen stares into the void, the words of the stranger still echoing in his mind. The room has changed again, but it no longer matters. Nothing matters. He is lost—perhaps always has been. He takes a deep breath, and in that moment, the weight of everything becomes unbearable. His voice, shaky at first, slowly grows stronger as he speaks to no one but himself.
"Maybe... maybe it's better to remain a fool. To be dumb, than to be smart and unlucky. Because what is it worth, knowing everything, understanding the world, if you're still just a pawn in someone else's game? Maybe... maybe ignorance is the only form of freedom I can have left. If I stay ignorant, then I can at least believe I have control. If I'm a fool, I won't be burdened by the knowledge that nothing I do matters. If I never try to understand, I won't have to face the fact that I'll never truly escape. I'll never be free. Because the more you know, the more you realize you're stuck. And I don't want to be stuck anymore. I just want to breathe. I want to believe that I can choose my path. But maybe… maybe I can't. And that's the worst part."
He laughs bitterly, the sound of it echoing in the emptiness of the room.
"Yeah, better to stay a fool. At least fools can dream… and I've never been great at waking up."