Sol's body remained eerily still as the flavors of the cosmic dish and drink surged through his senses. His vision blurred, and suddenly, the world around him melted away. The bar, the patrons, even the old man's knowing gaze—all of it dissolved into nothingness.
A vast expanse unfolded before him, an endless ocean of stars stretching into infinity. He floated weightlessly in the void, the taste of the meal still lingering on his tongue like an echo of something greater. Then, from the darkness, shapes began to emerge.
He saw glimpses of memories—his own, yet not his own. Scenes of towering structures made of light, alien figures whispering secrets he couldn't understand, an uncharted planet pulsing with energy as if it were alive. He reached out, but his fingers passed through the visions like mist.
Then, something shifted. The void pulsed, and suddenly, Sol was standing on solid ground, or at least something that felt like it. Before him, a massive tree stretched into the heavens, its bark swirling with constellations, its leaves shimmering like galaxies in motion. The sheer presence of it made his breath hitch. It was ancient, beyond comprehension, and yet… it felt familiar.
A voice resonated, deep and unfathomable, as if the universe itself was speaking.
"What do you seek, traveler?"
Sol's heart pounded. He wasn't sure if he could speak, but the question rang through his very soul. This was no simple hallucination—this was something else entirely. Something real.
And it was waiting for his answer.
Sol pondered the being's question, his thoughts spiraling through endless possibilities. What did he seek? Knowledge? Power? A purpose? Yet, as much as he tried to form an answer, nothing felt right. Instead, more questions flooded his mind.
Time passed—or at least, it felt like it did. He stood in silence, locked in contemplation, his eyes drifting over the impossible expanse of the cosmic tree before him. Still, he said nothing.
The voice stirred again, cutting through his thoughts like a ripple in still water. "You are a strange one," it mused. "Most answer without hesitation, even if their words do not ring true to their hearts. Yet I sense no falsehood in you… because I sense no desire. Only an endless curiosity."
Sol swallowed hard, his mind racing. He forced himself to steady his breath before speaking. "Who are you?" he asked, his voice carrying through the infinite space around him.
There was silence for a moment—an eternity compressed into a single breath. Then, the voice returned, deeper than before, reverberating in his very bones. As it spoke, the very fabric of space shifted, and before Sol, light coalesced into form.
Before him stood a humanoid figure, its body composed entirely of radiant light, shifting and pulsing like a living star. It exuded an overwhelming aura of power and knowledge, an embodiment of something beyond mortal comprehension.
"I am that which sees. That which remembers. That which has been and will be."
Sol's heart skipped a beat—not out of fear, but something deeper, something primal. He wanted to know. What was this being standing before him? How did it come to be? What did it know? Questions flooded his mind, each one more insistent than the last, spiraling endlessly with no conclusion in sight.
The figure silently watched him, unmoving, as if able to read the storm of thoughts swirling within him. Then, it spoke again, its voice resonating through the very fabric of existence.
"Interesting," it mused. "You truly have no desire. Here I am, offering you things beyond your reach, and yet your heart is filled with nothing but questions about me."
Sol's eyes sharpened, his lips curling slightly. "Is curiosity not a desire in itself?" he challenged. "You speak as if the absence of greed or ambition makes me empty, but doesn't the need to understand drive existence just as much as the need to obtain?"
The figure remained silent, the shifting light of its form flickering, almost contemplative.
Encouraged by the lack of immediate dismissal, Sol pressed on. "People chase power because they want control. They chase knowledge because they want answers. They chase purpose because they want meaning. But wanting to know—just for the sake of knowing—is its own kind of hunger."
The being's radiance pulsed, something between amusement and intrigue lacing its next words. "You argue like one who has seen beyond their own mortality. Tell me, then, traveler—if curiosity is your hunger, will you be satisfied when you have seen all there is to see?
Sol considered the question, his mind racing through infinite possibilities. He wanted to say yes, that knowledge itself would be enough. But deep down, he wasn't sure. After a long pause, he sighed. "I don't know."
The being's light flickered, intrigued. "Why so?" it asked, its voice carrying a rare note of curiosity, as if Sol had managed to surprise it.
Sol hesitated for a moment before speaking, his voice slower this time, more introspective. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "But it doesn't feel right. It's true that I'm curious, that I have this weird hunger to know everything… but there's something terrifying about it too. What if—by some impossible chance—I actually do learn everything? What would be left?"
He exhaled, his thoughts unraveling as he continued. "And at the same time, it makes me unreasonably mad knowing that no matter how much I learn, no matter what I discover, there will always be more that I won't. The universe is ever-expanding, new things are being invented and uncovered every second, but… I'm just human. My decades of life will amount to nothing in the grand scheme of it all."
His hands clenched slightly. "So what's the point of learning if I can't learn it all?"
He kept talking, pouring his heart out, his voice tinged with frustration and fascination all at once. Even he was surprised by what he was saying—by how deeply this thought had buried itself inside him without him ever realizing it. For the first time, he was truly looking at himself, at the overwhelming hunger and helplessness that came with his insatiable need to understand.