Elias tumbled through the abyss, the shards of his existence spinning around him like broken mirrors. Each reflection bore a version of himself—some familiar, others foreign. A scholar, a warrior, a beggar, a king. They all stared at him with hollow, knowing eyes.
And then, the voice came again.
"Wake up."
It wasn't a command, nor a plea. It was something deeper—like the hum of the universe itself whispering into his soul.
Elias's body jerked as an unseen force pulled him forward. The reflections shattered, and he was thrown onto solid ground.
He gasped. Cold air filled his lungs.
Above him, the sky was a vast expanse of swirling gold and black, as if the world was caught between dawn and dusk. The air smelled of rain, though none fell. The landscape stretched endlessly in all directions—hills of shifting sand, rivers that flowed upward into the sky.
He was nowhere.
Or perhaps he was everywhere.
Footsteps crunched against the sand behind him. Elias turned.
A figure stood there, cloaked in a robe darker than the void itself, their face hidden beneath a hood.
"You're beginning to see," the figure said, their voice carrying the weight of countless ages.
"Who are you?" Elias's throat was dry.
"The better question is: who are you?"
Elias hesitated. That question had haunted him for as long as he could remember. Every cycle, every dream, every moment of waking into another life—it had all led him here.
"I'm Elias." His voice was steady, though uncertainty clawed at him.
"Elias." The figure repeated his name as if testing its weight. "No, not quite. You were Elias. But Elias was only one of many."
The words sent a chill through his bones.
"What do you mean?"
The figure lifted a hand. With a mere gesture, the void around them shifted. The sands swirled, taking shape—forming cities, people, entire lifetimes. Elias watched as versions of himself lived and died, loved and lost, fought and surrendered.
It was all him.
It was never him.
"You are not a single man," the figure said. "You are a paradox. A dream that refuses to end."
Elias felt his heartbeat slow.
The truth was clawing its way into his mind, piece by piece.
And for the first time, he was terrified of waking up.