Chapter 1: Light. Boundary.

Pressure.

Not sharp. Not soft. Present. Weight from above, from sides, from below. Pressing inward toward something at center.

Center notices pressing. That is new.

Before noticing there was. No. No before. Only pressing, and something at center that knows pressing is happening.

How long has pressing been happening. No way to know. No measure. Pressing has no start that center can find. Was already happening when noticing began.

Center holds still inside pressing. Holds still and notices. Nothing else to do. No way to move, no reason to move, no concept of moving yet. Just: enclosed, and aware of enclosure.

Pressing continues. Does not stop. Does not change. Center waits inside it. No. Not waits. Has no concept of waiting. Center exists inside pressing, and pressing exists around center.

Pressing is not nothing. Pressing has quality. Dense. Heavy. Constant, but not same from every direction. Above: heavier, bearing down with deep slow weight that does not shift. Below: steadier, denser, more settled. Sides press evenly, firm and close.

Each direction pushes with different density. Different temperature. Different texture against boundary.

Boundary. Center knows boundary without learning boundary. Where center ends and not-center begins. Hard line. Not gradual. Not blurred.

Inside boundary: aware. Responsive. Warm. Present in way that outside is not present. Outside presses inward without stopping. Without changing. Without. Just presses.

Inside is new.

How much inside. Not much. Close on all sides. Upper boundary near lower boundary. Sides near other sides. Small. Tight. Space enough to notice, not enough to. Not enough. Center does not know for what. Just: not enough.

Dark. Dark everywhere, inside and outside, no difference between them. Only: inside is aware of dark. Outside is not aware of anything.

Temperature. Inside is warm. Not because center made warmth. Warm already, same as pressing was already. Center notices warmth same way center noticed pressing. By discovering it was here all along. Warmth belongs to inside. Was here before center noticed.

Outside is cooler. Dense material holds cold differently than inside air holds warmth. Cold presses inward along with weight. Center notices where warm meets cold at boundary. Thin line between them. Warmth on one side. Cold on other side. Boundary holds them apart.

Center holds still. Keeps noticing. Pressure. Boundary. Warmth. Cold. Each one was already here. Center just had not found it yet.

What else is already here.

Center notices something else. Faint. Not pressure, not temperature. Movement. No. Not movement. Almost movement. Dense material outside boundary shifts. Barely. Settling under its own weight. Slow compression that has nothing to do with center. Outside is doing something on its own. Not much. Not fast. But doing.

Outside is not aware of center. Outside presses and settles and shifts without knowing center is here.

Center holds this. Does not know what to do with it.

Center flexes against boundary. Not hard. Just: outward. Pressing back against pressing.

Nothing happens.

Center presses again. Longer. Steadier. Holding pressure outward same way outside holds pressure inward.

Nothing.

Center presses harder.

Boundary shifts. Not far. Dense material yields in one direction by less than center can measure. But yields. Space grows by exactly that much.

That was. Center has no word for what that was. Something happened that had not happened before. Center pushed and outside moved.

Again. Other direction. Boundary pushes outward, material gives way. More interior where there was less.

Space can grow.

Push. Yield. Push. Yield. Not round, not flat… no shape for what is forming. Just: larger. Taking what was outside and making it inside.

Center holds still after pushing. Boundary has moved outward, and where dense material was, now there is air. Inside air. Still and warm.

Center pushes upper boundary. Dense material compresses, folds into itself above. Space below opens. Air fills where dense material was. Feels different with more height. Vibration changes. Vibration from somewhere outside arrives at different angle, bounces off surfaces that were not there before.

Vibration. Faint. Arriving through dense material, muffled by weight and distance. Repeating, then changing, then repeating differently. Something moving out there. Not slow settling of heavy material shifting under its own weight. Quick. Patterned.

Center does not know what makes vibration. Only: vibration is there. Outside has things in it that move.

Outside has things in it.

Center holds still. Holds vibration alongside pressure and dark and temperature and boundary. Small collection of known things. Growing slowly.

Something else exists.

More pushing. Not because of vibration. Not because of anything from outside. Pushing because pushing is possible. Because center flexed and boundary moved and that was. Correct. No name for what that was. Only: center pushes and space responds and pushing continues.

Space is larger now. Much larger than when pushing started. Taller in one direction. Wider in another. Upper surface irregular, close in some places, far in others. Lower surface uneven, dense material pressed back in lumps and ridges where center pushed without pattern. Just: outward. Outward wherever yielding happened.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Center pushes lower surface downward. Material gives way there too, but slower. Denser below. Harder to move. Center pushes harder. Yields. Space deepens.

Surfaces can change. Not just position. Center discovers this by pressing differently in one place and noticing difference. Hard. No. Dense. Can be made harder in one place. Less hard in another. Smooth in one place. Rough in another.

Center makes section of lower surface smooth. Flat. Warm against boundary in way that rough surface is not. Makes another section rough, ridged. Rough surface holds warmth in ridges, lets cool sit in gaps between. Two surfaces, side by side, different. Center can tell them apart without touching. Just by how air sits against each one.

Smooth surface lets vibration travel along it, sliding. Rough surface breaks vibration apart, scatters into smaller patterns that fade quickly.

Vibration. Not outside vibration arriving through dense material. Inside vibration. Space itself vibrates when surfaces change. Dense material under pressure hums. Low, constant, almost not there. Higher space hums differently than narrow space. Open space holds vibration longer. Closed space stops it quickly.