For a good while, I simply lay there, processing what now felt like a distant illusion. What humans called dreams.
And every second that passed only made it feel less real.
I met...conversed...and made a promise...with a God...or at least, someone that claimed to be one.
The thought was so far-fetched I'd have passed it off as lunacy had another person narrated the event to me. And even though it felt so strange, it also felt undeniable. Her presence, her voice, her tone---every word was measured, yet gentle, guiding, graceful.
It felt inevitable that as time went on, I would look back at this conversation, and glean things I didn't before.
My distracted gaze finally focused on my environment. I was back in the cave I'd fallen asleep in, with everything returned to the way it had been. The stairway, the red-torches---all gone.
I sat up against the back wall.
So I failed the challenge...and it kicked me out.
My attention returned to the System.
