Macarius fell. At least, that was what it felt like. There was no ground beneath him.
No wind. No sense of direction. No up or no down. Nothing.
He floated through an endless darkness, his body suspended as though the world itself had forgotten to give him somewhere to stand.
Macarius slowly turned his head. Nothing. He looked behind himself. As he keep looking to the every side he saw nothing. The darkness stretched in every direction without even the faintest point of light.
"Where...?"
His voice sounded strangely distant.
"Where am I?"
There was no answer. Macarius swallowed. A familiar fear began creeping into his chest. Not the fear of being attacked.
Not the fear of dying. Something worse. The fear of being completely alone.bHe turned again.
"Is anyone there?"
His voice disappeared into the darkness. No echo returned. Nothing answered. His breathing became faster.
"Where..."
Then he saw something. Far away. A faint blue glow. Macarius froze. The light grew larger.
No.
It wasn’t getting larger. It was getting closer. Something was approaching him. His body instinctively tensed. The blue light slowly took shape.
First, a vague outline. Then shoulders. A head. Arms. A long, flowing form. It resembled a woman. But calling it a woman felt wrong. There was no skin. No clothing. No flesh. No recognizable physical body.
It was as though someone had taken the concept of a human woman and drawn her entirely from blue light.
Thousands of thin luminous strands formed her shape, constantly moving like currents beneath deep water.
Her hair flowed without wind. Her body shifted between transparency and brilliance. Her enormous figure towered over Macarius. He stared.
"What...?"
Fear immediately seized him. He tried to move backward. Nothing happened. His body wouldn’t respond.
"Move..."
He tried again. Nothing. His arms wouldn’t move. His legs wouldn’t move. Even his fingers remained frozen. The blue woman continued approaching.
Slowly. Calmly.
Until she was directly in front of him. Macarius looked up. She was enormous compared to him. Yet strangely...
She didn’t feel threatening. The enormous figure slowly extended one hand. Her fingers opened. Macarius watched them approaching. His heart hammered against his chest.
’She’s going to grab me.’
He wanted to escape. He couldn’t. The hand came closer. Closer.
Until Macarius realized something strange. She wasn’t looking at him the way a predator looked at prey. She was looking at him with something resembling curiosity.
Almost tenderness. As though she were examining something incredibly small and precious resting within her palm.
Macarius’s fear slowly began to weaken. The blue woman stopped. Her enormous hand hovered near him. Then she spoke.
"[][][][][][]..."
Macarius blinked. Nothing. He couldn’t understand a single sound. It wasn’t even a language he didn’t recognize. The sound itself seemed distorted.
Broken. As though something was standing between her voice and his ears. She tried again.
"[][]... []... [][][]..."
Macarius frowned.
"What?"
The woman tilted her head. She seemed confused. She tried once more.
"[][][][][][]..."
Still nothing. Macarius stared at her. She didn’t look angry. She didn’t look hostile. If anything, she looked increasingly puzzled. Macarius slowly raised one hand.
He pointed toward his ear. Then shook his head. He pointed toward his mouth. Then shook his head again.
"I can’t..."
His voice sounded strange. He couldn’t even properly hear himself.
"Sorry."
He gestured toward his ear again.
"I can’t understand you."
He paused.
"And..."
He frowned.
"Your voice isn’t coming through properly."
The blue woman became completely still. For several seconds, she simply looked at him. Then her enormous shoulders lowered slightly. Sadness. That was what Macarius saw.
Not clearly. Not through a human face. But somehow he could feel it. She was disappointed.
No.
Not disappointed in him. Sad for him. She lowered her hand. Then tried again.
"[][][][]..."
Macarius shook his head.
"I still can’t understand."
Silence. The woman stared at him. Macarius stared back. Neither moved. For the first time since waking beneath the trash, Macarius felt something other than confusion.
Curiosity.
’Who is she? Why is she here? Why does she seem to know me? Why does she look at me like that?’
The woman raised one hand again. A faint glow gathered around her fingers. Then she slowly touched the darkness beside Macarius.
The darkness rippled. Like the surface of water. Macarius watched in fascination.
"What are you trying to tell me?"
She didn’t answer. Or perhaps she did.
"[][][][][][]..."
Again, he heard nothing meaningful. Macarius frowned.
"I don’t understand..."
The woman remained silent. Then something changed. A tiny smile appeared within the blue light that formed her face.
It was barely visible. But it was unmistakably a smile.
Macarius stared. For some reason, his chest tightened.
"Wait..."
His vision suddenly began fading. The blue figure became blurred.
"Wait..."
His body felt heavy. He tried to reach toward her. His arm barely moved.
"What’s happening to me...?"
His voice became weaker. The woman remained there. Still smiling.
Then–
Her voice changed. The distorted sounds disappeared. The barrier between them seemed to vanish. And for the first time, Macarius heard her clearly.
Her voice was gentle. Warm. Almost painfully familiar.
"It looks like it’s still hard for you to hear it."
Macarius’s eyes widened. The woman’s blue figure began fading into the darkness.
"But I am sure..."
Her voice became softer.
"One day, you will reach that point."
Macarius desperately tried to keep his eyes open.
"Wait..."
She smiled.
"Until then..."
The darkness swallowed everything around them.
"...take care."
Her final words reached him with perfect clarity.
"My dear son."
Macarius’s eyes widened.
"Son...?"
Before he could ask anything else–
The darkness took him.
Fresh air rushed into his lungs. Macarius inhaled sharply. His chest rose. Then fell. He breathed again. Cool, clean air filled his lungs, carrying the faint scent of grass and something sweet he couldn’t identify.
For several seconds, he simply breathed. There was no smell of garbage. No damp iron. No chemical disinfectant. No cramped room. No stale air.
Just...
Freshness. Macarius slowly opened his eyes. Light immediately entered his vision.
He squinted. Above him stretched an enormous sky.
Clear.
Endlessly blue. A few white clouds drifted lazily across it, moving so slowly that they almost appeared motionless.
Macarius blinked several times. His eyes gradually adjusted. He realized he was lying on his back. Grass surrounded him.
Not the short, carefully maintained grass of a city park. Wild grass. Soft blades brushed against his cheeks and neck whenever the wind passed over him.
He slowly moved one hand. His fingers sank into the cool earth beneath the grass.
Damp soil. Tiny roots. Small leaves. He felt everything. Macarius remained still. For a moment, he had forgotten to be confused. He simply stared. Then the wind passed over him.
It slipped through his dark hair, lifting several strands from his forehead before letting them fall again.
The sensation was strangely pleasant. He closed his eyes for a moment. The wind continued moving through his hair. His breathing became deeper. His body felt...
Better. Much better. The exhaustion that had weighed down his limbs earlier was gone. His head no longer felt like it was being crushed from the inside.
His muscles felt light. His lungs felt full. Even his heartbeat seemed calmer. Macarius slowly pushed himself upright. He sat on the hillside. And then he looked around.
His mouth fell slightly open.
The hill stretched beneath him in a gentle slope, covered almost entirely by green grass and scattered wildflowers.
Beyond the hill was a forest. A massive forest. Its canopy stretched across the landscape like an endless green sea.
Trees stood so densely together that their individual trunks became difficult to distinguish from a distance. Some rose far above the others, their enormous crowns breaking through the canopy.
The wind moved across the forest.
From where Macarius sat, it looked as though waves were traveling through the trees.
Farther beyond it...
Mountains. Great mountains.
Their peaks rose into the distance, some covered in deep green vegetation and others disappearing into pale mist.
The highest peaks seemed to touch the clouds. Macarius stared at them. He couldn’t remember ever seeing anything like this.
But something inside him reacted before his mind could.
His shoulders loosened. His breathing slowed. For the first time since waking beneath the trash, he didn’t feel trapped.
There were no walls. No chains. No iron chair. No interrogation table. No blue-haired woman made from light. No blade against his throat.
Only sky. Grass. Forest. Mountains. Wind. He lowered his gaze to his hands. They were his hands. He knew that much. Yet even that felt uncertain. He pressed his palm against the grass again.
The tiny blades bent beneath his fingers. A small yellow flower trembled beside his wrist. Macarius carefully touched it.bThe flower moved with the wind. He stared at it for a while.
"Where..."
His voice was quiet.
"...am I?"
There was no answer. But this time, the silence didn’t frighten him. A distant bird called from somewhere inside the forest. Another answered.
Leaves rustled. Somewhere far below the hill, he could hear what sounded like running water.
A stream. Perhaps a river. Macarius slowly stood.The wind caught his shirt and pushed it gently against his body.
He looked toward the mountains again.
Something about the sight made his chest tighten.
Not fear. Something else. A strange feeling he couldn’t name. Freedom, perhaps. Or the beginning of it.
He took a slow breath. The air tasted clean.
For the first time since he had opened his eyes in that filthy alley, Macarius felt as though he could actually breathe.
Then a familiar blue light appeared in front of him. His expression immediately stiffened.
A translucent System Window unfolded in the middle of the beautiful landscape.
And beneath the clear blue sky, surrounded by mountains and an endless forest, new words slowly appeared.
[Welcome to the First Floor.]
[Greenlands of the Okova]