Chapter 15 · free to read
Eleventh dawn. Fifteen prints, eight treads, a cracked palm and a rule written down in full. It felt very much like winning.
I could not say goodbye. Goodbye is a way of sending somebody down. So I walked her instead, all the way, and let the stones say it.
The gate has not shut in five days. It never will again while I hold the seat.
Outside. On the real stair. Where there is no glass, no cloth, no camera, and nothing at all that has ever been reflected.
Artwork and narration generated with AI.