A Walk In The Clouds May 2026

He walked for what felt like hours, or perhaps seconds, through a gallery of his own life. He saw the first archway he ever built, the stones shimmering in the mist. He saw the face of his wife as a young girl, her laughter rendered in a flurry of ice crystals.

Elias blinked. He was standing on the edge of the cliff in Oakhaven. The sun had fully risen, dissolving the Veil into nothing but morning dew. His boots were damp, and his lungs felt clearer than they had in years. A Walk In The Clouds

Clara turned, her eyes bright with the light of a thousand suns. "You have more stones to lay, Papa. But now you know where the path leads when the work is done." She blew a breath of mist into his face. He walked for what felt like hours, or

His boot didn't find the abyss. Instead, it met a surface that felt like packed wool and cold silk. It gave slightly under his weight, then held. He took another step, then another, walking straight out into the white nothingness. Elias blinked

Elias tried to speak, but his throat was full of the heavy, cold mist. He reached out a calloused hand, his fingers trembling. As he touched her shoulder, the cloud beneath them began to thin. The weight of the world—the gravity he had lived by for fifty years—started to pull at his boots. "I can't stay, can I?" he managed to whisper.

A year after her passing, Elias found himself standing at that same edge. The fog was particularly dense that morning, a restless sea of pearl pressing against the cliffs. For the first time in his life, Elias didn't see a wall. He saw a path. He stepped off.