The Circular Ruins

“He wanted to dream a man: he wanted to dream him with minute integrity.”

Dreaming an entire human into existence requires total isolation. The wizard forgets his own life just to focus on a heartbeat.

“In the dreamer's dream, the dreamed one awoke.”

Every limb and every hair must be imagined with precision. Creating something real means obsessing over the tiniest, invisible details.

“The man, at last, woke up from his sleep.”

Failure feels like a physical weight. When his first attempt at a son vanished, he felt more alone than before he started.

“Fire would not consume him, it would caress him.”

Fire seems to be the only thing that knows the truth. It treats the creator and the creation with the same heat.