{"id":61014,"date":"2026-02-08T05:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T04:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/?p=61014"},"modified":"2026-03-28T08:44:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T07:44:49","slug":"after-world-s-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eden-saga.com\/en\/after-world-s-end.html","title":{"rendered":"After World’s End"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"The Edge of a Desert Called Earth<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

I – The Sage and the Breath<\/strong><\/h4>\n

by Alain Aillet<\/strong><\/p>\n

A sage lived on the edge of a desert, where roads get lost, where questions arrive before travelers. He had neither school nor disciple. To those who came, he spoke little, but in his presence the thoughts fell like overripe fruit. A man sat before him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nOn his face was the fatigue of those who have read a lot without finding peace. He asked the sage:
\n\u2014 What is left after the end of the world?<\/em><\/p>\n

The sage poured water into a clove jar. The water immediately escaped and disappeared into the sand.
\n\u2014 The water is gone. Are you saying it\u2019s no longer?<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 She is no longer in the jar, replied the man.
\n\u2014 There you go, said the sage. You have already corrected your thought.<\/em><\/p>\n

The man frowned.
\n\u2014 Yet, if the world really ends, there is no longer either a jar, or sand, or a look to note the absence. Then there is nothing.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sage smiles.
\n\u2014 You say nothing with confidence, as if you knew what you were saying. When you say ‘nothing’, what do you show?<\/em>
\n\u2014 An absence, replied the man. A void.<\/em>
\n\u2014 Where is this emptiness? asked the sage.<\/em>
\n\u2014 In… what was there before.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 Yes. The <\/em>nothing is always housed somewhere. It is the absence in a presence. He is the empty place on the table, the jar without water, the abandoned house. The nothing needs a frame to be recognized.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"Hors cadre<\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man then says:
\n\u2014 Yet, if someone speaks after the end of the world, the world is not really over. Who could be the narrator of this \u201cafter\u201d ?<\/em>
\n\u2014 You ask the right question. Because the narrator is always an admission.<\/em><\/p>\n

The sage looked up at the sky, where the twilight still mingled the light with the shadow.
\n\u2014 If the narrator is a survivor, then the ending has left remnants. If the narrator is impersonal, then there remains a scene to describe. If the narrator is the silence itself, then you write that silence again, and it becomes a sign.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 What if the narrator is the Source? asked the man.<\/em>
\n\u2014 The ending is off. If the Source speaks, nothing has been lost.<\/em><\/p>\n

The man did not answer. He felt that something in him resisted.
\n\u2014 You would like the end to be total, the sage continued. By desire for coherence or desire for despair, you want an end that has no backstage. Yes, said the man. A ending that does not cheat.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 An absolute end transcends thought, reason, and meaning, says the sage. The end of the world is only the end of a world.\u00a0 Some say: after the end, there remains the man, naked and responsible, without heaven to catch up with him. It is a harsh and dignified word. It asks a lot.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others say: after the end, there is no break, just a change. They do not cling to what passes. Nor to themselves, who will pass. But saying after the end, there is nothing, is a lost bet. And some say: after the end, there is nothing. This nothing becomes a throne, a being more absolute than the gods.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014 And you, wise one, what do you say?<\/em>
\n\u2014 All these words revolve around the same fire. Not around nothingness.<\/em><\/p>\n

He picked up a handful of sand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"A handful of sand<\/h5>\n

\n\u2014 The end of the world is the end of your world. The end of your forms, your guarantees, your comfortable stories. But to confuse the end of forms with the abolition of the Whole is to take the penumbra for the night without a star.<\/em><\/p>\n

The man murmured:<\/p>\n

\u2014 But nothingness… absolute absence…<\/em>
\n\u2014 Nothingness is not a reality, but a game of the mind. It is an idea born from fear of any grasp. The nothing exists: the empty table, the destroyed house, the starless sky. The nothing is painful, but it is habitable. Nothingness, on the other hand, is not. And what is not habitable cannot be a destination.<\/em><\/p>\n

All nothingness is nothingness of what it results from.<\/p>