### Chapter 41: *"The Question That Walks With You"*
Majid kept walking.
Not because he knew where he was going.
But because stopping felt like an answer he wasn't ready to accept.
Rana walked beside him, silent but present. She didn't ask questions anymore — not out of fear, but because she understood now that some paths could only be walked alone, even when taken together.
The Hollow Man had vanished behind them without a sound or farewell, as if it had never been there at all. But Majid still felt its presence lingering in the air, like the last note of a song that refused to fade.
Something had changed.
He could feel it in the way the world responded to his steps — not with resistance, not with welcome, but with curiosity.
As if it too was trying to understand who he was now.
---
### 🔮 Part II: The Questioner
They reached a place that had no name.
It was not a city.
Not a ruin.
Not even a space they could define.
It simply *was*.
A clearing in thought.
A pause in the fabric of what might have once been reality.
And standing in the center was someone else.
Tall.
Thin.
Wearing robes woven from something between shadow and light.
Its face was visible — unlike the Hollow Man — but it shifted subtly with every blink, as if it couldn't decide which version of itself to show.
It watched them approach with calm interest.
Then spoke.
Its voice was soft.
Measured.
Thoughtful.
> _"You are not the first to walk this path."_
Majid stopped a few feet away.
— Then who were they?
The figure tilted its head slightly.
> _"Some asked for truth."_
> _"Others sought escape."_
> _"A few tried to rewrite themselves."_
It studied Majid carefully.
> _"None of them returned."_
Rana tensed beside him.
— And you?
The figure smiled faintly.
> _"I am not meant to return."_
> _"I am meant to ask."_
Majid narrowed his eyes.
— Ask what?
The figure stepped closer.
Its eyes held galaxies.
> _"Who are you?"_
The question hit Majid harder than he expected.
It wasn't just words.
It was weight.
It was meaning.
It was everything he had avoided since stepping beyond the spiral.
He opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Then finally said:
— I don't know.
The figure nodded, as if satisfied.
> _"Good."_
Majid frowned.
— Why good?
> _"Because those who believe they know who they are rarely survive this place."_
> _"They forget that names change."_
Rana finally spoke.
— What is your name?
The figure looked at her.
> _"I do not have one."_
> _"Names belong to those who need to be remembered."_
> _"I only ask."_
Majid swallowed.
— And what happens to those who cannot answer?
The figure's expression did not change.
> _"They become part of the question."_
> _"Forever asking, never knowing."_
Silence stretched between them.
Then Majid asked:
— Who made this place?
The figure tilted its head again.
> _"No one."_
> _"It made itself."_
> _"In response to those who seek more than answers."_
> _"Those who seek meaning."_
Majid's breath caught.
He realized something then.
This wasn't just another echo.
This wasn't just another traveler lost to the spiral.
This being — whatever it was — existed outside of time, outside of memory.
It was not born.
It was not created.
It simply **asked**.
And by asking, it shaped the world around it.
---
### 🧩 Part III: The Mirror of Meaning
The figure turned slowly, gesturing toward something behind it.
A mirror stood there.
Not reflective.
Not solid.
Just… watching.
Majid approached it cautiously.
As he neared, the surface rippled.
Not with movement.
With understanding.
His reflection did not match him.
It moved differently.
Spoke differently.
It was not him.
But it was not a stranger either.
It was possibility.
It was becoming.
The reflection looked at him.
And asked:
> _"Who do you want to be?"_
Majid blinked.
The reflection waited.
He tried to speak.
Nothing came.
So he tried again.
— I don't know.
The reflection smiled.
> _"That is the only honest answer."_
It tilted its head.
> _"But soon, you will have to choose."_
> _"Because the world no longer asks only what you are."_
> _"It asks what you will become."_
Majid stared into the mirror.
At himself.
At what he might be.
At what he might lose.
Then he whispered:
— And if I choose wrong?
The reflection met his gaze.
> _"Then you will become part of the question."_
> _"Like the rest."_
Rana stepped beside him.
Her voice was steady.
— What kind of choices?
The reflection looked at her.
> _"One path leads to forgetting."_
> _"Another leads to remembering too much."_
> _"A third leads to neither."_
> _"But that path has no name yet."_
Majid looked back at the figure who had brought them here.
— And what about you?
The being watched him calmly.
> _"I do not choose."_
> _"I only ask."_
Then it added softly:
> _"And sometimes, asking is enough to shape the world."_
---
(End of Chapter)
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