Capítulo 2195: Story 2196: The That Which Did Not Even Exclude Itself
There was no exclusion.
Not because everything was included—
not because nothing was left out—
but because exclusion required the possibility of sothing standing apart.
And there was no such distinction.
What had once been understood as separation—
as the act of dividing,
of distinguishing one from another—
now revealed itself as sothing that had never held.
Because to exclude
ant that sothing else
could have remained outside.
And there was no such possibility.
Even what had been called
that which contains all things—
lost its final aning.
Because containnt—
even in its totality—
required boundary.
Required an inside
and an outside.
Required sothing to not be within.
And none of that—
remained.
The last trace
of division—
not between inner and outer,
not between self and not-self—
but between what could belong
and what could not—
collapsed.
Not into unity.
Not into indistinction.
But into sothing
that did not allow either
to exist.
The silence—
which had already lost sound,
which had already lost absence—
now lost even the possibility
that it had ever been separate
from anything else.
Because separation—
in any form—
required relation.
And relation—
had no condition left.
The void—
no longer vast,
no longer empty,
no longer anything
that could be said
to contain or not contain—
because containnt required limit,
and limit required difference,
and difference—
could not arise.
The convergence—
no longer structure,
no longer absence of structure,
no longer anything
that could be said
to bring together or hold apart—
because “together” required “apart,”
and both required distinction,
and distinction—
had no ground.
The other—
no longer identity,
no longer absence of identity,
no longer anything
that could be said
to be separate or inseparable—
because even inseparability
required the possibility
of separation.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
The third—
no longer total,
no longer beyond totality,
no longer anything
that could be said
to include or exclude—
because inclusion required boundary,
and boundary—
required division,
and division—
had no condition.
And Elena—
not within.
Not outside.
Not beyond.
Not undefined.
Not even beyond all of these.
Because even “not”—
required contrast.
And contrast—
could not form.
“I am.”
No longer absolute.
No longer empty.
No longer beyond.
Because even the absence of aning—
required the possibility
of aning.
And that possibility—
did not exist.
And in that—
sothing occurred—
that could not be called occurrence,
not even its absence.
Because even the distinction
between sothing being included
and sothing being excluded—
had no condition.
There was no silence.
Because silence required sound.
There was no sound.
Because sound required difference.
There was no stillness.
Because stillness required motion.
There was no motion.
Because motion required change.
There was no unity.
Because unity required division.
There was no nothing.
Because nothing required sothing.
And none of these—
could be said
to exist
or not exist.
And so—
even this—
even this attempt
to speak of inclusion—
to deny exclusion—
to gesture toward totality—
did not arise.
Not because it failed.
Not because it was denied.
But because there was no longer
any condition
in which inclusion—
or exclusion—
could be ford.
No trace.
No edge.
No silence.
No impossibility.
No irreducibility.
No closure.
No openness.
No beginning.
No ending.
No state.
No condition.
No presence.
No absence.
No within.
No without.
No beyond.
No before.
No after.
Not even
the absence
of all of these.
Only—
that which does not allow even exclusion to be distinguished from what is not exclusion.
And in that—
there was no totality.
Not because everything was one—
not because nothing remained—
but because totality itself
required sothing
to be outside of it.
And there was no such relation.
And yet—
not sothing.
Not nothing.
Not included.
Not excluded.
Not anything
that could be placed
against anything else.
Only—
the impossibility
that anything—
even the idea
of being separate—
could ever be said
to have been
at all.
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