When you walk through the ruins and gaze upon the stars, you think you have found hope. But hope is just a lighthouse on a distant shore; it illuminates the direction but cannot dispel the bottomless sea of "self" at your feet. Before you can reach the glory of the sun, you must first navigate this sea of mist under the moonlight alone. Here, the only thing you can trust is not your eyes but the ancient intuition deep within you that knows the tides.
1. After the Glimmer
The spark of hope that was reignited on the ruins was weaker and more fragile than Allen had imagined. When he returned home, the light of day made him feel even more lost. He became a "stranger" in his own family, a sleepwalker speaking a language no one could understand. At night, he couldn't sleep. Staring at the night sky, the same sky that had comforted him in the wilderness now seemed, through the city lights and glass, to have reverted to distant, cold pinpricks of light. The "inner universe" he had found seemed to have closed its door to him once more. Was the hope given by that "star" real? Or was it just a more refined illusion he had created in a state of extreme breakdown?
2. The Forest's Entrance
He began to dream uncontrollably. The dreams were bizarre and phantasmagoric, yet the same scene appeared repeatedly: an ancient, boundless forest perpetually shrouded in a thin mist. The moonlight was the only source of light, but it was a cold, silver-gray light that could not penetrate the dense fog, only stretch the shadows of the trees into strange and monstrous shapes. This dream began to erode his reality day after day. He became more silent, and his gaze was often unfocused. Finally, one night after taking a sedative, he woke up unconsciously to find himself at the front door of his house, holding his car keys. An irresistible impulse seized him. He had to go to that place. He had to enter that forest.
【Echo from the Mirror】
What is your "Moonlight Forest" like? In it, what monsters have your deepest fears transformed into? Is it the shadow of failure, the abandoned lone wolf, or an unknown behemoth slowly rising from the deep abyss of your subconscious? Do you dare to enter this forest and face the illusions cast by your own fears?
3. Two Towers and a Double Echo
When the sky began to show the pale color of dawn, he parked his car by the side of the road. In front of him was the primal forest that had appeared countless times in his dreams, shrouded in a milky white morning mist. The boundary between reality and dream was completely blurred in this moment. Without a moment's hesitation, he stepped inside. After walking for an unknown period of time, he stopped. Ahead on the path, two huge, identical rock formations appeared, like two silent watchtowers. These were the "two towers" from The Moon card, the last boundary of the known world. Standing between these two stone towers, Allen felt an inexplicable shiver. In his mind, two voices rang out. One was the familiar, rational voice of "Professor Allen," and the other was a wild, strange, and hoarse intuition from deep within the earth. They were like two black and white dogs, barking and tearing at each other in his consciousness.
4. The Truth by the Pond
After passing through the stone towers, the fog grew thicker, and the path disappeared entirely. He was exhausted; fear, hunger, and cold clung to him like vines. He finally collapsed in a small clearing. In the center of the clearing was a small, black, bottomless pond. When he lowered his head to look at the water's surface, he saw his reflection changing constantly: the ambitious professor, the man crying in despair, the troubled teenager, the peaceful infant... These forgotten fragments flashed across the water. Then, he saw something slowly rising from the depths of the pond. It was an ancient, viscous "presence" with no eyes, yet it was staring at him. It rose from the mud at the bottom, bringing with it the most primal fear, the fear from the very beginning of life's creation. This was the "crayfish" from The Moon card, representing our deepest survival fears. He recoiled in terror, feeling like he was going insane.
5. Trusting the Moonlight
Just as he was about to be completely submerged by this immense fear, a sliver of silver moonlight pierced a gap in the dense fog and landed right beside his hand. He saw that not far from the pond, the path had reappeared, and it forked into two. Both paths looked identical. Reason told him to go back the way he came, that it was the safest. Fear told him both paths were traps. But the third voice within him, that faint intuition, said, "Don't look with your eyes; feel with your 'heart.'" He closed his eyes and felt a subtle warmth coming from the right path. There was no logical basis for this. It was just a feeling, an act of "trust." He resolutely stepped onto the right path. As he walked, the surrounding fog began to thin, and he heard the first bird song. He reached the end of the forest and found himself standing on the summit of a small hill. On the horizon directly in front of him, a huge, glorious sun, radiating an unstoppable golden light, was bursting forth. The longest night was finally over.