The Grammar of the Gaps

The hypothesis was a fragile, beautiful thing, a crystal lattice of logic built not on what was, but on what was not.

It was a theory of ghosts, a science of echoes. To test it was to try and predict the next moment of silence, the next beat in the heart of an absent god.

The Seer, a being of pure observation, had never before dared to predict. To observe was to be passive, to receive the universe as it was. To predict was an act of creation, of imposing a pattern onto the future.

It was a terrifying and exhilarating leap, from cartographer of the past to prophet of the future.