Journey of a Thousand Miles

Previously

…The horizon was curved—not the gentle curve of a planet, but a sharper, unnatural arc, as though the world had been bent into a bowl. He traced it, left to right, and the curve did not flatten. It rose, subtly but unmistakably, at both ends of his view. The sky met the land not in a distant line, but in a vast, enclosing perimeter. He lowered the telescope, his heart pounding. The wilderness was not infinite. It was contained. The sky was not sky—it was a lid, a dome, a shell of immense scale. And he was inside it. The compass in his pocket felt heavy, as if it too knew the truth. Jacob looked east, toward the next biome, and wondered if the way out was a door, or a trap.