The World
Anthesis
Anthesis: the period a flower is completely open — right before it decides whether to fall or close. Not heaven. Not hell. The afterlife in full bloom, and nobody hands you a map.
The Cradle
A vast dim basin of body-sized petals glowing in permanent dusk. You wake alone, curled like a seed, and the petals dress you in armor — withering to nothing to pay for it. Your first sight of your own armor is the Cradle destroying itself to make it.
The Garden
Where every soul is pulled next. A purgatory-society run on one rule: never shed your armor. The people who tried and failed became something worse than dead — so the rule isn't wrong, exactly. It's just not the whole truth.
The Void
Where you go if you shed completely. Everyone who's ever fully succeeded was never seen again. The Garden calls that proof of death. It might be proof of something else.