Zaheed floated through a field of stars. Points of intense bright light dotted the empty void around him, billions of hopes, dreams, beliefs, cultures, everything that made a person a person and separated men from beasts. It wasn’t usually so boring to look at but Zaheed was preoccupied at that particular moment.

The zeitgeist could be viewed in any way the observer wished, but it took mental effort. Effort that was currently being used to find a way out.

He’d been drifting through the zeitgeist for decades most likely. He couldn’t tell the passage of time but he could feel it morphing and changing around him gradually. Before he’d ended up inside it, he’d been something of an expert on the zeitgeist phenomenon. Now though, he considered himself the only man in the world that realised the threat it posed.

Stolen novel; please report.

He also realised that there was nothing he could do while he wasn’t even in physical space. So when he decided to save the world, he got serious about escaping. Predictably, that was much easier said than done, as the very purpose of the zeitgeist was to keep what was inside from spilling out into physical reality.

Countless stratagems, plans of action and complex schemes came to nothing as there was not a shred of information in his vast breadth of knowledge that concerned getting out once you were in. Likely because he was the first and only person unlucky enough to have such a detrimental archetype. No matter, Zaheed was saving the world and he had developed extreme patience throughout his time spent wandering.

It was just a matter of waiting for the right opportunity.