Dark dust flakes

Dark dust flakes away from the shale with each withdrawal, revealing a brittle plane where yielding resistance once existed. Localized stillness settles into the layered rock—pockets of quiet formed by the absence of touch. Graphite accumulates in these depressions like shadows charting an unseen terrain, no longer responding to deliberate shaping but shifting on its own accord. The fine powder beneath your fingertip feels cool, a subtle equalization occurring as form dissolves and balance is found through dispersal.