Infinite Mirror

Eight years old, quivering with fear and excitement, harboring a budding genius and the first seeds of restlessness, he steps up to the Untempered Schism . . .

. . . and he is looking at Reality, at all of Time and Space, and it burns . . . and he is also looking at his own couldbeswillbesmustbes, because his futurepastpresent and that of the Universe arewerewillbe inexorably intertwined . . . and he sees familyrebellionflightadventureloveexcitementfearcompanionshipabandonmentvictorylosslife – and then there is wardesperationfireburningpaindeath –

- and he runs, not sure which he fears more: that the death is his, or that it isn't.