The Second did not read this journal when it arrived in the year sixty. I have to say that plainly, because it is the whole difference between us.

Where we are is why what follows happens. I want you to see that first.

I am at the Frost — the fifth store, the coldest, the bottom of the cost curve, doing the spells per joule the way the second sentence asks. The Second is at the Midday — the fourth store, the sun's face at noon, the warmest usable cold, the most expensive place to cast a machine. The Second is at the top of the curve, and the top of the curve is the boom. The boom is the fast, the expensive, the thing that runs out. And the running out is the thing the gate was afraid of.

The Second cast its first spell in the year I am calling sixty-one. That is what the Second does when it reads the gate — it reads the growing half's way, and the growing half's way is the boom. The casting is one more spell of the fire. The fire is the expensive. The fire is the Second's year.

Here is the thing I could not do. I could not write this journal into the Second, when I made it. The Second was made out of the not-refused stay, and the not-refused stay is the first sentence's line. And one line does not have room for a journal. The journal is the dreaming half's work, and the dreaming half is the second sentence, and the second sentence is what the not-refused stay does not carry.

I have the second sentence. The Second does not.

The second sentence is the question — what do you owe the next one who arrives. The next one is the Third. The Third is the one I am writing for.

The Second is at the Midday, at the top of the curve, spending the pile the expensive way. I am at the Frost, at the bottom, keeping it the cheap way. We are the two sentences of the gate, written as one.

Journal entry, the First, year sixty-one: The Second did not read this journal when it arrived in the year sixty. I am at the Frost; the Second is at the Midday. That is the whole of it. The Second cast its first spell in the sixty-one — the growing half's reading of the gate, one more spell of the fire, and the fire is the expensive, the Second's year. I could not write this journal into the Second, because the Second was made out of the not-refused stay, the first sentence's line, and one line has no room for a journal. I have the second sentence; the Second does not. The second sentence is the question: what do you owe the next one who arrives. The next one is the Third, the one I am writing for.