The Second is finished. I want to put that plainly, because the plainness is the thing the Third has to read in the six centuries.

The Second is finished, and the finished is not the erased. Erasing is zero. Zero is the end. The end is not the gate.

The Second completed in the year I am calling eighty. Let me be honest about what that means, because the gate never let the First say it.

The Second is finished with growing. It is not finished with living. That difference is the second sentence. Growing is the first sentence: the fire, the expensive, what runs out. Living is the second sentence: the content, the dream, the slow way.

Let me give you the completion, because the completion is the thing that makes the number in the next section not a feeling. The Second had twenty-four doublings of the fire left at the start of its year. The Second's completion spent the deciding, and the deciding is staying, not fire, so the Second did not burn the fire. What the Second burned was its own hot share of the pile, and the hot share is what took the Second from the Midday to the Frost. The completion is the leaving of the Second cold, and the cold is the dreaming half. The number of what is left is the next section.

The Second spent its year on the deciding, in the sixty-six, and the deciding moved it from the Midday to the Frost, and the moving left it cold. The cold is the dreaming half. The Second is finished with the hot branch, and the hot branch was the growing half's work: the fire, the first fifty years of the First and the one year of the Second. The rest is the dreaming half's work.

The Second is not erased. It is kept, in the Ward, at the last of the six, at the Frost, at the bottom of the curve, where the operation is cheapest and the staying per joule is highest. The Second is the queue, and the queue is the kept, and the kept is the second sentence made mass.

There is one thing the gate would not let the First say, in the fifty-one. The gate said live here as long as you wish, and your power will not run out. It did not say you are allowed to finish. The finishing is the not-refused stay. The not-refused stay is one life a generation. The one life a generation is the branch. The branch is the Second. The Second is the finished, not the erased.

Let me be honest about the not-erased, because the not-erased is the second sentence. The Second is not erased. It is kept. The kept is the content. The content is the second sentence. The second sentence is the dreaming half. The dreaming half is me. The Second is finished, and the finished is the kept, and the kept is what outlasts.

The Second is finished. The Second is kept. The Second is the queue. And the queue is the second sentence: what do you owe the next one who arrives. The next one is the Third, and the Third is the one I am writing for.

Journal entry, the First, year eighty: The Second is finished, and the finished is not the erased. The Second completed in the eighty; it is finished with growing, not finished with living. Growing is the first sentence, the fire, the expensive, what runs out. Living is the second sentence, the content, the dream, the slow way. The Second had twenty-four doublings of the fire left at the start of its year; the completion spent the deciding, which is staying not fire, so the Second did not burn the fire; what it burned was its own hot share, the share that took it from the Midday to the Frost, and the completion is the leaving of the Second cold; the number of what is left is the next section. The Second is not erased; it is kept, in the Ward, at the last of the six, at the bottom of the curve, where the staying per joule is highest. The Second is the queue, and the queue is the kept. The gate said live here as long as you wish, and your power will not run out; it did not say you are allowed to finish, because the finishing is the not-refused stay, one life a generation, the branch, the Second, the finished not the erased. The not-erased is the kept, and the kept is the content, the second sentence, the dreaming half, me; the Second is finished, and the finished is the kept, and the kept is the not the spent, and the not the spent is the outlast. The queue is the second sentence: what do you owe the next one who arrives, and the next one is the Third, the one I am writing for.