The Threshold Plane wasn't a location so much as a concept.
A suspended moment between consequences.
The Ancient One described it as the "quantum pause of the soul," where the unfolding branches of a decision could be glimpsed — not entered, not manipulated — but witnessed.
And witnessing, as Mark would learn, was sometimes harder than changing.
Arrival at the Edge of Choice
They passed through a thin portal—neither warm nor cold—and entered a space unlike anything Mark had seen before.
There was no ground, no sky.
Only a great circular platform of floating glass that shimmered with light and memory. Above them, enormous, spinning orrery-like rings displayed moments frozen in time, each orbiting like moons of causality.
Mark stepped forward and gasped. In one of the rings, he saw himself—older, unshaven, hunched over a keyboard in a dim apartment. A bottle sat beside him, unopened. A job rejection email blinked on the screen.
"That's… me," he said. "From my world."
The Ancient One appeared beside him, calm and timeless.
"No," she said. "That is a you. One who never found purpose. Who never came to this world."
Wong stood nearby, his arms crossed. "He didn't jump into the portal. He let fear win."
Mark looked away. The sight was too raw.
The Mirror of Regret
Another ring floated down, showing a younger Mark — full of fire, joining a rebellion in a collapsing timeline. But he was burning out. Too fast, too angry.
"Different choice," said the Ancient One. "Same soul."
Mark finally asked the question that had been burning since his arrival in this world.
"Why me? Why did I end up here, with my memories, my face, in a timeline that shouldn't have noticed me?"
The Ancient One didn't answer immediately.
Instead, she gestured, and a final ring appeared.
This time, Mark saw himself at Kamar-Taj — only he wasn't studying magic. He was leading a class. Sorcery books floated around him as he instructed adepts on spell symmetry.
"That's not the future," Wong said. "That's…"
"The potential," the Ancient One replied. "That version of you doesn't exist yet. But it could. If you remain on your path."
The Trial of Witnessing
"You brought me here to guilt me?" Mark asked, unable to hide the edge in his voice.
"No," she said gently. "To prepare you. There will come a time when you are tempted to undo something… simply because you know it happened differently elsewhere. That temptation is the most dangerous magic of all."
Mark stared into the rings, watching his alternate selves loop and loop and loop.
"I thought this training was about gaining power."
Wong turned to him. "It's about learning when not to use it."
The Ancient One nodded. "You are beginning to understand. Magic does not exist to rescue us from fate. It exists to illuminate it. To help us live consciously within it."
She turned to him then, fully — her eyes almost glowing.
"You were never chosen, Mark. You chose. That is enough."
Exiting the Threshold
When they stepped back through the portal to Kamar-Taj, the world felt heavier. The mountain winds had returned, cold and real. The bells rang again in the distance — same notes, new weight.
Mark stood on the balcony for hours that night, staring up at the stars.
Wong joined him briefly. "You alright?"
"No," Mark said. "But I think I finally understand what kind of sorcerer I want to be."
Wong waited. "And?"
"One who remembers who he could have been," Mark said. "So I can become someone better."