"Lo and let it be known, Terrible is He who stands at the gate of time, Master of Past, Present, Future, Master of time that is, was, and never will be."

I had read the passage once and once again, and knew that my work would be done. To walk the gate and bare the sign, to step beyond the pale and into the great river that flows between the moments of now and what was, I knew what I had to do, to make things right. So it was that I walked from my home and took all I had, sold all of it, for it would not matter, and took up the Key, as had been made according to the thirteen steps of the book of Blood. Carved of a finger and bathed in my own heartsblood, it would open the gate to time, and I knew where it lay, for I had a map to the great city, lost in the dunes of old Arabia.

The journey was long. The heat was oppressive, but nothing to the heat of my brow. I was sick, the wound had left me infected, but it would be alright, for none of this would be, if I could set it right. I would disappear from time, but all would be set right!

The great city was laughably easy to find - had none before found it? Was it so hidden, than even the eyes of god would pass away and not see it? Was this the great garden, burned away in the fires of an angry gods wrath? I walked through the ruins, to the great door, and I stood before it, shouting the sixty names of the Keeper, and holding forth the key, even as my eyes and mouth and nostrils began to bleed from the terrible things I proclaimed.

Lo, the doors did open for me, and I gazed upon the keeper of Time, and He stared upon me, and his mouth opened, to scream in no sound, but to feel the earth itself rebel from the horrid viperish tones.

I held up the key, and spoke aloud the rites, to demand to return into time, to make things right! And he looked upon me, and stepped forward, beyond the gate, and aproached me, even as the buckles of reality tore and the winds blew up in a great hurricane of sand and grit and bone of the ages.

He stepped, Terrible beyond all measure, his mouth opened to the vastness of the stars and his eyes burning with a wicked intelligence that measured me, and saw me through a thousand different timelines. He gazed upon me, and drew his great hand up, and bellowed again. The stars chanted and the walls began to weep a black viscous blood, the black blood of the earth, of abominations, running down stone and pooling at my feet, the gate opening to cast me into the depths of time itself! And with a terrible laugh, I stepped into it!

And held a hand to my throat, gasping, retching, at the befouled stench of the ages, as I knelt before the great masters of the city, in a time before time. I gazed up at the guardian, who looked upon me, and pointed down the great streets. I had made it, even as I grew giddy from a loss of air, I ran, ran, ran to find the door that would take me where I was to go! I ran, and threw open the door, and then hurled myself through!

And then landed at the feet of the guardian, who looked upon me through ancient eyes, and the sand storm had fallen, showing the stars burnt out and the sun a distant cold death, having given birth to a future far distant from what I had known or dreamt.

"You are the Master of the Past! Why have I not gone there?!" I shouted!

"For I am also Master of the Present, and times that never were..."