Dor wakes up in a dark cave. Wondering where he is, Dor thinks about the bodies that were hurled to the ground and how he failed to stop time and save Alli. He begins to weep. When he looks up again, he sees a figure sitting in front of him. It’s the old man he saw as a child. The man asks if Dor was seeking power, and Dor answers that he was trying to make the sun and moon stop. The man then counters, “[i]s that not power?” (46). He explains that he is a servant of the most high God. Dor asks if this is death, and the man tells him that within the cave Dor will not age. Dor says, “I deserve no such gift,” and the man replies, “[i]t is not a gift” (46).

The old man tells Dor that his measuring will consume the world, which means that “the wonder of the world” will be lost to humans (46). He asks Dor why he began measuring, and Dor says that he wanted “[t]o know” (47). The old man gathers together the tears Dor cried and forms a pool with them where he will learn the consequences of counting time and the misery it creates.