NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 161

The man with the large snake is here again. He has a large box with him, one that I've seen before. I walk over to where he is and peek inside. It is filled with headless dolls.

"Where are the heads?" I ask.

Andromalius doesn't respond, simply points his snake forward. I know this game. It's supposed to stiffen into a staff and show me a hidden path. But instead, the snake leaves his hand and slithers down to my serpent's feet. Then it stays put as the serpent steps forward. An invisible hand draws a circle around its feet. We wait for a while – Andromalius, the snake and me – until it walks back to the box, the circle now its faithful shadow. Curiousity entices me to take another look.

Now a lone head has joined the dolls. No one has to tell me what to do. Intuition demands that what was broken must be put back together again. So I take the head up and look inside it for clues. After a while, I see a shen inside the crown. Where have I seen that before? I dredge my memory for every part of my crazy dream. Then I remember the golden circle. There were three cones, a shen inside each one. That's the clue! I rummage through the box, searching for shens inside the dolls' necks but come up empty. I turn to the serpent frustrated. It peers not at me but into my eyes. I feel like the image in the mirror looking back at it. The mirror! That's it! What do you see when you look in the mirror? Right becomes left. And when you look down into the water, everything flips.

I turn each doll over and search their feet. When I find the perfect match, I snap the head in place and wait. Again, I look to the serpent. But as I'm looking the doll goes up in flames, its ashes tattooing my palms with shens. Then the serpent smiles and its three faces melt into one.