"Like turning it to order," Solomon murmured, fingering his glass. "It's the death-plane, you know." He smiled deprecatingly. "The death-aura. It brings the death-plane to you, and makes everything in the vicinity part of it. That's why it only seems real once it joins you in the bubble. Of course, push too far and you'll snap back into the death-plane proper. I've already done that, and that wasn't much fun either."

Solomon finish his whiskey and thought for a moment, rolling the empty glass in his hands. "I wonder," he said, "if all universes access the death-plane in their own ways, whether that means using half the lives on Earth is simply the point of--of activation, I suppose. Is it truly blocking the lifestream? Or is it more a matter of combining the planes of life and death?"