Trance excerpt

...When I made it to the top of the cliffs, I was panting, and sweaty, and sore, with skinned knees and broken or bruised fingers. Beyond the small ledge stretched an entire world, hidden by fog and the weakness of my eyes.

He said: Look at yourself. Are you content? And I looked, and was ashamed and bitter at the shape I had made myself into. I was neither beautiful nor awesome nor strong, but misshapen and awkward. I was not suited for the climbing I had done, nor the traveling I had yet to do, nor whatever tasks would happen along the way. I looked at my shape and despised it.

I said: I can do better. I know better now. I can start over.

He said: I tell you now, what you are, you have made; and what you have made, you cannot unmake. That time is past when you might have shaped yourself differently. You have made yourself, and you have made yourself flawed. And this is true of all that I have led to this place.

He said: But I also tell you this: What you have made is enough to move you, to bring you where you need to go, and to do that which is waiting for you. You have made yourself, and it is enough to carry you over this land. And this is true of all that I have led to this place.

He said this, and moved to stand against the mountainside. The wind raced by us, and I stepped forward, to the edge of the rock...