Ahead of the player, a gate waits at the end of rehearsal. Behind the player, a gate marks the choice already made. Both are accounts of the Gate at the Baseline, and neither can quite replace the other.
Threshold readers say commitment opens it. Older fragments say it opens only after commitment has taken effect. In one, the player sees the crossing approach. In the other, an altered world makes the crossing visible at last.
The Chariot gives this place direction; Death gives it an ending that direction alone cannot undo. Imagine finally telling a partner that an old arrangement must change. The conversation is only beginning, but the earlier silence is no longer available in quite the same form.
The widely told gate marks that consequence. It offers no command to hurry an unfinished preparation or speak before the person is ready. A threshold can make the cost of a step visible. The stone does not take the step.