The fourth test room was like the others, it showed the same motif as the floor before it, but intensified to the nth degree. When Laurence and Yun walked into the area they were confronted by walls and floors of gemstone. Everywhere their eyes moved was sheathed in crystal. It was beautiful, but screamed decadence in a way that nothing natural could. Laurence turned to look at his canine friend and smiled, thinking how lucky they were to get out of the situation without spilling any blood.

“Name, age, species and time spent travelling.” Said a loud and rather lifeless voice from beside the two companions. They turned and were confronted with a veritable giant of a man. Everything about him was enormous, from his hands that were the size of Laurence’s chest to his arms and legs which were as thick as young tree trunks. “Come on, not all of us have all day.” He said, his deep voice vibrating in Laurence's chest.

“My name is Laurence, I'm seven years old, I'm a human and I've been traveling up Babel for fifty five days now. How did you get to be so tall? I mean my daddy is a big man, but you're huge!” The man astounded Laurence so much that he had to pull out his codex immediately and begin drawing him.

“Boy, Laurence, I am going to tell you about...” Try as he might to not, the boy just suddenly drawing him made him feel self-conscious. “Stop drawing while I talk to you. It's rude.” Laurence drew a few more strokes then put his stylus down. “Good. I assume you’re one of those golden children that come through here every so often. The next test is a test of your potential. I won’t tell you more about it than you have to know, but your dog companion passes if you do.”

“Okay, so are you going to answer my questions?” Replied Laurence, not particularly caring about the vague description of the test. He would find out about it on his own, but he wanted to know about this mountain of a man in front of him. He continued to stare as the giant man as the minutes began to tick by, finally the huge man broke at the uncompromising stare of the child.

“Fine, fine. I’m a giant. I was born big, and only got bigger.” The giant man paused. “Happy now?”

Laurence smiled, happily opening his book and writing something down. “Yes. I am. Where do you want me to go for the test then?”

The giant despaired at the young boy and his perseverance. It was like the moment he found out what he wanted to know he would move on to the next thing that interested him. “Child, just go through the gateway in front of you. You’ll see the past, present and future. If you can get out then you pass. Simple as that.”

Without a thought, Laurence walked into the gateway in front of him. There was a bright flash of light and he was presented with an image of his past. He was five years old, his father had just found out that he had found his way into the kennels for the third time. It had been a long day for Laurence, as he had been confined to his room for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually his father sat him down to deal with the problem at hand. Laurence liked his father. He always treated the boy fairly, even when Laurence had done something very wrong.

Laurence looked up sheepishly as his father bent in front of him, his hulking frame still dwarfing the boy. He rubbed Laurence’s head, messing up the boy’s hair and said “Law, you should know that we don’t tell you things for the sake of it. There is always a reason behind it.” He frowned. “Please, son, don’t go into the kennels without a supervisor. If one of the dogs injures you and you can’t get out then it could end badly for both you and the dog. I know you like them, so if you want to go and see any of your canine friends then just tell me or your mother. We will happily take you.”

Laurence grinned. He had already found out what he wanted to know about the dogs anyway, so he happily agreed to not bother his father with sneaking into the kennels. Another idle thought struck him though. Before he had even had time to process the thought he said “Daddy, why do some of the dogs have wee-wees, but others not?”

The image faded into nothingness and he was confronted by himself floating in front of him. The other Laurence opened his eyes and smiled. It was a very crooked smile, like something was missing from the boy, but Laurence had no idea what. He looked at his clone and tried to work out if there was anything different other than that odd smile. While he was still looking the clone opened his mouth. “So, Laurence. You really don’t feel any connection to yourself do you?” The clone seemed to be slightly taken aback by Laurence’s response to its existence.

“Why should I? You obviously aren’t me because I am, so I am trying to work out what you are.”

“I’m people’s perception of you. An odd child with no emotional connection to anyone except an odd wolf. Do you even think your parents might be worried about you? Do you not even wonder if they care?” Something ancient flashed behind the eyes of Laurence’s double. It wanted to know these answers as much as Laurence wanted to know what the double really was.

“Why does that matter though? I can only find out if they care or are worried about me by asking them and they aren’t here. Why would I be worried at all?” Laurence was thoroughly confused by the being that had taken his form. It was asking questions that were really rather simple for Laurence to answer, but they felt like they should be much harder or deeper in concept than they were. It was the first time that he had encountered something like this, that was obvious to him, but odd to the inquirer.

“Do you not have empathy, child? Is that missing from you?”

“What’s empathy?” Laurence had never come across the word before. He was obviously lacking in something the creature was looking for but he had no idea. Now he was interested. Why did he not tick like the creature in his form expected? Was it something wrong with him or with humans?

“Empathy is the emotion that connects you to people. If you hurt someone you should feel bad about it, and if someone does something positive or negative then you should emote with them. It’s one of the better parts of the human survival mechanisms.” Laurence’s double thought about something for a while. Eventually he just began walking away and said, “This is a vision of your future. If you wish to change it you must change your nature. Though not all visions are as they seem.”

The double faded into nothingness and Laurence was once more presented with himself. Older, he looked stronger. He was facing a red haired child, who was splayed on the ground after a fight. They were in the middle of an arena, and a crowd was roaring. He raised the hammer and swung, the image cutting to darkness. Laurence was surprised by this image. The being that had taken his form was not adamant about how the vision would be bad, but he did imply it heavily. So heavily that Laurence could not help but pick up on it. Would this be a bad thing? He wondered as he walked through the exit gateway and reunited with his friend.