Beautiful story, easily my favorite of the ShB Tales.

I'm still full of questions about the Bad Future timeline, though: if the Source is actually dying there, what does that mean for the Bad Future!Ascians' plans? I thought they needed life to be able to continue on the Source after all the Rejoinings were complete (Emet tells us the plan is to sacrifice the life left over to bring back their fallen Amaurotines), and it seems like that won't be the case in this timeline. Emet and Lahabrea are both presumably still alive in the doomed future, so maybe they're planning to undo the Black Rose effects and get civilization going again at some point, finish off the remaining Rejoinings and call it a game?