Mathematical beings called the Rathki set up three experimental human colonies, one of which includes Jinki, a child made of light, and Mr. Quest, a trickster whose job is to generate random errors. Jinki would rather talk with Mr. Quest than anyone else, because he talks of interesting things such as Alice in Wonderland, the dangers of recursive wishes on falling stars, walking through Time, and (most importantly) avoiding pa-ra-dox!
There’s many a reason a light baby mustn’t walk through Time. You shouldn’t, Jinki, because you’re tied with the human timeline, you’d cause a thing, a great big knot of a thing like a briar-rose patch, called a paradox. A pa-ra-dox!

Variants

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  1. “Jinki and the Paradox” by Sathya Stone, in Strange Horizons, 3 June 2013.
    2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . written by Sathya Stone