It was first published in the online magazine Tor.com for April 21, 2010,with a subsequent stand-alone Tor ebook edition appearing February 1, 2011.

[1] The Apocalypse is done with, the Earth wiped clean of life, and only the Four Horsemen, Death, War, Pestilence, and Famine remain to bear witness.

Addressing the Consensus, Death asks that the detached aspects of the divinity (the Horsemen and the Adversary, who suffers in Hell) be reabsorbed into it, their purposes having been fulfilled.

As the dispute continues, the Consensus returns Death's brothers to him, and he realizes that the Horsemen and the Adversary remain separated because they are aspects of the divinity it doesn't want to admit are part of it.

The theme of the teaching power of pain is also explored by Parks in his earlier short story "Judgment Day" (2000), in which God is repeatedly questioned by his creations throughout the ages on why there is suffering, but not really knowing the answer is unable to provide an honest response.