The First Veil is the first true challenge upon the path of the Pattern. Up to this point, you feel cocky and confident. It was not as difficult as you had been lead to believe, and you would reach the ending in only a matter of time. And then, you encounter the First Veil.
It starts like electric quicksand, slipping in about your feet and pulling them to the line of the Pattern like the gravity of a star. Suddenly, your movements become sluggish and difficult. Lifting your foot to take your next step becomes ever harder with every twitch of the muscles, and it takes the entirety of your attention just to keep your balance. In a part of you that does not matter anymore, you lose track of your surroundings beyond the Pattern ahead of you. Perhaps you are being observed. Perhaps you are not. This is the last time that you will notice them. While you must commit yourself to the Pattern with the first step, it is only at the First Veil that you begin to doubt if that was the right choice.
It grows worse as you move to lower your foot. The line itself seems to try to evade you, even as you know beyond certainty that it is not moving. Rather, it is with every piece of distance between your foot and the Pattern that the uncertainty that your foot is moving at all grows. How dare you think that you are worthy to walk the Pattern? It is greater than you could ever possibly imagine, and you think that you can simply triumph over it by taking a step.
It is with the First Veil that the Pattern teaches you its second lesson. With the greatness of our power, there is always something greater. We are mighty, but we are not all-mighty. It is possible for us to fail. The Pattern takes our fear of that failure, and forces us to move through it. As you pass through the First Veil, you must give up on the fear of failure. If you fail, you will be destroyed. Do not fear the destruction, and it will no longer be able to stop you.
