Nozdormu said, "Young mage, I can see in your eyes that you have already guessed the truth. Yes, neither the other Bronze Dragons nor I can clearly see you in the past or future, so we can only observe you up close."
Shawn frowned. "I don't understand."
Nozdormu explained, "You appear in both the past and future of our timeline, but whenever I try to observe you, your figure becomes so blurred that I cannot make you out. When I focus my gaze on you, I even feel as though you do not exist. In other timelines, however, there are only a few fleeting glimpses of your back, as though you were only ever meant to exist in ours."
Shawn thought for a moment, then asked, "You... can't see me clearly?"
Nozdormu nodded. "Time is like a whirlpool. No timeline affects another, yet they intertwine, impossible to distinguish. At every point in time, there is only one past that truly exists, but infinitely many unknown futures. Perhaps you only entered the whirlpool of time at a certain point, but after that point, you should have existed in infinitely many timelines... yet you do not."
Shawn seemed to understand a little and ventured a guess. "For example, if I pick up my staff now, I might cast a spell the next moment, put it back, or throw it away. Each possibility might be something happening in a different timeline. But once I actually cast a spell with this staff, only the point in time where I cast it exists, and the timeline where I throw the staff away doesn't?"
Nozdormu nodded. "At every point, there is only one correct course for the future, but the other courses still exist, developing in the wrong direction. That is why infinitely many timelines arise,