Marks discontinuity in story time.
When story time is either implicitly or explicitly active, this word explicitly marks a jump discontinuity between the foregoing scene/section/chapter and the current/immediately-following one; but story time is flowing piecewise continuously on either side of it. For example, a flashback or a scene break so that an already-seen (and thus now-past) event is being re-experienced from another perspective could be so marked. A sharp/notable jump futureward (often denoted by a chapter break or a tildebrand) could also be so marked. Theoretically, a jump to another location or perspective but at the same (or imemdiately-following) instant could also be marked in this way. Typically, narrations will not say the direction of jump because the slight confusion or lack of that information is used for stylistic or dramatic effect; however, such could presumably be denoted with tense markers or subscripts. See also: "si'i'ei".