Asher studies the data you brought him. "I finally see," he says.

"If the Darkness claims the Pyramidion, it will dissect it for study. Unfold its innumerable dimensions, wade through its multitudinous seas radiozoic, peer through its crackling warp gates leading toward a million millions of new realities…"

Asher's voice drops low and quiet. "I will not allow it."

"If something steps out of that ship and descends down the pulsing electric corridors of the Pyramidion, through the infinite swirling Cantor dust of its interior…"

"They will find me in its heart. On the shores of my radiolarian lake."

Asher's arm emits a steady mechanical thrum.

"And I will be ready for them."