On the hulk’s bridge, light became slow, formed concentric, gelid waves, turned gray, then stopped—died. I saw nothing. I felt myself twist in a dizzying way, and then I occupied a different space—no other way to describe it.

Behind me, below me, outside, through a rapidly shrinking orifice, I heard a sharp popping sound. I think that was the ship, the old hulk, completing its final mission.

Light sped up. I waved my arms as if to clear smoke, and the space grew brighter, gray turning to featureless white. Catalog was not visible. I looked at my hands, my arms—touched my face. I seemed to be alive, suspended in the whiteness. I was not in the least happy about this. I have always loathed being captured. Three times in my long life. Absolutely hated it every single time.

A voice came to me that I recognized immediately, despite the passage of over ten thousand years. An old acquaintances, you might say.

Unmistakable.

I had last heard it while tapping into the timelock on Charum Hakkor.

The Primordial had no need to use any particular language. It knew me well. It simply vibrated parts of my brain, conveying its cordial message directly.

“Didact, do you have a moment? Just a moment. That’s all it will take.”

UR-DIDACT DEPOSITION PAUSED SUBJECT REFUSES TO CONTINUE

CATALOG: You are claiming to have had a second conversation with the Primordial.

UR-DIDACT: It wasn’t a conversation. More like a malediction. This time, the Primordial was in complete control. I assume the IsoDidact has told Catalog what happened to me on Charum Hakkor.

CATALOG: Is there more to the story?

UR-DIDACT: The Librarian has no doubt changed his thinking. She can be persuasive.

CATALOG: The IsoDidact tells us that the Primordial claimed to be the last of its kind. It seemed to believe that Forerunners were the reason why all of its kind, but for itself, had perished. And it seemed to bear Forerunners ill will.

UR-DIDACT: The whole concept of will, good or ill, is irrelevant when speaking of such beings.

CATALOG: Here is where we have difficulties with your story. In his deposition, the Bornstellar Didact describes how he killed the Primordial on the rogue Halo. He placed it in an accelerating chronological field and forced it through millions of years. In the process, it disintegrated to dust. He was acting on your behalf … under the influence of your imprinted instincts and emotions. So it was not the last…?

UR-DIDACT: This being was not the Primordial I encountered on Charum Hakkor, but something else entirely—though it retained the Primordial’s motives and thoughts and memories. It was a Gravemind—the Gravemind, more accurately. It was the Primordial’s final act of revenge.

CATALOG: Are you convinced that the Primordial was a Precursor?

UR-DIDACT: That’s what it claimed.

CATALOG: And during your second interview?