Cade staggered, the unexpected emptiness of what he passed through making him lose his balance. Light, so bright it blinded him, glared from where he fell.

The tunnel continued. But only for a few yards. It morphed into a cave bereft of lichen, with walls smooth and white as porcelain. Turning, he saw the fake wall remained. A hologram.

He blinked in the new light, raising his eyes to protect them. A figure stood before him.

A Gray.

One dressed in a simple white robe, and no weapons to speak of.

It watched him from its black protruding eyes, the slitted mouth pursed in inscrutable expression. Its hand, outstretched from where it had grabbed him, fell to its side.

“What…,” was all Cade could manage.

But there was too much to take in for him to formulate a question. The cave was vast. So large it could fit the entire keep within its confines. Size, though, was not the greatest shock here.

Technology was. There was no other word for it.

Terminals lined the walls, complete with wires and flashing lights. And above, screens. Hundreds of them, empty of image or movement, yet startling in their number. They stretched up into the very recesses of the ceiling’s space, where artificial light shone dazzlingly bright.

This was no part of the medieval, alien fortress. A spear and shield would be as strange here as a caveman in an arcade.

“Forgive my use of scent to bring you here. It is the only sense the pantheon’s Codexes cannot detect.”

Cade blinked, lifting his hand to shield his eyes.

“Too bright?” the voice asked as the lights dimmed to half their level.

The Gray’s lipless mouth moved as the voice spoke. But the source of the voice was not the Gray, but rather an object on a plinth at the very center of the room.

A Codex. But not as he knew it.

The drone had been taken apart, its pieces splayed like a deconstructed watch, with wiring plugged to a half-dozen elements. These wires, in turn, split and split again, running along the floors to the terminals on the walls.

“You will have questions,” the Gray said. “But we have little time to answer them. I will answer some to gain your trust, but then you must follow my instruction. If you do not … it will not be just my world that ends, but yours. Yours and countless others, from now until the end of time. Know this. And ask.”

Cade moved into a crouch, his hand straying to his sword.

Startled, the Gray moved back, its hands held up in supplication.

“If I had wished you harm, you would not be here. I beg you, do not waste time. Ask.”

Cade let his hand fall to his side, his mind racing. This was not supposed to be here. If Abaddon discovered it, they would fail the round.

His thoughts strayed to a dark place. One where he cut this unarmed creature down. Where he returned to the tunnel and spoke not a word of what he had seen.