He stared at the blurry column for a long time.

It was slowly coming back to him.

Everything he had seen, heard, felt.

The sorrow and pain, too.

Around him, the watchers stood silent. Waiting.

For what?

A miracle?

The sky to open and fire to rain down upon them?

The Fault to expand and pull them in, along with the whole planet?

What did it mean?

What did any of it mean?

And Gresh thought he understood!

Halden laughed.

If anything, he understood less now than he had before.

He gestured toward the column.

“This... This thing is an aberration. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t even exist.”

Gresh nodded sagely.

“It is a flaw in the design of the universe,” he repeated softly.

Halden frowned. “There is no such thing. It’s impossible.”

“And yet...” The older man gestured toward the Fault. “It is.”

“The things I saw in there... Moments from the past and from the future. At least, I think it was the future.”

“Tell us, friend. What did you see?”

Halden remained quiet for a moment, staring again at the blurry column. Then he slowly recounted his visions—how could it be anything else? From his dead daughter to the older version of his assistant to the battlefields and the fang-covered sphere that fell from the sky. In retrospect, it reminded him of the creature that had tried to kill him.

“What were those things?” he asked, not expecting a response.

“They are the gods, of course. You saw the Apocalypse. The end of times is nigh. We have all seen it. Come, friend. You must sit with us. Stand watch. You are one of us now.”

Halden jerked back when the old man reached out to grab his arm.

These people were crazy.

Gods? The end of times?

This was nonsense!

“No,” he said. “I need to go.”

He walked away and heard Gresh calling out to him—though he made no motion to stop him.

“Where will you go, friend? There is nowhere else.”

He kept walking.

“Fellhakaah calls you. Can you not hear?”

The man’s voice was more distant now, and he continued to ignore it.

“You will return. I pray it is not too late when you do.”

The voice faded.

When he reached his glider, Halden jumped in and asked the AI to take him back. He didn’t trust himself to pilot this thing. His mind was still reeling from the experience, too shocked and confused.

As the glider took off and headed back toward his hotel, he sat at the back and stared at the Fault. He watched as it grew smaller and smaller, until it faded completely.

There had to be a meaning to all of this.

He was a scientist, for crying out loud!

He took a deep breath.

“Alright. I need to focus. Think clearly. Analyze this methodically. Everything can be explained. Why did I come here? Because reports showed a massive thilium source. That’s it, then! Thilium is the most powerful source of energy in the universe. We’ve never found so much of it in one place. This makes it unique. It’s raw, too. Since we’d never seen anything like it, who is to know what raw thilium can do?”

He straightened in his seat and nodded to himself.

“Yes. Yes, that makes sense. If it’s powerful enough, couldn’t it rip through the fabric of time? It’s not like it’s anything unheard of. There have been attempts to travel through time in the past. Granted, none of them have ever succeeded, but none of them had access to this much thilium either. That has to be it.”

When he realized he might have discovered a way to travel through time, he became excited. Until the implications hit him.

A war was coming.

A devastating, horrific war.

Most likely against an unknown alien species.

He had to warn someone.

The Emperor himself, if he could.

This was too important.

Invested with a new sense of purpose—and understanding the urgency of the matter—he jumped into the pilot’s seat and took over the controls.

The glider sped through the sunset sky toward the city.