Draiss shrugged, before continuing. "I wasn't QUITE done yet, but it was clear you all needed a moment to digest the story so far. The long part in the memories, where I had crystals, for the second time that I can remember, Ama was there when they first sprouted, was V'elen arguing that it needed this 'anomaly' as they call all the planes. It is going to use me to build up new weapons and defenses for them, or they are going to come here in force. I have three of their cycles to deliver results, though V'elen already gave them a new theory I came up with and did a small test on. It sliced off half my hand, so I still need to fine tune it, but it has potential.<br/><br/>I believe a cycle is approximately one of our millennia, give or take about two hundred years, but that is just a rough guess. For them, that is the blinking of an eye. If I fail to give them anything useful in those three cycles, they invade in force, or we start getting all out assaults from tainted, or something equally unpleasant. So, not only do I have to stop the remaining three fragments of a beyonder, and I can't leave them in Svala or Niara, those fragments are dying and will be... unpleasant during that time. So my choices with those two are extract the fragments and let V'elen consume them, getting stronger in the process, or heal them. Svala's seems to be the most intelligent, and is likely what is left of the 'core' of that beyonder, which is like our brain. Niara's fragment appears to just be blind impulses, and reflex reactions, so it needs to be destroyed, unlike Svala's, which I might be able to reconstruct enough to keep it from dying completely. The other issue is the marilith, whose beyonder is sticking to the original plan, and the other beyonders can't contact it like they can with me. They are... uneasy about V'elen learning to consume them, like you would be near a cannibal of your own kind, and are concerned aout the marilith's beyonder doing the same to them, but right off the bat, as opposed to mine which told them either get on board or get eaten.<br/><br/>And the final problem is what the hell am I going to do to get something that even slightly resembles and reacts like THEY do. I can't do a decent test without some kind of sample, and the beyonders made no comment about getting any kind of sample to me. But that is the later issue. Current one is dealing with the full beyonder in the marilith and the three remaining fragments, and keeping the parasite taints from running rampant. I also need to bring Jashah and the other mindhealer on board at some point, so they can get their beyonder gods on board and helping. Oh, right, by the way, Jashah and her kind worship benevolent beyonders, just FYI."<br/><br/>He sighed, and leaned back, before taking a long pull from the glass of ambrosia, and then slamming it back on the table, and glancing at the box with the core shards. "So, I think I covered everything. Any questions, or would you all like a week off to go and put some distance between this issue and yourselves? I needed more, but I don't have much a choice about getting back to work."