Shali's eyes widened in horror. At the farthest reaches of the ever-expanding, branching space, she faintly made out a shadow. A ripple stirred at the edge of her vision, beyond the gray mist. She also sensed a familiar yet dangerous spiritual pressure.
But the next instant, that hair-raising ripple silently vanished into the gray mist. The change had happened so quickly that she even began to wonder if she had imagined it.
She composed her expression and suspiciously scanned her surroundings. Yet all she could see was the indescribable gray mist. She couldn't make out anything even ten meters away.
The young Dominator clearly understood something. She seriously considered her current predicament, weighing every possibility.
The pupal cocoon across from her seemed not to have noticed the change in Shali's expression at all. Then again, perhaps it was a cocoon now, with no eyes left. Purple-red slits glimmered across its shell, flickering like dancing will-o'-the-wisps.
Its dark voice was no human speech, but something closer to an alien's muttering. "I am the Dominator of the swarm. I am the swarm's brain. I am the swarm's will. Yet after ages unchanged, even I have finally understood one thing: even an eternal life-form like me has its limits."
"What exactly are you trying to say?" Shali glanced at it, but continued extending her senses into the gray mist.
"I am the Dominator, Miss Shalamir. I am only the Dominator. A conventional Dominator like me has limits. I need more possibilities, and so I made a deal with your father, Count Salvin."
"A deal..."
"Yes. Why shouldn't the independent individual who represents humanity and the supreme will that represents the hive merge into one? Such a union might combine the best of both sides. And we could approach the mysteries of the occult