Naturally, Palamedes is disappointed by the answer—how could he not be? He’d love nothing more than to sit down with that other version of himself, the one who had had eight months of timeless spacelessness to sort through all the data. Together, surely, they could figure out how to make the theorem work.

But Pal sets that aside quickly enough, for Harrow’s story contains yet another fascinating mystery. “What do you mean you brought something in? From the River? That shouldn’t be possible.”