With Olivia possessed by the ghost Skeek, Zahn is able to ask questions – and get frustrated by the spirit's inflexibility. He learns that she had a deal with Abner Wingut: in exchange for knowledge and passing some sort of test, he was to replace her in the Eastern Node as an Operator – something that somehow canceled out quantum uncertainty enough to allow advanced technology to work.

The ghost admits to having sent a Guardian – one of the mutated super-trolls – to kill Abner and bring his head back when he reneged on the deal, only the Guardian didn't bring back the head for some reason. She admitted that the Guardians only sometimes obeyed her because she created the first ones.

Jesti's ghost tells a little about the illiaster needed by the Master Control System, the attacks by the trolls on the supply lines and on the Nodes, and how the Titan was sabotaged to prevent the Master from escaping – without really explaining any of it.

Zahn breaks the possession by accident, and Olivia wakes up and relates what she learned. It seems to Zahn that finishing what the trolls started is the key: stop the floor of illiaster coming from the Bleeding Stone, and the Master System will fail.