“Glenn, I understand you desperately wanted to leave the life behind, and so did I, but there are a total of two of us here who really know how to vet these people. That means we need to go through all the prisoners ourselves. We can assume Clark is a problem and work on interrogating him later, but we don’t even want to use much of his intel when we finally break him yet, anyway,” Harold said. He and Glenn were sitting in a small private room discussing how to handle the many newcomers to the void house. He had already personally cleared Emily, the kids, and Glenn’s family. He wasn’t entirely sure if he trusted Glenn yet, but for now, he was willing to give the man enough rope to hang himself.


    “No, I get it. I’d rather do this for you and these people than be trapped with the Agency. I kind of like the kid, though I guess calling Cal a kid is a bit unfair. Mentally, he’s older than all of us, isn’t he?” Glenn asked.


    “Surprisingly, no, Andrew is the oldest, but from what I understand, he doesn’t fully remember the majority of his early loops and may have been a bit insane when he first brought Cal into them,” Harold answered. That was counting people who he reasonably understood their ages. The robot and the cat from the Under Library were something else. At some point, he’d need to see this place. He had wondered a few times just how it would track the events of a time loop within a wing dedicated to all that is.


    “Interesting, so where are we starting?” Glenn asked.


    “With the Gryalth, but that’s mostly just going to be some threats. Follow me, and I’ll show you what the game is for them,” Harold said as he led Glenn from the room to the newly constructed catwalk outside the void house. It had been built to attach to the semi truck that Cal had thrown back through the gateway that contained several captured Gryalth that the Agency had. Eventually, Harold planned to build some real containment areas here. The capybaras were far too overwhelmed for anything like that at the moment, not to mention he wanted someone with real expertise at escape proof designs for it. This was why he supported Cal’s future plans to bring in some experts. There were just far too many areas none of them were well-versed in, and while the idea of eternity did mean they could all take classes until they were, it didn’t solve the problem of more hands on deck made projects faster.


    Harold opened the backdoor on the Semi and walked inside, followed by Glenn. There were thirty-five of them in total, and from some of their looks, the Agency had had them for quite some time. “Ok, listen up. I know you can understand me, so we aren’t planning any of the language games. Here’s the deal: each one of you will be moved to a more comfortable, less chained-to-the-wall place as you tell me your name and what exactly your position with the Gryalth invasion was. Silence keeps you locked in here,” Harold yelled.


    One of the oldest-looking ones, with a very long white beard, coughed several times and turned its head toward the two men. “My name is Trrk, and I was one of the early scouts,” he said.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    “Shut up, old one!” one of the younger-looking Gryalth said.


    “No, do not shut up. In fact, grats, you are now coming down and getting your own personal room. I hope the rest of you remember this,” Harold said, beginning the slow process of cutting the shackles from the wall. He didn’t have anything to easily remove them from the alien’s wrists, so this was the best and safest thing he could do for now. They took the Gryalth to the room had had been used to host one the last time they had one as a prisoner and brought him some food as well.


    “So, now that you’re a little more comfortable, anything you want to tell us?” Harold asked. He wasn’t expecting much in the way of answers, but information was information, and he wanted anything he could get.


    “Anything I could tell you would be very far out of date. Your people have held me as a prisoner for over seventy years now,” Trrk answered. That alone was an answer Harold had wanted. It gave him a frame of reference for a possible starting point of the Gryalth invasion, and while that may not have marked the beginning, it did mean that the Agency and Gryalth had been on Earth and aware of each other for that long.


    “There is something simple you can tell us, though. How long have the Gryalth been on Earth?” Harold asked.


    “I don’t understand the question,” Trrk answered again.


    “What do you mean you don’t understand the question?” Harold pushed.


    “The Gryalth have always been aware of Earth. It, like many planets in many universes, are used as mana batteries for the empire. Now, yes, it’s true our operations have been rapidly increasing over the last two hundred years or so, but that is only because we need to increase the mana output of all our universes,” he answered. Harold had no idea how truthful the answer was, but if it was accurate, that was a giant new piece of information for himself and he very much didn’t like the potential ramifications of it.


    “Are you implying that Earth and this universe have always functioned as a mana battery for your empire since the very beginning?” Harold asked.


    “Of course, how else would you get needed universal level mana otherwise?” he answered.


    “Have you ever personally witnessed a universe creation?” Harold asked.


    “No, but I have no reason to doubt it. Can I sleep now I’ve been awake for a very long time?” Trrk asked.


    “Yes, go ahead. We have some things to discuss anyway,” Harold said as they left the room, securing it behind them. He didn’t believe the universal creation claim, but that did mean they had some sort of figure pushing that narrative. Which meant they were susceptible to influence. That was one of the answers he had needed.