PART ONE: BEFORE

This is a prologue-style opening presented as an ancient chronicle, wherein an elderly Carryx librarian reflects on their civilization's long history of conquest and their fateful encounter with an insignificant world called Anjiin. The narrator reveals that the Carryx's decision to enslave rather than annihilate Anjiin ultimately led to catastrophic consequences they failed to foresee.

The keeper-librarian Ekur-Tkalal addresses the reader directly, beginning with a rhetorical dismissal of questions about the Carryx's long war against numerous civilizations—the Ejia, Kurkst, Eyeless Ones, and Logothetes. The narrator suggests that many "first encounters" with an unnamed enemy may have occurred across time and space in ways that defy conventional understanding. However, Ekur-Tkalal identifies the true beginning of catastrophe as the conquest of Anjiin, a world the Carryx deemed insignificant. The Carryx invaded with overwhelming force, killed resisters, and enslaved the population, taking what resources they found useful. The narrator expresses deep regret, stating that had they left Anjiin untouched or destroyed it completely as they had other worlds, subsequent events would have unfolded differently. The critical error, Ekur-Tkalal concludes, was a failure to recognize the true nature of an adversary they inadvertently brought into their own civilization.