Dutch tries to open to the goddess, but she doesn't appear. His guide and the others are gone. They have left him to his own devices. They have left him in darkness.

He begins to doubt himself, doubt where he is. He tries to leave this place, go back to his body. But he finds it difficult to locate his body. It seems to have become something else, a cloud of possibilities.

He panics. He no longer knows where he is. He feels isolated and alone. He recalls when he and his guide first appeared in this limbo, this twilight zone. Where had they come from?

He had been in that chamber, a chamber on Hibiru, where the guide's body awaited his return. He realizes that, in having this recall, he is now there.

It comes to him that he is wherever he thinks he is. He thinks of home, and he is there. He wakes up in his body. He feels like he was in that limbo forever. He thinks that in a sense that is true. But the clock by his recliner tells him that in this reality it has only been a few hours. Those were the hours he shared with Newt. After that, he was on his own, and time lost its meaning for him. He realizes that his dream search has taken him far from home, through spacetime labyrinths where he risked losing himself.

In the reality of his body, that dream quickly fades. All that is left is a conviction that his experience of another level of reality was an experience of a truer reality, a higher reality. And that he must return there if he is to find his goddess.

Dutch has been in the presence of his guide and a few other beings. Now, back in his body, he realizes that he is in the presence of billions, even trillions, of other beings. And they have begun to feel neglected. They are very demanding. But their demands are easily met. They want him to feed them. He takes them to the kitchen.

With food in his stomach and his body beings diverted by the task of digesting it, his mind is less preoccupied. His thoughts return to his goddess. He still wants to find her. His body beings seem to support him in this. They are helping him recall the image of her as a human woman.

He realizes that such thoughts are not really helping. The goddess he seeks is not a human woman. She is a dweller in the void. The thought of returning to the great void is intimidating. But the desire to find her is strong, stronger than ever. He prepares to go.