"I feel it would be dubious of me to claim objective value of a book that I'm only looking at the pictures of. But they are rather captivating images."

She hands the book over to Gene. It's a tiny leather-bound book with vellum pages. Every few pages are intricate illustrations - one of a maze filled with monstrous humanoids with cruel implements, another of a marching army, another of a boat.

"The images are a bit non-sequitor to try to put together a narrative on anything but wild speculation."