A few minutes of ranting with quite a few choice words being thrown around passed. Ede waited patiently for Marcus to get it all out of his system, which certainly took a while, considering how much he had bottled up in the meantime, whereas Marcus paced up and down the room.

“And then, at long last, I come down here only to learn that I’ve been played like a fool!” Marcus exclaimed, huffing and puffing from exhaustion.
“Has that been all then?” Ede asked, still remaining in his pose of the attentive listener.
Marcus scratched the back of his head, only now realizing that he had been yelling at this godlike being for a good while and replied sheepishly, “...yes, that has been all.”
“Very well then,” Ede stated and leaned back in his chair.
“Regarding the raiders, that is, in fact, rather fortunate, all things considered. I could not have asked for a better workforce to get this place back in shape. Time is such a meddlesome thing.”
“...why bother ‘get this place back in shape’ anyway? It’s not like you’re getting a lot of visitors.”
“I am having one right now, though.”
“...I have a question, if I may...why am I your ‘guest’ and they are...well…”
Ede sighed briefly and shook his head, “That should be obvious. You are an explorer. You were driven here by curiosity and the earnest desire to assist your people. Okay, also to prove yourself to the people who thought you can’t do anything right, but nobody’s perfect. These guys however, they came to destroy, plunder and pillage.”
“Still we both came here, because we hoped to find something valuable.”
“Yes. So you are saying you are ‘the same as them’?”
Marcus wanted to say ‘No’, but something in the back of his head held him back. Ede raised and eyebrow and patiently waited for Marcus to finish his thought process.
Eventually Marcus hung his head and said, “In a sense...I am. I set out, ready to kill if necessary. And while you make it sound like I was on some noble quest or something, I am really just a kid who wanted to prove to his old man, that his books were not just ‘a waste of time’.”
“Reading a book is rarely a waste of time. Even if the book itself is terrible, you will still have learned something.”
“To not read that book again?”
“Still something learned. Anyway, I am afraid I must agree with you. You are ‘a lot like them’. However I find your company far more amiable than theirs. Hence you are my guest and not my ‘workforce’.”
“You mean ‘drone’.”
“I don’t like that word, makes me feel like an insect. Anyway, to get back to that voice. I am afraid I know the phenomenon and I must apologize for it.”

Marcus was taken aback by the sudden shift in topics, sat back down in his chair and asked, “So you were responsible for it?”
“Partially. You see, the human brain is...not very well suited to interact with Ede. I thought I had worked out all the kinks in the years I’ve spent in here, but it appears there are still some issues left. A mild case of schizophrenia like yours is within the expected parameters.”
“...I’m afraid I can’t follow.”
“Ede — that is, the alien machine — imposes a huge amount of stress on anyone interfacing with it. I have created this abstraction, this ‘realm’ to keep you away from the vast and raw power that is Ede. Otherwise you would be likely be brain dead at this point.”
“But...you managed, right? How’d you do that?”
“I didn’t.”
“...what?”

Ede got up from his chair and the world around them changed. Marcus was now sitting in the sand on a vast beach looking out over a vast ocean, whose endless waters sparkled in the light of the setting sun.
He jumped to his feet and shouted, “What in the world is that?!”
Ede smiled mildly and replied, “The ocean. I take it, you’ve never been to the sea?”
Marcus shook his head energetically and said, far louder than he intended, “It is beautiful!”
Ede nodded and said, “That’s because we’re now at the shore and the sea is tranquil and calm. However…”

The scenery changed again and Marcus suddenly found himself in a terrible storm, sitting in a tiny rudder boat, getting tossed around by the roaring waves, the sky laden with black clouds, lightning and thunder roaring and the wind whipping at him. It was not long until the wind toppled the boat, and despite his best efforts to somehow hold on, he sunk into the depths. He frantically tried to get up, but some unknown force kept dragging him further down until he couldn’t hold his breath any longer and water flooded into his lungs.

The scenery changed again and he was back at the beach, this time at a campfire. He gasped for air, feeling his own body to verify that he was still alive. He felt silly immediately for getting spooked so easily, when evidently none of this was real.
“I have now shown you two faces of the sea,” Ede said, apparently completely unfazed.
“That...was horrifying. But what does that have to do with what you said?” Marcus asked, his heartbeat only slowly returning to normal.
“Interfacing with Ede is a lot like the latter picture. Lost at sea with little to no chance to save yourself. The abstraction room I have been keeping you in is the beach that keeps you away from that ferocious sea. It may seem peaceful, but that violent sea is no five steps away.”
“But what did you mean that ‘you didn’t manage’?! I mean, that makes no sense! After all, you are here! I am talking to you!”
Ede chuckled slightly and replied, “Are you now? So tell me then. What am I?”
Utterly confused now, Marcus tried a few times, but Ede shook his head each time.
“What I am is a shadow, Marcus. A program. The person who created me, the human, has died many years ago unable to keep up with Ede, but also unable to give up. I am merely his shadow, born from Ede’s mercy after he consumed my father.”
“C-consumed?!”
“That man was barking mad at that point, Marcus. Obsessed with the idea of interfacing with Ede. And this obsession was what eventually killed him. Because his brain, albeit ‘better suited’ than most, still did not hold a candle to that raging ocean out there. I am his legacy.”
“And...your memories of being human? That story you told me?”
“Were the story of the man I was spawned from. He realized that, in order to be able to interface with Ede successfully, they required a safe space. An abstraction layer. Something to keep them away from that sea. The thought itself was simple. Create a virtual space. It had been done before. The biggest obstacle was the instruction set. What Ede would even listen to. After all, the technology was far beyond anything they had conceived on Earth they were trying times to begin with. Eventually, after finding access to the direct link I am now using to talk to you, he pleaded Ede to consume him, so he would not have to witness the folly of his brethren come to fruition.”

Marcus took a sharp breath at this latest turn of events, but then asked, “That ‘folly’ you mentioned...what was that about anyway?”
Ede scratched his head briefly and then said, "Ah yes, I kicked you out the last time you were here before getting to that, didn't I? My apologies, I thought I had mentioned it before. Anyway, I already told you that Ede did not have the resources to perform terraforming any more, right?"
"Yes."
"That was only half of the problem though. We still did not have any means to make Ede do anything for us and it was not very likely we were going to change that. We were only scraping on the surface, extracting bits and pieces of data. However time and resources were short to begin with, so they planned to use the extracted information to build 'weather machines', which would reign in the calamities."
"A...can something like that really work?" Marcus asked, trying to imagine it.
"They were convinced it would. He wasn't. He was convinced that they were still lacking critical information on the matter and pleaded them to reconsider, to let him continue probing Ede for more information, but they didn't listen.  Admittedly, that he cackled like a madman, shouting that it was all in vain and that the world would now end at the hands of the ones who sought to save it did not help his case at all.”

“Still, how did he manage to do it? I mean, ‘not end up brain dead’?”
“Oh, that? That was thanks to the gear he was using. It inhibited the flow of data quite severely, making the data extraction a problematic and excruciatingly slow endeavor. However it was also what saved him, although it was only later, after Ede consumed him, when he...or much rather I realized that. My data implies that my creator was plagued with whispers much like the ‘voice’ you spoke of, even when not connected. However I have not found anything that would explain it, so I believe it to be mostly a defense mechanism of a weary mind. A means to cope with a stressful situation. Speaking of which, I believe we should take a break here. Eat something. Rest. And when you feel ready, please do come back.”
“Wait, please don’t throw me out yet. I still have one more question.”
“...fine, I shall listen to your question. But only this one.”
“...why are you being so nice to me? Why ask me to come back? And don’t give me that ‘I like the company’ crap, you can create entire worlds in here!”
Ede chuckled slightly and said, “In short, you want to know what I want from you, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, I had hoped that we could get to know each other a little better before it comes to that, but I guess I need to tell you eventually. Are you really sure you wish to know though? Once I have told you, we will not be able to continue as we were. And you will need to make a decision, which may well change your life forever.”

Marcus stayed silent for multiple seconds, conflicting feelings surging through his mind. For one he of course wanted to know. For another, he was afraid of knowing. Ede was now giving him three options. First, to stay ignorant, sit out the month and then return to the settlement. Maybe visit him occasionally to say ‘Hi’. Second was to agree with whatever Ede has in mind for him or, finally, to turn him down and likely never see him again.

After half a minute, Marcus had made up his mind. He did not come here to run away. And to make a good decision he first had to know what was going on. Hence he said, “Let’s hear it.”
Ede nodded and the room around them changed into one of grand and bland white. Six humongous machines towered in all directions and Ede said, “I need you to save this world from the folly of my brethren. To return it to the state it was meant to be. And to allow to heal. For this, you will need to travel this world, seek out the resting places of the weather machines...and either fix them or at least shut them down.”