Ten years ago Talesin Valis climbed into a helicopter with a serial killer. The killer became the dark lord Matabu, Valis became a prisoner.
Run by agents that don't exist, the monastry is a prison that holds killers too dark to be acknowledged. Talisen Valis became an agent when transporting Sam Peterson to that fate.
Before they arrived Peterson became the dark lord Matabu, and disapeared into a universe of his own making.
Valis became an agent. For ten years he watched the prisoners on round M, studying them in an attempt to make sense of what they were, what they had done.
Through that time he had to deal with the dreams, fed to him by Matabu as the two of them travel together through time.
Then the Statue, a prolific killer on his round, made a move, tore out the throat of a woman that had no business being where she was.
His promotion took him to the realms of rumour. Down in the depths were monsters darker than any of the killers he had met on his rounds. Real monsters, that knew of him from the Lord of the new hell, Matabu.