PARADIGMA
#1 I don't think the cube is a prison it is a fortress. You enter the cube to escape the neverending blackness (theory...you enter the cube from the blackness of the house of liquid dust?). The cube although uncomfortable and mindboggling....is your savior from the shades. It is protection. No idea who might have made it though.
#2 Marind is not alive she is a ghost. Aren't shade the tortured souls of necrovians? From what I understand shades do not retain individuality...each is like a drop of water in the sea, and without a mass conciousness or action they are individualy relatively harmless. I believe that Marind disturbs this balance because although dead, she keeps her memories, and fights for her own purpose. She will not join with them, and she is strong in her own right.
#3 The shade does give the cube, and ought to be counted an ally, but my question is...is that really a shade? Is he angien? Is he other? I am not convinced the offerer is a shade, and strongly doubt it in fact. After all, it is my belief that the cube protects from shades, and liquid dust, neverending black....etc. It would be illogical for a shade to be offering the salvation of the cube, against the destruction by himself.
That's what I think.