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‘Yeah, I suppose that could be a problem,’ said Hector. ‘And that reminds me, um... Well, maybe I should’ve asked this a long time ago, but does Abolish have, like, an official religion?’

‘They have at least two, actually.’

‘...What do you mean “at least?”’

‘Well, the essential split is between the Morgunov faction and the Dozer faction, as you would expect. But each side also has its own degrees of extremism. So extreme, in fact, that they become almost unrecognizable from one another.’

‘I don’t, uh...? Give me an example.’

‘Okay. On Dozer’s side of things, the religion is called “Nualism”--or “the Way of None.” It’s rather grim, from what I’ve been hearing, but the variation in it comes from differing interpretations of “the Void’s will.”’

‘The Void is like their god?’

‘More or less. I think they’d tell you that the Void is actually not a god and instead just a silent, collective consciousness inside all of us, but I’m digressing again. Point is, the followers of Nualism are disagreeing about what they think the Void wants them to do.’

‘In what way, though? Can I get some specifics?’

‘Specifically... in regard to the killing of children.’

Hector stopped walking in order to look at Garovel. ‘Oh...’

‘I did say it was grim.’

‘Yes, you did.’ He looked out over the stone railing of the bridge he was on and absorbed the glimmering view of Himmekel for a moment. So far, this hunt for a keyhole hadn’t been turning up much, and as he observed the branching pathway ahead of him, as well as the half-dozen bridges both above and below, he couldn’t help feeling like it was pointless to keep searching.

But oh well. He decided to pick the center path and kept walking, trying to make sure that he was still paying attention to everything he was seeing while talking to Garovel.

‘So,’ Hector went on, ‘does that mean that some of the... Nualists or whatever are actually against killing kids?’

‘Yeah.’

‘That’s... good, isn’t it?’

‘Sure. Y’know, apart from all the ones who AREN’T against it, that is.’

‘Ah--but they’re fighting each other over it, right?’

‘Mm, I dunno if they’re actually “fighting.” I just know they’re disagreeing enough to consider themselves not part of the same religion.’

‘Huh...’

‘Degrees of extremism, like I said.’

‘Right...’

‘There are a lot more deviations like that, supposedly. More than I previously thought there were, even. I’ve been learning quite a lot about Abolish recently, thanks in no small part to all of the reapers I’ve been able to talk to during our travels.’

‘Oh yeah. I always see you guys grouping up and talking to each other.’

‘You make it sound like we don’t want you involved in our conversations. You’re always welcome to come listen, y’know.’

‘I try to. It’s just, I mean--you guys go on forever. It’s hard to pay attention for that long.’