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Voreese snickered. ‘Well, who knows? Plenty of superstitions throughout history have turned out to harbor more than a little truth in them. I’ve often found them worth listening to, at least to examine the ideas they’re underpinning. You might be surprised how frequently someone can reach a valuable conclusion from a faulty premise. I know all these fancy, modern things like logic, reason, and the scientific method can seem like they have all the answers all the time, but they don’t. In fact, that’s kinda the whole point, if you think about it.’

Garovel had to pick her up on that. ‘The formal study of logic is not modern at all, Voreese.’

‘Yeah, okay, sure, but you know what I’m getting at, right? Modern ways of thinking have gotten pretty uppity, if you ask me. People forget that, sometimes, you can reason yourself right off the edge of a cliff. Meanwhile, Superstitious Bill over there doesn’t walk off and stays perfectly safe, because he’s afraid there are ghosts in that direction and isn’t thinking about falling to his death at all.’

‘True enough,’ said Garovel. ‘I’ve acquired a fair few stories over the years that go just like that.’

‘Oh yeah? Same here, actually, but now you’re making me curious to hear yours.’

The reapers kept talking, but abruptly, the majority of Hector’s attention was diverted to the Scarf. The background thought process that had been focusing on it noticed movement out there in the inky darkness. Quick. Erratic. Abnormal. Not like any animal Hector had ever sensed before, human or otherwise.

It did remind him of something else, though.

Chort. The Beast of Lorent.

That shifting figure. Distorted. Changing from moment to moment.

It didn’t seem nearly as large, though. Chort had been bigger than a horse. Maybe even a bull. This was more like a dog in size, as far as Hector could tell.

Huh.

As he focused on it, Hector considered what to do. Already, he felt like he knew everything he needed to, but he also didn’t want to jump to conclusions, either.

Chort, as monstrous as it was, had still been a sentient being, capable of speech, even. And without knowing much else about Chaos and the entities that spawned from it, there was certainly a chance that this new creature was different. Maybe it was perfectly reasonable. Or otherwise harmless.

Or maybe it was more of a gray area. Like with Zirat. That guy was also an entity of Chaos, right? And Hector hadn’t had to fight him.

Not yet, at least.