“I have visited Mittlegard,” said Wad. “Even before the closing of the gates, Mittlegard was more prosperous and sustained a larger population. We didn’t have the science to measure, but I think our habitable land mass is markedly smaller.”

“So my question, Loki,” said Hermia, “is a simple one. Why is it that the world with Set in it is far richer, larger, more populous, more advanced, more powerful than the world that you have kept pure.”

“You tell me,” said Wad. “You know the history of your world. How much death and suffering have the people endured?”

Hermia nodded to concede the point. “When you have a larger population, then cruelty can touch larger numbers of people. Thirty million die in one country, because the ruler wants to rid himself of troublesomely independent kulaks. Six million die in another, because the ruler has conceived a mad hatred for people he thinks pernicious and dangerous. Three million in a much smaller country, to eliminate all those who know how to make money from trade instead of agriculture. And then the wars. But I know that Westil also has wars, and if fewer people suffer and die, isn’t that only because nations have fewer people to begin with?”

“That’s what I think you don’t understand,” said Wad. “There have been devastating wars. The vast desert of Dapnu Dap was created by the sandmages who finally defeated the manmages of Ethue Dappa. It was a terrible price to pay, but since then, warfare has been rare, and mostly between mages.”

“You can’t tell me that soldiers and sailors don’t die in these wars.”

“They do,” said Wad. “But such losses are rare and relatively few. That isn’t all, though. Slavery is unknown here, partly because owning another person smacks of manmagery, and partly because when there are gatemages, it’s hard to keep slaves confined to one place. It is almost unheard of for anyone to mistreat a child, and when it happens, the punishment from the neighbors is swift and sure.”

“Really?” asked Hermia. “Death?”

“No,” said Wad. “For the first offense, a Wingbrother might bring his heartbound to peck out an eye. For the second offense, the person loses his children, his wife, his place in the village. He goes one-eyed out into the world to make his way, where he’ll have no children within his power. But Hermia, you won’t conceive of how rare this is. Because in Westil, even though people have all the same weaknesses and harmful impulses as in Mittlegard, they don’t have the Sutahites constantly prodding them, making them think obsessively of their dark desires. Whatever evil they do comes from them, not the servants of Set working to undo all the ties that hold people together as friends and neighbors.”