Wad could only agree, though he remembered how he had loved Bexoi and trusted her, doing her will in everything. Well, up to a point. When Bexoi commanded him to kill Anonoei and her sons, Wad had kept them alive and lied to her about it. That was when he stopped loving her. When she murdered Wad’s son Trick, that was when he began to hate her.

“Maybe it’s time for you to go back to Duat and find out how to solve this,” said Wad. “With all that pure knowledge lying about, maybe you could pick up something we can use to keep the Sutahites imprisoned even after you die. Or, you know, obliterate Set from the universe.”

“I’ve thought about this a lot,” said Danny. “How much of the evil in the world comes from Set, and how much comes from human nature. I mean, chimps are violent. Alpha males own the females. The other males kidnap females and carry them off and rape them repeatedly. They make war, they commit genocide. They can’t hack into computer systems or build nuclear weapons, but they do a lot of really terrible things, without Set or the Sutahites goading them.”

Wad had to think hard to imagine what a “chimp” might be.

It was as if Danny were reading his mind. “Chimpanzees. A kind of ape. The one that’s genetically closest to human beings. Next time you’re in Mittlegard, visit a zoo.”

“Or I’ll read a book,” said Wad. “Great invention, books. Paper—amazing stuff. Why couldn’t Hermia have brought papermaking to Westil?”

“Maybe she will. Dangerous and terrible ideas spread better with widespread literacy,” said Danny. “Along with the good ones, of course.”

“I think your original point was that people are terrible whether Set’s around or not.”

“They can be terrible,” said Danny. “They can also be good.”

“Does Set stop them from being good?”

“Only the person he’s possessing.”

“When Set was first inside you, he completely controlled your body, right?” asked Wad.

“That’s how it felt. I felt like I couldn’t do anything. Now I know that I had the power to take back control at any time. But it took a level of self-awareness—physical self-awareness—that I had never had.”

“Is this part of your ability to sense prets and Sutahites?”

“Sort of,” said Danny. “I’m still finding out what I can actually sense, what I can do, what any of it means.”

“But you were able to regain control of your body with Set still inside you. Can Hermia?”

Danny shook his head. “She didn’t try to learn anything from Pat and me except how to travel instantly without gates.”

“How’s she doing with that?” asked Wad. “What are her limitations?”

“She can go, she can return, and she can carry whatever she’s touching that she wants to bring along.”