she replied. “But it’s just an idea. People are evil because of what they do, not because of whatever some god tells them is right or wrong.”

“But then how can you say that anything is really evil?” he asked.

She just frowned and turned away from him. He was still waiting for an answer when another flapping sound made him look along the wall in the other direction just in time to see yet another black bird, stockier but otherwise identical to the first, landing clumsily on the stony surface. It corrected itself almost at once, standing up and hopping lightly towards the inner parapet, where it, too, looked sidelong into the sanctuary.

“That’s odd,” Nathaniel thought.

He looked along the length of the wall. The two birds were not alone...

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