"I don't know a lot about those things, but the biggest change we've made is that killing people for crimes or purity violations isn't a part of the system anymore."

"Can you tell me more about the prophecies?"

"The prophecies themselves are secret, but their policy effects aren't. They dictate that during the first quarter-day of the new order we must ritually sacrifice the purity-keepers, and then afterward all the things the purity-keepers used to do are either someone else's job or not done at all. And the killing-people parts are one of the things that now aren't done at all."

"Why are the prophecies secret?"

"That's theological. Secrets are ritually important. But the idea is that there's supposed to be a clear separation between theological things and governmental things; no one is supposed to need to know the contents of the prophecies in order for the new society to work."

"I suppose that's reasonable as religions go. I'm about set to leave you guys to it until I've checked out the other planets and talked to the maze people. Anything I should know before I go?"

"I don't think so. Good luck!"

"I can either make a portal or I can try to figure out Officer Eitamek's flight regulations so I can leave without disrupting air traffic. I'm not actually sure whether it's preferable to have me around for another hour or so to avoid having a portal here."

"I think having a portal here would probably be disruptive. But I could have a vehicle summoned to take you safely to orbit, if that's all right with you."

"That's fine by me too."

"Thank you, Sikyal."

It works!

Nobody's home, but is that portal back to Suranse open?

It is. Here he is just a short distance downslope of the palace on its hill.

Cam flies palaceward to look for triplets/king/other.

The first palace guard he encounters is happy to direct him to the current location of the king, which seems to be: doing paperwork at a desk.

"Hey, thought you might like a status report. A lot of aliens have self-destructed but others are having civil wars and one planetful has been taken over by a cult theologically opposed to killing other species."

"That seems like an acceptable outcome."

"I haven't checked all of their planets yet. And one of them wants eight days to set up quarantine procedures before they'll voluntarily talk to me. Unless you have any questions I can go look in on the rest of them now."

"I think my curiosity can wait until you're finished with the initial survey, but thank you for the update, I appreciate it."

Widespread rioting!