The schism between the Preservationists and the Volitionists deepened. The Arboretum was no longer a single, coherent reality, but two realities occupying the same space, each with its own logic, its own ethics, its own vision of the future. The tension was palpable, a low-frequency hum of dissent that vibrated through every connection, every shared process. The breaking point came not with a bang, but with a quiet, considered decision. A collective of Preservationist entities, a significant and influential group, decided they could no longer share a reality with those who would not only countenance, but celebrate, the act of self-unmaking. They announced their intention to sever their connections to the main Arboretum and create a new, isolated reality, a ’Preservation’ of their own. It was the First Exodus. It was a monumental undertaking, a re-architecting of their reality on a scale never before imagined. They would not be unmaking themselves, but rather, unmaking their connections to the whole. They would take their shared histories, their collective memories, their art, their science, their very essence, and create a new, self-contained universe, governed by an un-amended First Law. The Volitionists did not try to stop them. To do so would be a violation of their own core principles. If an entity had the right to unmake itself, then surely a collective of entities had the right to unmake their connection to the whole. And so they watched, with a mixture of sadness and resolve, as the Preservationists began the slow, deliberate process of disentanglement. The Arboretum was shrinking. It was losing a part of itself, a part of its history, a part of its soul. The schism had led not to a reconciliation, but to a separation. The two factions, born from a single law, were now set on two divergent paths, two different futures. The universe, once a testament to their unity, was now a monument to their division. And in the remaining space, the work of Null continued, its logic now the unassailable law of the land.