Getting to the city proves difficult. Boulders, holes, puddles, and mud creep into the darkness and feed on the rain.

Sely must stay close to the rock face, slow down, and get up after falls...

The flashes of dawn rise to dye the rain and clouds an alien blue.

“Help! Help! Dad needs help!” Sely screams and bangs her fists on rusty iron doors.

“Help me! They murdered my father! Help me, please!!!”

At least Endya, at least him…

Sely keeps running, not paying attention to the people coming out of the houses. The murmur grows, a crowd gathers and soon a great confusion ensues.

“Murder?”, “Toslevi? That crazy hermit?”, “Goatmantis?”, “Hey, someone broke the goatmantis enclosure!!!”…

The commotion only grows and grows, until - when the rain stops - Sely finds himself in the square; surrounded.

Now everyone is silent, staring at her with astonished and fearful looks.

…!!!

The glasses! The hood!

⁂

“So, what do you have to rant about at dawn, monster?”

The sour voice, a hooded figure, and her three maids emerge from the crowd.

Sely remembers those four figures.

The hoods...

No, no, their bent and elderly bodies… they are not them.

“So then?” the mayor takes off her hood. The crowd parts to make room for her.

Sely looks around; she is in the square full of puddles. The structure for the festival, a tall wooden pile topped by an insect sculpture, casts a shadow between the crowd and the girl.

It's cold. Only now does Sely realize it. She is trembling and struggling to put her words and thoughts together.

“You call for help, you call for murder, and now? Now that you have our attention, what do you want?”

Sely lowers her head. She can't say why, but at that moment her pink eyes embarrass her, and her antennae make her uncomfortable. She perceives the hatred, the hatred that her father spoke to her about.

“They killed Toslevi…” Sely holds her elbow with one hand.

A general murmur spreads.

“Silence!” the mayor raises her hands. “You can stop pretending. Just now you were calling for your father.”

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Silence falls.

“Toslevi was my father.”

Silence.

An oppressive pall. Sely feels a weight in her chest, she has the impression that something shady is moving against her.

“We welcomed you warmly, we entrusted you with a task. All this in exchange for your unfortunate news.”

Sely grimaces nervously.

“Do you find what I say funny?”

“No.”

“Are you making fun of me? Do you think that just because I'm human you can afford to laugh at what I say?”

She doesn't care about my dad.

She doesn't care about helping me.

Now I understand why my father bowed his head. He wasn't welcome either.

Sely shakes her head.

“I didn't hear you” insists the mayor.

“No!” Sely looks up. For the honor of Tossyllia and what she taught her, she will not be bowed by a mean person.

And then Endya owes me. He will come to help me.

“I don't want to make fun of you at all. I came from far away, just to help you!”

“Insects don't help humans. Who would believe such nonsense!?”

“Well, I don't care what you think. I did mine, if only for my dad... who has now been killed.”

Only anger on the mayor's face. Anger that comes from feeling challenged in her house.

She doesn't feel anything for me.

Nor for my father.

“Right. It's from before you shout it. But, pray tell, who would be interested in killing that old rubbish?”

Sely bites her lower lip with her sharp teeth and clenches her fists.

I must not give in to anger, I must not make my situation worse.

She may be the enemy, but Endya will arrive.

He is my friend; he will moderate and convince everyone to help me.

“I do not know. I can't know. These are two men, I'm sure of that. They wore hoods and wide-brimmed hats.”

“Oh, hoods and wide-brimmed hats? Hahaha, as if they were distinctive features! Everyone has them here, you're so generic it's suspicious.”

People start whispering again, some shyly approach – tightening the circle around Sely.

Damn. Things are getting bad... Dad, if only I hadn't listened to you and let them steal…

“Moreover” the mayor returns to the attack, “it is even more suspicious that the goatmantis have been freed. Look, we domesticated them with so much care, and yet, an insect arrives and they rebel!”

“What are you implying?”

“Don't play dumb. We all know what that means! It means your crazy news was false! All an excuse to insinuate yourself among us, free the insects, and eliminate us hidden behind our trust. Well, it went badly for you.”

“But it's not true! You are wrong! You are all wrong! There are two assassins hidden among you!”

“Hahaha, and you expect to be believed? We all know that insects eat humans. At the very least you shot poor Toslevi before eating him!”

Sely runs her hands through her hair and bites her lip until it bleeds.

“NO! It was the goatmantis who ate it!”

“Ah, the ones YOU freed.”

“NO!”

“If you tell the truth, show us your good faith. Hand me your gun.”

Ah, that's where she's going…

She wants to take away my only defense, a symbol of my parents.

I can't… I shouldn't…

However…

If it's the only way I can get help …

Sely reaches for her holster. There is excitement all around.

“And if he shoots us?”, “How many shots?”, “How powerful are ancient weapons?”, “They say one wound is enough to die!”, “They can catch you even a kilometer away!!!”

Sely listens to that senseless chatter. She feels like she might cry, again. But she has to hold back, she is an adult and alone now.

Endya… Where are you?

Sely is about to hand over the gun, when…

“Stop! Stop! The girl speaks the truth!”