The monks led them along an invisible path that zigzagged between the trees. Saia walked some steps behind, trying to catch the topic of their whispered conversation. Every now and then they changed direction, apparently without a reason.

“Black dots,” Aili murmured at her side.

Saia tried to decipher her words for three steps before giving up.

“What?”

Aili pointed at the base of one tree.

“They're small enough to look like they're part of the bark.”

Saia squinted. Now that she’d noticed one, it was easier to find the others. Her mind had already registered them as part of her surroundings, like leaves or insects.

“I'm sorry for yelling at you,” Aili said.

Saia glanced at her, then shrugged.

“You looked like you needed to vent.”

“And you won't tell me how you made Koidan help you, right?”

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

Aili sighed.

“Sure you don't.” She nodded in the monks’ direction. “What do you think?”

“I don't trust them.”

“Me neither. But they seem to know what happened, and I haven't seen anything that makes me think they're lying.”

"What has your monk told you?"

"My monk? Well, she talked about the principles of their order. She said they’d been observing us and know of our efforts." She returned serious. "You know, it's funny because she thought we did all of that of our initiative, but when I told her of the evil god she looked seriously worried.”

Saia stopped.

“You told her of the evil god?”

“Yeah. Since we were outside of Lausune, there was no risk he could hear us. And I thought Daira already knew.”

Saia put a hand on her forehead. Now the monks were sure that Zeles wasn't following the rules before disappearing. If they even suspected him before.

Aili frowned and took a step forward.

“Is everything alright?”

Saia lowered her hand, letting it dangle at her side. She nodded and resumed walking.

“Wait.” Aili hurried up to reach her. “Have I said something wrong?”

The monks noticed they were falling behind and stopped. Saia slowed down.

“No,” she whispered, “but we shouldn't reveal too much, unless they don't give us more information.”

They walked in silence until the monks resumed their conversation.

“You really aren't in a position to say that,” Aili commented.

Saia rolled her eyes.

“Again?”

“I'm just saying. If you were more open with me about...”

“No,” Saia said. “Don't ask me again.”

Aili groaned in exasperation, but didn't reply.

When the monks stopped again, it was so dark Saia could barely see the mixture of fallen leaves, grass and rocks on which they were standing.

“Wait here,” Coram said. “We're going forward to make sure we're on the right path.”

Saia crossed her arms. Now that she wasn't moving, the wind felt cold against her back.

“Can we light a fire?”

“No, they could see us.”

“Don't worry,” Daira added before Saia could ask who ‘they’ was. “There's a shelter higher up. We just have to make sure we're following the right path.”

She went with Coram, deeper into the forest. Saia sat on a flat rock. Aili stood next to her, hugging her own torso.

“I hope they'll let us sleep somewhere.”

Saia looked at her.

“You want to spend the night here? On the mountain?”

“Better than going back. It's freezing.”

Saia shook her head and opened the bag to look for clothes. The sight of the snakes almost made her jump. She lowered the flap before Aili could see them.

“I think I’ll go back anyway,” she said.

Aili glanced at her, but didn't answer. They stared at Lausune, visible in the distance through the foliage, until the two monks came back.

“We found it,” Coram said. “Follow us. It isn't far.”

Daira stepped forward to give each of them a bundle of gray cloth.

“They'll keep you warm.”

Saia stood, unfolding the bundle: it was a tunic, identical to the one the monks were wearing. The texture was rough, but it felt lighter than it seemed. On the outside, there were strings to pull near the sleeves, neck and shoulders to make them fit tighter, a necessary adjustment since the tunics were at least two sizes too big. There was a line of purple string sewn on the inside of the tunic, creating circular shapes and waves all along the torso and sleeves. She wondered what it was for, but a gust of air convinced her to wear the tunic over her clothes. Aili stared at her own a bit longer before doing the same. Saia wanted to ask her what she thought about it, but the monks were already leaving and she didn't want to get lost in the dark.

They walked up a slope. As soon as they reached the top, the monks froze.

“Have we arrived?” Aili asked.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

Coram turned with a finger on his lips and pointed at the forest in front of them. Saia stepped forward to look above Daira’s shoulder: something was moving between the bushes. At first, she thought it was a small donkey, the creepiest one she’d ever seen. When it came closer, muzzle on the ground, she concluded it didn’t have anything to do with any animal she knew.

“What the fuck is that?” she whispered.

“A boar,” Aili replied. “Sometimes they call it demon-sheep. But I thought they were just a local legend.”

Saia looked at the creature. Whoever gave it that name had never seen a sheep.

“It looks more like a pig, though,” Aili continued.

Saia glanced at her.

“Really? I've never seen one.”

“Shut up,” Coram hissed. “It could attack.”

The creature made two steps forward. Its eyes glinted when it raised its head to look in their direction.

Daira put a knee on the ground and slid off her flat shoes, eyes on the animal.

“Hide somewhere, I’ll deal with it.”

Coram nodded. He stepped sideways, toward a group of trees, without turning his back to the boar. He tugged at Saia's sleeve as he walked past her, and she did the same to Aili before following him. When each of them was hidden behind a trunk, Daira stood and took a step forward.

“What is she doing?” Aili asked. “Why provoke it?”

Coram shushed her.

“It’s better to get rid of it now,” he whispered quickly. “Or it could attack us later.”

Daira advanced two steps, then reached out with both hands to grab a low branch. She tugged at it, as if to test whether it could hold her weight. The shower of leaves that followed startled the animal. Daira let go of the branch, hands on her mouth. She emitted a high-pitched squeak that made Saia jump.

The boar took a step back, then sprinted toward Daira. She lowered her arms and hunched forward. Saia noticed the boar had tusks, jutting out like upside-down snake fangs.

Daira jumped, grasped the branch with both hands, then kicked the boar's back as it ran beneath her. The animal's muzzle hit the ground, the huge body rolling over, until it stopped some steps away from Aili’s hiding point. She shrieked and stepped back, hands over her mouth, and bumped into Saia.

Saia glanced at Coram, hoping he would explain to Aili that she had nothing to worry about, that it was just magic. He approached Daira instead, to give her a pat on the back. She said something and the two of them laughed.

“What happened?” Aili murmured.

Saia remembered how she had tried to comfort Liraira. She reached out with a hand and put it on her shoulder. It was trembling, like the rest of her body.

“Don't worry.”

Aili looked at her.

“They’re strong enough to kill a boar with a kick and we're alone with them in the forest.”

Saia sighed and let her go. She couldn't say anything about magic with the monks so close.

“It's still breathing,” she only said. “They just stunned it.”

Aili narrowed her eyes on the creature's body: the flanks were inflating at a regular rhythm.

“Everything alright?” Coram asked, approaching them. “I assure you the boar's still alive and will get up as if nothing happened.”

Daira put on her shoes and stood.

“It's late, they probably started without us.”

They all followed her deeper into the forest, until they reached a clearing. A huge tent was placed in the middle: it was made of rough yellowish cloth suspended on wooden poles, visible through the pale light coming from the inside. More poles were placed horizontally on each pair of vertical ones, giving solidity to the structure.

All in all, the tent was big enough to comfortably host eight people. Saia tried and failed to count the silhouettes that were moving inside, with only their heads identifying them as human. Their voices were loud enough that Saia could distinguish a word here and there, but not the topic of the conversation.

Coram gestured for them to wait outside with him while Daira entered. As soon as she stepped inside, the voices lowered to whispers. Saia exchanged a glance with Aili, but she only found the same confusion she was feeling.

Daira put her head out and looked at them.

“You can come in.” Then, looking at Coram: “The others will stand guard, so you can enter too.”

He nodded, relaxing his stance a bit. He entered first while Daira kept the entrance of the tent open. Aili seemed still shocked by the encounter with the boar, while Saia was the one who had a clearer idea, even if vague, of what was happening, so she entered next.

She counted six people inside, Coram excluded. They were sitting in a circle, with plates in the center. Apart from the gray tunics they all wore, they didn’t look any different than the people she could find in any of the villages.

Two of the monks stood and gestured for Saia and Aili to take their place as they left the tent. While they hesitantly sat down, the other monks moved the empty plates to a corner of the tent and positioned the remaining food in a way that made it easily accessible to everyone. Daira sat down in an empty spot in the circle.

“Sorry if we started without you," a man said, “but you were taking forever.”

“Have you found it?” a woman asked, voice low, looking at Coram.

He shook his head while he put what looked like a meatball in his mouth. Another monk was pouring something dark, probably wine, from a bottle into two clean glasses.

“Here,” he said, passing them to the monks, then gave Saia and Aili an interrogative look. They both shook their heads, Aili with a lot more emphasis. She looked unable to keep herself still, fidgeting with the hem of the tunic and changing position too often for somebody who had just sat down.

“You can eat, if you want,” Daira said.

“What about telling us why we're here, first?” Saia asked.

Daira looked at the woman who had asked Coram whether they had found ‘it’. ‘It’ being Zeles, clearly.

“You start.”

She looked like she wanted to protest, then put down her glass and sat straighter. Her brown hair was cut short and a touch of red powder tinged her pale cheeks.

“I’m Haina,” she said. “We're monks, but I guess they've already told you that.”

“Yes,” Daira confirmed. “They also know a bit about Koidan’s situation.”

“Well, we've invited you here to talk about us and what we believe in.”

Her tone was similar to the one teachers used with young children, articulating every word clearly and at a slightly slower pace than a normal conversation. She looked around, as if to see if somebody wanted to take the explanation from there, but most of the monks were focused on the food. Two men were whispering to each other. They both laughed softly. Daira shot them a look of disapproval, made less effective by the fact that she was chewing on something.

“If nobody has anything to object,” Haina continued, “I’d like to present the broad beliefs of our order, and then talk about how we live and how we're organized.”

“You're making it sound like a history lesson,” said one of the monks who had laughed, a man with dark brown skin and a bald head.

“Shut up, Ebus,” Coram murmured, gesturing for Aili to give him the bottle of wine. He took it from her shaking hands and filled his glass again.

“Our core principle is that the sacrifice of some leads to the happiness of everyone. If some people willingly choose to sacrifice a bit of their lives and freedom to work toward the common good, everybody will benefit from it.”

Aili seemed to ground herself a bit.

“Why not expect the same amount of sacrifice from everyone? Wouldn't that reach the same goal in a quicker and fairer way?”

Haina looked a bit surprised at that interruption. The monk who was sitting next to Ebus and had laughed with him raised his hand to signal that he wanted to answer, even if he was still chewing on some food. Saia observed him while they waited. His short hair was black and straight, shining in the lanterns’ lights, his black eyes underlined by the dark circles of someone who didn’t get much sleep.

“Because it needs a huge amount of organization. I'm Cailes, by the way,” he added. "You need a system to ensure that everybody will sacrifice the same amount of the same resources, but the people in control shouldn't be able to escape the system either. It's easier to keep a small group organized and focused on one goal.”

“And you have that kind of system?”

“We've been at it for centuries," Ebus answered. “I think we can say that we do.”

Aili nodded, looking more thoughtful than satisfied by the answers. At least she wasn't trembling anymore.

“We make sure that everything in the villages works properly and intervene when it doesn’t,” Haina continued. "Your village is going through a crisis, but in three months everything will be back to normal.”

“You talked about needing our help for that,” Saia said. “What if we decided not to join you?”

“Oh, we all know you won't join us,” Ebus said, but this time Cailes gently elbowed him instead of laughing.

“We need your help regardless of what you'll choose to do,” Daira said, glaring at Ebus. “It's not essential, but it will simplify everything.”

“Okay, good," Aili said. "But what do you want us to do?”

“Tell your people that Koidan sent us to help him take care of the village," Coram said. “This way, they'll listen to us. See?” he added, looking at the other monks. “You should give them the facts straight. You all talk too much.”

“And you drink even more,” Ebus said.

“Alright.” Haina clapped her hands to capture everyone’s attention. “Do you have any questions, up to this point?”

“Yeah,” Saia said. “A lot. How do you plan to solve the situation, exactly?”

“We'll do everything in our power to help the village like Koidan would. Healing people, giving food to whoever needs it, prevent crimes, solve problems in general.”

“Essentially what we're already doing,” Aili said.

“Well, yeah, it's actually the first time we see a village behave this way after their deity starts disappearing. We'll have to adapt our usual strategy. We were very impressed by the system you two came up with, it's weirdly similar to ours. That's why we chose you.”

“We didn't come up with it,” Aili said. “Koidan did.”

Haina’s joyful expression faltered.

“What?”