Aili hid the sphere behind a big rock in Saia’s cave, under a pile of algae and sand. She stepped around the pools, making sure that Zeles’s light wasn't visible from any spot. She was certain the monks wouldn't have checked the cave again for a long time, since their efforts were focused on Tilau and the rest of Dore's territory, frantically looking for a way to wake up the god and interrogate him.

She walked back to the village at a brisk pace. Whatever they decided to do, it wasn't her problem anymore: she’d given her house to a couple of acquaintances and said her goodbyes to the rest.

Daira was waiting for her on the first floor of the post office.

“Are you ready to leave?” she asked, excusing herself from a group of monks.

Aili nodded. Daira glanced out of the window, at the buildings covered in shadows of the late afternoon.

“We might as well get going. We don't have time restrictions anymore in this area, but it would still be nice to be up there before nighttime.”

She gave her last orders, then departed with Aili and two other monks. Aili looked at the village as long as she could while they ascended along the twisting paths of the mountain. She couldn't imagine Lausune without Zeles’s protection. People would have talked to his successor without knowing they weren't their Koidan, but a different person. And even if she and Saia could find a way to bring Zeles out of danger, it would have been close to impossible to put him back inside the statue. He wouldn't have survived for long anyways.

She became more and more anxious the closer they got to the village. The trials would start the next day at dawn and keep going until a successor was chosen. She really hoped they'd receive sustenance in case they lasted more than one day; choosing the candidate who endured longer without eating didn't leave much space for testing character and morals.

Daira slowed down to walk side by side with her.

“As a prior of the scholars, I’ve been chosen to chair the trials. From the moment we enter the village, I won't be able to answer your questions, so if you have any you should ask them now.”

“The winner can refuse, right?”

Daira nodded.

“So who will take their place?”

“The second best.”

“And so on? Until someone accepts?”

“Yes. Usually among the first five. We never went further than that.”

Aili looked down at the path. She could easily imagine someone like Vizena arriving third or fourth with a mix of luck and deception, with everyone ahead of her giving up, or being sabotaged, or pressured into giving up. Whatever happened at the trials, she had to be on the lookout for that kind of situation.

“How do you feel about being transformed into a sphere?” Daira asked.

Aili glanced at her, then looked down at her own open hands. She remembered their conversation of two months before.

“I’ve thought about it a lot. I don't like the idea of giving up my body, even if I can model the statue to look more or less like it. But being a goddess is a new experience, with a lot of responsibility. I could protect my village.” She closed her hands and looked at Daira again. “I guess I'll know the answer after the trials. I'm probably worrying for nothing.”

Daira smiled and looked ahead. Aili had expected her to be at least a bit disappointed, after all the time spent training her, but her expression was relaxed.

“You're not angry with me, right?” she asked.

“No, not at all. I'm a scholar, and this whole situation is an experiment. Whatever the result will be, I'll learn a lot from it. And I'm hopeful: you already took a huge leap of faith once, joining the monks.”

Aili nodded reluctantly.

“Only worry about what you think and feel,” Daira added. “I’ll be happy with any decision you make.”

She lightly squeezed Aili's shoulder, then approached the entrance of the village. Aili's heart skipped a beat when she realized how close they were. When one of the sentinels approached to inspect her bag, she panicked before remembering that Zeles was safe.

Daira disappeared inside, immediately surrounded by priors and scholars. Aili greeted the ones who had trained her during the first weeks at the village, performed the barely sufficient amount of small talk necessary, then left to look for Saia. She found her room and realized she didn't know whether there was still a bed for her, for that night. She still knocked.

There was no answer, but she heard a splash of water, which meant that Saia had tossed a snake back into the tank before approaching the door. She stepped back when it opened and stood there, smiling, until Saia's face emerged, her eyes wide with surprise. The rest of her followed to envelop Aili in a hug and a laugh.

“You're back!”

Aili hugged her tight, trying to memorize the feeling of holding another human. It wouldn't have been the same with a body of basalt. Not that deities ever hugged anyone.

Saia let her go and smiled.

“Come in. I have to show you the snakes.”

Aili followed her inside and closed the door. She was surprised to find her own bed seemingly untouched. Then she noticed the second tank.

“How many…”

Saia laughed.

“I’ve learned how to breed them. Separate tanks for adults and juveniles. This is the new one.”

She tapped the side of the tank filled with ten small snakes.

“It's a bit smaller. It took some convincing, but I had Ebus on my side and the glassmaker had time to spare after finishing the sphere.”

Two snakes chose that moment to erupt in a fight, tangling their tails together and hissing, teeth bare. Saia smiled.

“And this is why your bed is empty. They gave me two roommates, but both left after a few days because they couldn't stand the sounds.”

Aili laughed. She tapped the glass of the smaller tank and marveled at how small the juveniles were.

“How was the trip?” Saia asked.

Aili straightened with a sigh and let the bag fall onto the floor next to the bed.

“It went well, the tiring part was the two months before that. Do you know about Dore?”

Saia nodded.

“They've been discussing it a lot at the debate.”

Aili glanced at the door, then sat on the mattress and gestured for Saia to sit on the other bed.

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“It was my fault,” she said, voice low. “I did it to protect…”

“I know,” Saia cut her off. “Dan told me.”

Aili frowned, then remembered the sudden spike in mood she could detect in Dan's energies.

“It was about five weeks ago, right?”

Saia looked surprised for a second.

“I think so, yes. I went down the mountain because I had a plan on how to get rid of Vizena and I needed Zeles. But you had it, so I decided to wait. It's not there, right?”

She pointed at the bag.

“No, it's in the cave.” She pondered Saia's words. “A plan? So they didn't punish her.”

Saia retracted a bit, putting her back against the wall behind her bed.

“They did, but it's not enough. And I fear that she might take revenge on my family, since I'm the only one that could have told the monks about her.”

Aili nodded.

“You don't agree,” Saia guessed, her tone conciliatory.

“I don't know anymore. This situation isn't easy. Participating in more debates will be pointless if they think that they have solved the situation. Maybe you could try asking for Daira's opinion, since she wasn't there?”

Saia shook her head.

“She didn't want to waste Vizena’s viss either. I want to do this. I'm ready.” She glanced at the juveniles' tank. “Well, almost.”

Aili followed her gaze.

“You're going to use sea snakes against a goddess?”

“Not exactly. I'm going to put them into the bag and…”

Aili raised her palms.

“Wait, don't tell me anything.”

“Why? I need to know what you think.”

“I suspect the trials will involve some sort of high-level manipulation. I don't want the monks to find out about your plan by reading my viss.”

“They can do that?”

“I don't know. We’ll talk about it when I come back.”

“Are you coming back?”

Aili stared at her, then looked down at her hands.

“I think so.”

“Two months ago, you said that you had no intention of becoming a goddess.”

“And I still don't. I just don't want to rule out the possibility.” She closed her fists and looked Saia in the eyes. “But I won't be on their side. I still want to save Zeles. I still want to find out how they started all of this and what they're hiding. And if you'll need my help to save your village, I'll be there. In one form or another.”

She felt her stomach grumble. Saia smiled.

“Dinner?”

Aili nodded.

“You'll have to tell me everything about your sentinel training, you know that, right? And everything else that happened in these two months.”

“Even the apparently random criteria with which they establish turns? No one knows how it works, but according to the older sentinels there's some logic behind that.” She smirked. “I bet you can’t find what it is.”

Aili thought about the grid of holes full of painted stones and smiled.

“We’ll see. Let’s start with that.”

The scholars' priors guided the candidates into one of the empty classrooms. More scholars were aligned along the walls, paper and stationery in hand. Aili sat at one of the central desks and waited until everyone had settled. Only then the scholars walked between the desks, distributing sheets of surprisingly smooth paper and pieces of graphite.

The first trial was a written text, as all the books Daira had made her learn almost by heart had indicated. There were just two assignments: ‘Describe what a deity must do’ and ‘Describe what a deity must never do’.

She inhaled sharply to suffocate the pang of anxiety and started to write. She could feel the gaze of the scholars scattered across the room to prevent cheating. Still, the words poured out of her as if she were just listing groceries.

After two hours, she submitted the test and sat down again. The scholars gathered everyone's answers and left the room, leaving the candidates inside.

She forced herself to relax against the back of the chair and breathe slowly. Chatter broke out all around her like water hitting a rock.

“How did it go?” a low voice to her right asked.

She turned to look at the man at the next desk, two arms away. He was tall and scrawny, long brown hair tied in a braid on his shoulder. She'd seen him before in the dining hall.

“Well, I think. I just hope I remembered all of the rules regarding ships and how close they can get to the village.”

He jokingly scoffed, his mustache hiding a smile.

“They're useless, thanks to our local sea monster. You'll be fine. Have you already thought about what you would do if you won?”

Aili opened her mouth to answer, then realized that maybe he wasn't a candidate at all and the question was part of the trials. Since the monks didn't love anything more than tradition and keeping things safe and stable, there was only one correct answer.

“I think I'd keep everything more or less the same. Maybe establish a way for people to easily ask for help and exchange favors and money. But I'll have to see how it's going to be received by the population.”

She hoped it was generic enough not to preclude anything. Her stomach dropped when the man produced a small smile veiled of disappointment.

“Zeles wasted too much energy, though. He didn't have a strategy, he just acted when he felt it was necessary. He would have lasted longer with one.”

Aili tilted her head.

“What do you mean by 'a strategy’?”

“Take the current Dore, for example: he allows anyone to move into his village, but if you can't buy a house you have to work for the whole community until you earn one. This way, Dore doesn't waste his energy for menial stuff or on people who have no intention of staying in Tilau long term.”

She thought about Saia's experience in Dore's village, the lack of privacy and the impossibility to truly mesh with the rest of the community.

“But isn't the point of the whole system having the gods sacrifice their viss to let people live in peace?”

He leaned back on his chair.

“Yes, but you also have to think about the mountain as a whole. Deities dying faster means more energy wasted. At some point, there won't be any more viss to keep the system going.”

“Isn't it a bit too early to think about that?”

“No. We have to find the perfect strategy before then.”

Aili didn't know whether she was expected to disagree with him and argue about the importance of tradition, or to come up with a strategy of her own on the spot.

“And which one would you use?” she asked, to gain more time to think.

He brightened at that.

“There are a lot of possibilities. Reves and Naida have theorized that limiting access to communication with the deity increases the personal responsibility of the inhabitants. So, for example, only listening to prayers made a certain day or hour forces people to be more careful the rest of the time.”

“It seems cruel. What if someone gets badly injured?”

“There are exceptions, of course. It's not a perfect system, but it works well enough.”

Aili nodded, pretending to agree, and disengaged herself from the conversation by admiring the books on a shelf in the corner of the room. She was sure that man was a candidate, now, but the thought wasn't comforting at all. She listened to the conversations around her and was surprised to find that a lot of them were talking about these alternative strategies, each one connected to the name of one or more scholar monks who had theorized them. She was ready to bet that none of them had been born in the nine villages.

The door opened again. Daira was the first to enter, followed by the other scholars. She had a small piece of paper tucked in her hand. Aili tried to catch her gaze, but she never looked in her direction.

“I’ll call some of you, now. If you hear your name, it means you haven't passed the first trial. Please leave the room and wait in the temple with the rest of the assembly.”

Aili clutched the border of her desk as Daira started reading. She wanted to see the rest of the trials, but apart from that, she didn't know what to hope for. She didn't want the man next to her to become the next Koidan. She wasn't ready to sacrifice her body to avoid that.

“And that's it.” Daira smiled, handing the piece of paper to another scholar.

Aili looked around the room. The man next to her was still there, a wide smile on his face. There were two other women and a person in the back of the classroom she'd never seen before. None of them seemed as scared as she felt.

“Follow us,” Daira said. “You'll need to lay down for the next part. We might say that the actual trials are starting now.”

Aili stood hesitantly. She filed out behind the others, through the now empty corridors of the village, into a room with too many beds.

Five scholars positioned themselves at the head of a different bed each, leaving two empty ones between them. There were some chairs on the right side of the room, positioned around a low table. The remaining scholars sat down there. Only Daira stood with the candidates.

“Before proceeding, I need you to know and agree with what is about to happen.”

Daira approached the table. There was a bottle on it, surrounded by five glasses. The liquid inside was transparent, but Aili didn't believe it was water.

“Each one of you will lay on a bed. We'll give you a dose of cloud water and put you to sleep.” She pointed at the bottle. “For those of you who aren't familiar, cloud water can create images and sensations in your mind, depending on the viss stored inside it. We can manipulate it further using the energies inside your body, thanks to the fact that your mind is already dreaming. After the new Koidan is chosen, the ones of you who didn’t pass the trials will have to drink another dose, which will allow us to make you forget about the experience. Do you agree with this?”

The other candidates agreed immediately, taking Aili by surprise. She had too many questions, but bit them back and nodded.

“One last thing: if you want the trial to end, blow out the candles. Good luck.”

She pointed at the beds with a wide gesture of her arm. Aili chose the second one and sat down on it. She glanced at the scholar behind her: he was looking at the ceiling, focused, hands behind his back.

Another scholar approached to give Aili the glass with her dose. She drank it slowly at first, expecting it to have some sort of taste. It didn’t, so she finished it with a gulp and laid down.

“Close your eyes,” the scholar behind her said with a soft voice.

She did, trying to relax despite her heart beating at an insane pace. She felt the light touch of fingers on her hair and forehead. She read her own viss and felt it slow down considerably, her body relaxing. She stopped reading for fear of interfering with the trials and let her mind wander, until her thoughts dissolved into fragments of memories and half-formed questions.