Saia was the first to step away from the hug, but she kept a hand on Ceila's shoulder.

“Why were you with the dancers?”

She looked at the floor covered in debris.

“I’ve started to sell clothes shortly after you left. The dancers’ costumist sew them and I took care of the market stand, but it was a slow start and I couldn't leave my job. Vizena started requesting more and more from our crew, probably to keep me occupied, so I didn't have any time left to see Lassem and... We broke up.”

Saia slightly shook her head, but didn't say anything.

“It took me a few months, but sales started improving. I came here to tell Vizena I'd leave the dancing crew, but she offered me a deal: I could see Lassem again, provided I left my activity and resumed dancing for her.”

Saia realized she was still holding her shoulder and let her go.

“And you accepted?”

“I talked to Lassem, first. He still had feelings, but didn't want me to give up my dreams. But we pretty much agreed that living in this village was impossible without having each other. So yes, I accepted.”

Saia smiled.

“So you're still together?”

Ceila smirked back at her and nodded. She looked at the sphere in Saia's hand.

“What is it?”

“Careful,” Zeles said in her ears.

“It's Vizena. She's deactivated right now, but I need to do one more thing to make sure she won't come back.” She put the sphere inside the bag. “Don't tell any of this to anyone. Secret keeper's mission.”

Ceila nodded, scratching her chin with the right index in the gesture that meant 'promise'.

“You'll live here now, right?” she asked then.

Saia hesitated.

“That's the idea, but I have to leave tonight. I'll come back as soon as I can.”

“I have so many questions right now.”

“We’ll have time to talk about everything.”

Saia yawned, her lack of sleep and the fading tension catching up to her.

“I need to stay alone for a bit.”

Ceila nodded and gave her another quick hug.

“I’ll tell everyone that you saved us. And I'll have a talk with my mom,” she said, zigzagging towards the exit to avoid the sleeping snakes on her path.

She stopped again near the entrance.

“I’m glad you're back. We missed you a lot.”

She waved one last time before disappearing beyond the open doors.

Saia looked at the mess around her. There was blood on the floor, mostly belonging to the sea snakes that Vizena had managed to tear apart. She started to pick up the remaining ones and found Zeles underneath them. His light was dim, probably to hide his presence, but she still felt a node in her stomach.

“Thank you.”

“It was your plan,” he answered. “Absolutely crazy, but it worked out in the end.”

Saia kept him in her palms as she walked up to Vizena's statue. It had toppled down, resting on the side with an unnatural rigidity, arms reaching out and face stuck in a horrified expression. It began changing as she looked, the pieces that had fallen with the impact flying back to their places, arms and legs bending to push the body up until it was standing. The features changed too, the body becoming vaguely masculine and the face turning into Zeles’s.

“The monks will recognize you,” Saia said. “Wasn't your energy almost depleted?”

“I only have about a day left,” he said. “But I want to die showing my own face.”

Saia wanted to reply that he didn't have to die, but held her tongue. He was extremely weak and there were still a thousand things that could go wrong in one day.

“It was a pleasure to know you,” he said.

She felt her chest tighten.

“I’m glad I could be your friend.”

Zeles sat on the pedestal with his legs crossed. The gash on his chest had become a round cavity with levigated borders.

“I have one last favor to ask you: put me to sleep and leave me inside the statue. My memories are in my viss, and soon I will lose them piece by piece. I don’t want to be awake when it happens.”

Saia nodded. Zeles reached out to rest a giant hand on her shoulder.

“Goodbye then, Saia. I hope we'll meet again, if there’s some real god out there that will be merciful with me.”

Saia knew her voice would have trembled if she tried to speak, so she just stared at the statue in silence as he retracted his hand. Then, she held Zeles's sphere in front of her and slowly sent her viss forward until the light it emanated turned blue. She let her breath go in a sigh, then wiped her eyes and climbed the pedestal. She had to prop herself up with a foot on one of the statue's bent legs to reach the round hole on Zeles's chest. The cavity inside was just deep enough to hide the sphere.

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She climbed down and stepped back, looking up at the statue: the blue light was still visible, it wasn’t difficult to guess where the sphere was.

She surveyed the floor one last time to make sure there weren't any snakes left behind. The last ones were in her bag, four in total, all piled up on top of Vizena's sphere.

She left the temple, welcoming the night's breeze with closed eyes and open arms. Lights were lighting up everywhere in the village, despite the sky being still dark. She could see shapes of people moving around, meeting in groups that were merging into crowds.

The central square was already full. She headed there, descending the stairs with legs that were trembling with fatigue. She stopped next to a wall: nobody had seen her approach in the dark, so she could observe the faces of the people at the light of the moving torches. Her heart started beating faster as her eyes examined the crowd, haunted by the fear of not being able to recognize her own family anymore, or worse, that they wouldn't recognize her.

Her fears dissipated when she saw her dad's intent expression, eyes surveying the crowd much as she was doing. The faces of her mom and siblings resurfaced from the darkness every time he moved the torch. She let out a sigh that sounded like a sob and crossed the square toward them, cutting through confused groups of people she didn't even glance to.

Her family squinted at her through the dark, faces charged with hesitant hope. Her dad raised the torch as high as he could. As soon as she stepped into the opaque circle of light, they ran forward with tears, smiles and laughs. They embraced her as if she was the last thing they needed to feel like they could be happy again.

The sun slowly resurfaced, a thin strip of orange light just above the sea. Saia took a deep breath, taking in the cold of the sand against her hands, the chatter of familiar voices all around her, her mom's hand gently stroking her hair as her head rested on her tight.

She sat up with a groan.

“Oh, you're awake!” Heilam said, reaching forward to pinch her cheek.

Saia felt a surge of annoyance in her chest and laughed at how normal it felt.

“I wasn't sleeping,” she said, thinking about the snakes in her bag.

She looked at her family, sitting in a loose half-circle on the sand, facing the sea. She could still hear the rest of the village celebrate in the distance, screams and laughs and insults at a goddess that couldn't hear them anymore.

She'd tried to go home, but everyone kept stopping her as soon as they recognized her voice in the dark. The thanks, tears and hugs had been a pleasant surprise at the beginning, but they got old quickly when the only thing she wanted was to be with her family. So now they were sitting in a small beach between the rocks of the bay, hidden from the houses.

She got up.

“Where are you going?” her sister asked.

Saia looked at her with a bitter smile.

“I have to leave again.”

“But you'll be back, right?”

Saia thought about saying 'yes', but now that the dawn had begun she wasn't as sure as she’d felt just a few hours before. They'd have read straight through her if she feigned confidence she didn't have. They'd have worried and tried to stop her.

“There's still one thing I need to do to make sure that Vizena will be gone forever. Once that is completed, I'll come back.”

They were all serious now, jokes and plans for the future set aside.

“We can help you,” her dad said.

“No. Having other people with me will only make everything more difficult. I need to know that you'll be safe.”

“We need to know the same about you,” Lada said.

“I’ve fought Vizena and won, mom. I can do this.”

“Isn't there anyone else who can think about that?” Lassem asked. “You did enough.”

“There are... things I've learned in the last few months. I'll give you the details when it's all finished, but I'm the only one here who has the necessary knowledge, and the others who know wouldn't help us. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

They looked at each other, confused, as if to decide who'd make the next question.

“If you want to help me,” Saia continued, capturing their attention again. “Tell everyone to stay away from the mountain and out of their houses for the rest of the day. The docks are safe.”

“The docks?” Heilam said. “Why?”

Saia adjusted the strap of her bag around her shoulder and began to leave.

“Just do it. People should listen to you now.”

Her mom stood.

“Come here.”

Saia stopped in her tracks. She gave a glance to the sun rising at the horizon, then obeyed with a sigh.

Lada put a hand on her shoulder and one on her cheek.

“You will come back,” she said, looking straight into her eyes. “You'll come back healthy and safe and you'll lead a life full of happiness. Do you understand?”

As Saia stared into her mom's black irises, she felt a small, familiar buzzing where her fingers were resting on her cheek. She felt a surge of conflicting emotions and realized her mom had just sent her part of her viss. It was too small a quantity to have any effect, which meant she hadn’t done it on purpose. It was sheer will, and faith in her daughter's abilities.

She felt the tears swell up and hugged her.

“I will.”

Lada stroked her head.

“Good. Then you can go.”

Saia followed the trail traced on Rabam’s map as high as it could get her. When it curved to the left, toward Lausune, she ripped the paper and kept going up. She stepped from tree to tree, keeping as hidden as possible, even if she knew with absolute certainty that the sentinels had already spotted her in the budding light of the day. At least she was in a spot where they couldn’t know for sure from which village she’d come from.

It didn't take long for them to show up. They were only four, and only two of them had spears, held casually against their shoulders as if they didn’t expect to use them. She was surprised to see Coram among them.

“What are you doing, Saia?” he asked with a melancholic expression, as if he’d half-expected to meet her in the forest.

She took out the sphere. The monks froze as one, the spears immediately lowered.

“Don’t get closer or I’ll activate him,” she said without slowing down.

She kept climbing, twisting her head to keep them at the edge of her vision. She saw movements up ahead and retreated behind a tree.

“What the fuck are you doing?” came a shout from above.

She recognized Gaila’s voice. She was descending with a bigger group of sentinels, a look in her eyes that bordered on hatred. She imagined the same expression on Haina, Ebus and the others, and for an instant she wondered whether it was worth it. An instant that passed immediately.

“Surrender now,” said another familiar voice from the head of the group.

“I need to reach the village, Maris,” she answered.

They came out of the trees with a drawn sword, flanked by the two other priors of the sentinels.

“We're going to kill you if you try. Surrender and you might survive this.”

“We both know that you can't kill me. I just need a thought to wake up Zeles, you wouldn’t be fast enough.”

Maris advanced alone toward her. She held out the sphere and sent a bit of her viss forward, turning a sliver of light from blue to golden. She held the prior’s gaze, determined to unleash Vizena even if it would kill her.

When half of the sphere had become golden, Maris stopped and turned slightly toward the rest of the group.

“What the fuck are you waiting for?”

“I’m trying,” a sentinel said, face red from the effort.

Maris opened their palm to the side. The sentinel ran over and gave them a small object that glinted in the light like a shard of glass. Maris close it in their fist, but as much as their frown deepened and their hands trembled with the effort, the light of the sphere kept changing. Their expression gave way to disbelief.

Saia let the sphere return blue and smiled.

“I’ve found a way around your trick. Maybe I can tell you what it is once I'm done with everything.”

Maris cursed, fist gripped so tight around the shard that Saia expected to see blood trickling down at any moment. She stared at them, unflinching, even as she was battling with guilt; she couldn’t forget that Maris had been the only one to vote for removing Vizena since the beginning.

“What do you want?” they asked.

“Call for the abbot and the priors and tell them to wait in the temple. I want to negotiate.”

They kept staring at her. She let some instants pass in silence, then stepped forward. Maris raised their weapon, immediately imitated by every monk in the area. Saia turned Vizena’s light half-golden and kept going, using the trees as her cover. She could barely hear the steps behind her over her racing heart: a thrown spear, a sentinel foolish enough to attack, and she would lose everything. But the monks knew what would come next for them. They kept their distance as she climbed up toward the village.