Saia reflected on what waited ahead as she walked up the mountain, surrounded by monks. She held Vizena’s sphere close to her chest, keeping at least a speck of her light golden, as dangerous as it was. She’d felt sure the monks deserved to be controlled by her if they actually decided to attack, but she started to doubt that thought: awakening Vizena on the mountain meant putting all of the villages under her control, monks included. Suimer included.

She couldn’t let that happen, but she needed her threats to be convincing. She thought of how Vizena had managed to make her whole village believe she could hurt them at any moment, even if she knew she couldn't actually do anything. She needed to be just as ruthless if she wanted the monks to listen.

She saw movements around the village and braced herself. The people living in the houses outside were the first to spot the group of sentinels. They stopped and stared, and so did everyone who was walking in or out the entrance. Nobody Saia knew personally, but she recognized some faces and knew she was even more familiar to them, as one of the two outsiders who had joined their ranks.

Maris ran up ahead, took one of the sentinels at the entrance aside and said something. The woman nodded and entered the village. Saia walked on, past the sentinels who had stopped all around her.

“What was that?” she asked.

Maris didn't answer, stepping aside from the entrance instead. Saia checked that there wasn't a trap waiting for her, then entered the village.

She walked along the mostly empty corridors. She heard the steps and voices behind her, the doors opening as the flood of sentinels and curious monks advanced with her.

She stopped in front of a door and opened it. The glass laboratory was silent, the temperature weirdly low. A monk was cleaning an empty oven, singing softly. He didn’t notice her passage.

She walked on toward the temple. The doors were open wide, the priors standing around the room as she’d requested, except for Maris and their colleagues. The abbot was sitting on the chair he used during the debates, right in front of the well. He didn't get up when he saw her. Sentinels were aligned along the temple's walls, half of them holding a spear, the others a sword.

Maris and the sentinels’ priors were the last ones to enter, closing the doors behind them.

“This is not what I requested,” Saia said, raising her voice as much as she could without yelling. “I asked for the abbot and the priors, unarmed. No one else.”

“I’m sure that you don't want him to control you either,” Laius said, nodding to the sphere. “So we’re all stuck, aren't we? Either you put him away or the sentinels will stay here and we’ll all have to starve to death.”

“Because you think that he's here against his will,” Saia said. “But he believes I'm his ally. I'm the only person he won't hurt. And if you kill me, he'll avenge me.”

“If you really think that's how it's going to go, why didn't you already awaken him?”

“Because I'll give him back to you if you do as I say.”

The abbot glanced at Daira, who was standing at his side with crossed arms. She was so tense Saia could see her nails digging into the rolled-up sleeves of her tunic.

“What do you mean?” she asked. “You just said that Zeles is your ally.”

“It doesn't matter, as long as I can get what I want.”

“Which is?”

Saia stepped forward. The abbot stood and got away from the chair when she walked past him, betraying his fear.

She stopped next to the well and put a hand on the shield that closed it.

“No,” Maris said. “Absolutely not.”

“Are you insane?” Daira took two steps forward, then Saia raised the hand that was holding the sphere a bit and she stopped. “Why would we ever exchange a rebel god with an even more powerful one?”

“Because you don't have a choice.”

Saia pushed with all her strength, holding the sphere to her chest with the other hand. She managed to move the shield a bit, and then some more by pushing with a leg. Once it was half-open, she looked inside: the cavity was much deeper than the structure outside suggested. She resisted the urge to examine it further and looked at each of the priors.

“Denes,” she called, then started walking toward him.

He stepped back.

“I won't help you. I'd rather die.”

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Saia kept going, taking a snake out of her bag.

“Then I'll kill you. I'll ask all of the other scholars and kill everyone who refuses. Or maybe I should try to do it myself and blow up this place in the process.”

He had his back against the wall and his hands raised in front of his face. Saia felt the instinct to back down and leave him alone, but forced herself to wake up the snake instead. If her threats weren't convincing enough, she eventually would have to kill someone.

The sentinels at Denes’s sides raised their weapons, but lowered them immediately when Saia started to wake up Vizena again. She extended the hand holding the sea snake's head until it was in front of Denes’s face, then let the snake free just enough to bite the air in front of his nose. He closed his eyes, breathing fast, head pressed against the wall.

“Last chance, Denes.”

He opened his eyes, looking past her.

“Listen to her,” the abbot said.

The scholar prior nodded, suddenly looking a bit more resolute. Saia stepped aside, allowing him to precede her toward the well. He slowly slid out the stone that covered the lever and all the hidden mechanisms that allowed him to use the viss inside the mountain. Saia stepped into the well, holding Vizena with both hands. She heard the distant rumbling she remembered from Aili's transformation.

“We're doing what you want, now,” a prior said. “Give us Zeles.”

“You'll let the sentinels and weapons out, first. Otherwise we'll find out what happens when a person tries to become a god while holding a sphere.”

The sentinels' priors looked at each other, then at the abbot. He nodded slightly.

“Out,” Maris said through their teeth.

They gave their own spear and sword to a monk passing next to them.

“We should have examined you more before letting you join us,” Daira said. “You’re not like Aili at all.”

Saia inhaled sharply. She was tempted to reveal that Aili had helped her, and would have done even more if she'd let her. But she didn't want to compromise her.

She looked at Denes instead. He pulled a lever, and the pavement started to tremble a bit.

“Now we can't stop it,” he said.

Saia recalled the ceremony. He’d said the same thing after the trembling, so it probably was true.

Daira stepped forward.

“Give me the sphere, now.”

Saia shook her head.

“Not you.”

She looked at the priors one by one, trying to guess how proficient with magic they were. She couldn’t let someone that could make her fall asleep get too close.

Her gaze stopped on Rades, the prior of the helpers who had shown her and Aili their room.

“Come closer.”

He was one of the priors further from her, so it took a while for him to reach the well. Saia glanced at the sphere inside her hand, still holding tight the snake's head with the other.

“Are you going to kill him?” she asked.

“Of course,” the abbot answered.

She was surprised by how uneasy she felt at the idea. Even if it was Vizena, even if it was what she deserved, she knew she'd still feel guilty if she let them kill her without doing anything. She didn't want to let her ruin her life more than she'd already done.

Most importantly, it didn't sit right with her that they would kill her thinking she was Zeles.

“He's the best god of the eastern villages. Possibly the best god in the whole mountain.”

The abbot stared at her without answering.

“He builds houses personally for anyone that can't afford them. He listened to all the problems we had, no matter how small.”

“We know. It doesn't matter.”

“He never spied on people. He gave back the trust and respect tenfold.”

Denes raised his head.

“We don't have much time.”

Rades stepped closer, hand outstretched. Saia bent forward and let the sphere roll on the floor toward him. He picked it up and handed it to Nides, a prior of the sentinels and the strongest person in the room. He knelt and smashed Vizena on the ground three times, until she broke.

Saia looked at the light as it disappeared in an instant. She didn’t feel anything except for relief; if the monks were ready to kill Zeles despite everything he'd done, despite the person he was, then Vizena didn't deserve to live.

Denes made a sudden movement. The trembling intensified, then stopped. Saia saw he was holding the pommel of a lever with both hands, clearly straining to hold it in place.

“I’ve blocked it,” he yelled.

She had briefly considered the existence of a security system. There was one, after all.

Both Daira and Maris sprinted forward, arms outstretched and ready to put her to sleep. She threw the snake at Daira and extracted another one when she avoided it by dodging to the right. Saia aimed the other one, ready to throw as soon as she was close enough. She just needed to hold her off for some seconds, until...

The earth trembled. Daira stopped and looked at Denes, still locked in the same position as before.

“It wasn't me,” he yelled.

There was another tremor, stronger. Saia let out her breath in a sigh. Dan and Morìc had managed to bring Zeles far enough from the mountain.

She took out another sea snake and held them both in front of her.

“You need a new god,” she said, her words partially covered by another rumble. “So either you try and force me to leave in the next few minutes, or I'm your only option.”

Denes was red from the effort. He strained his neck to look at the abbot.

Laius sighed, shoulders dropping. He looked more tired than defeated.

“Do what she says.”

Denes let go of the lever. The light trembling resumed, along with the stronger, urgent one of the walls.

“Go inside,” he said, breathing hard. “I can't stop it anymore. For real, this time.”

“One last thing,” Saia said to the abbot. “I strongly suggest you awaken me, after I become a sphere.”

He nodded, a glint of amusement in his eyes.

Saia left the sleeping snakes and the bag on the floor just outside the well. She took out the empty sphere she’d taken from the glass laboratory and screwed it on the lid of the shield, then kneeled and used her shoulders to position it over the top of the well, sealing herself inside.

She sat on the floor of the cavity, looking around. The bottom part of the shield was covered in grooves that formed geometric shapes similar to waves. The walls had them too, even if they didn't cover every available surface. She realized that Aili had seen the same thing, and probably also tried to guess what their use was in the small amount of time she had at disposal.

The viss started to seep in from the bottom, blinding and slow as a liquid. She tried to follow Aili’s reasoning, instinctively withdrawing her feet from the approaching light. She could imagine it flowing inside the grooves, and realized they were influencing the movement of energies inside the sphere, to achieve a permanent effect.

The light finally touched her. She felt all of the energies in her body buzz, ebb and wave as the light climbed up her body. She let her head rest against the wall and closed her eyes.