Wint twisted the small blade expertly into the lock of the handcuffs that kept the Ruling over sea tied to the massive wooden posts holding up the tent they woke up in.

“Thank you, Wint.” Wotar sighed painfully, rubbing away the soreness from her wrists.

“What are we going to do now?” Linda finally asked the question which was burning in her lungs ever since she saw her beautiful conquest from last night kill his lady in cold blood mere meters away from her.

“What we always do in situations like this, little one – we get up, dust ourselves off…”

“And we keep going”, Wotar finished, once she untied Linda.

They cast a final glance at the lifeless body of the traitor whose blood was turning the dust red and got out of the tent on all fours, fully alert to anyone who might interrupt their escape.

They managed to walk about five kilometres in full silence before feeling calm enough to sit down in the shadow of a b’ruankh’ai tree and talk next steps. For the first time since ending up in this strange place, Linda didn’t feel the endless fatigue which had been plaguing her over the past month. It was as if the limitless strength and endurance of the women here had finally infected her. She now felt full of energy and didn’t mind walking a few more times the same amount of hal’matri just so she could keep moving, keep acting and keep feeling as alive as only someone who had faced almost certain death could.

Wotar was the first to speak:

“We are facing a greater ordeal than what I initially thought. Wint, I hope you understand, but I must return to Syfis post haste.” She turned to Linda. “Linda, I realize you must be struggling to understand what just happened, however the Earth ladies have been an obstacle to alaian progress for a long time… Their beliefs are… let’s call them outdated…

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“If we concede that there are two spectrums of knowledge – a spiritual and a scientific, then the earth ladies are, I’m afraid, not just on the wrong side of both, but are stubbornly insisting that they’re going the right way, while all of us are desperately honking at them to get on the right side of the road…” The girl muttered, sounding vaguely like a recording of one of the articles she’d read on the alien laptop.

The Ruling over sea looked at her, eyebrows raised high, but thankfully, the wind storm intervened:

“Completely understandable, Your Highness”, Wint nodded and Linda felt a chill run down her spine from the icy tone of the wind storm’s voice which had lost all trace of the comical accent she had been using, since they met. “Your place is amongst the people, You need to return and show them through the stability of Your presence that reason and strength of will are still in power and that no amount of earth fanatics can ever hope to change that.”

“Thank you for understanding”, Wotar nodded in turn and Linda saw for the first time the respect the Ruling over sea must’ve always felt for Wint. “I leave the rescue of the prince in your capable hands for the time being. Take Linda to Tib’tai and find brother Ma’ala – he will help.”

Wint nodded again and squeezed Wotar’s outstretched hand somewhere above the wrist. Wotar took a small blinking round device from her back pocket and pushed the only button that interrupted its otherwise perfect oval. The wind storm took Linda’s hand and made for the bushes directly ahead, and without so much as a second glance toward the water lady, kept dragging the poor girl behind her.

After spending another few hal’matri running, Linda finally managed to pull her hand out of the vice grip Wint had on her appendage and took a look around. They were apparently really close to the sea port, but from what she could see, looked like they were approaching the wrong one. The South one.

“Wint?” The girl shouted, to compensate for the strong wind howling past her ears. “Where are we going?!”

“Someplace a bit more fun”, the wind storm smirked sideways at her. “I thought you wanted some recreation time?

“But Her Highness …” Linda protested.

“Is no longer here.” Wint cut her off categorically and resumed dragging her down towards the anchored ships.