As her brain was slowly rebooting her consciousness, a few things caught her attention - first, the bed she was in right now was nothing like the one Wotar and Wint had kicked her out of - this one was significantly narrower, although just as comfortable. This most likely meant they were no longer in the AWA training facility. She felt a sudden pang of anger that no one had woken her up to say goodbye to the beautiful shaman who had so thoroughly removed the pain her companions had so painstakingly inflicted upon her.

At first she wasn’t too sure if her mind was playing tricks on her or not, but it seemed like she was feeling a slight rocking. Could they be travelling on water? Or maybe the nightmare wasn’t yet over and she was now in the belly of the giant phoenix? The mere thought made her jump in the narrow cot and open her eyes wide.

The room was surprisingly not dark. She blinked a few times to chase away the stars caused by the sudden onslaught of the light coming from above her bed. Slowly, but surely the blurry outlines of the figure, sitting on the edge of her cot became clear.

“Wotar?”, Linda mumbled, her voice hoarse from sleep.

“What be all this yellin’ about?”

The Ruling over sea had just opened her mouth to respond, when the door swung on its hinges and Wint came rushing through it like the natural force her people commanded. Dressed in nothing more than her pants…

“Wint!”, Linda shouted, suddenly fully awake from the noise and the sight of the wind storm. “Why are you naked?”

“I ain’t naked... “, the woman retorted harshly, but still looked down, as if to make sure. “I have me pants an’ all that.”

“B-but…”, the girl muttered, subconsciously gesturing in front of her chest.

Wint followed the hand motion with furrowed brows, before turning back to Wotar:

“‘Tis what I’m on about, yer Highness. She spends way too much time considering other people’s womanly parts.” , she leaned in to the Ruling and lowered her voice, but not enough that Linda couldn’t hear. “I oft worry she may be one of ‘em sissy girlies that be poppin’ up of late…”

Linda felt her eyebrows attempt to merge with her hairline, but the look Wotar gave the wind storm was, although just as surprised, also charged with visible menace. Wint however didn’t seem eager to correct her blatant bigotry. Was it the late hour, or the sudden realization that whatever she said would be heard only in part, but Wotar just got up off the edge of the bed and made for the door, but not before ramming her shoulder against Wint, as she was passing her by.

“Well ain’t that something!”, Wint shouted at the now closed door. “Leave poor Wint to deal with it! That’s politicians fer ye, little one”. She turned to Linda again and took Wotar’s place with a very audible huff. “Tell me now, what has ye screamin’ like a wee boy in the middle of the night?”

Linda felt her discontent swell inside her chest and kept silent, a stubborn grimace twisting her features. This woman before her was the most callous, cruel being she had ever encountered. Even a wasp had more empathy for others than Tempaiah Wint, one of the last remaining wind storms. The very same wind storm, who had rushed into her room shamelessly half-naked and spewing insults left and right, as though Linda’s nightmare from before wasn’t traumatic enough. And now she insisted on being told what had happened? Yeah, no.

“That’s none of your business”, Linda retorted.

“Amazing! So I can go is what yer sayin’?”, the wind storm’s tone was overflowing with mockery - she must’ve surely felt what was truly behind the girl’s tense look. “So I best be off to sleep some more, then…”

Wint moved to stand up, a lot slower than usual, the whole time staring intently at Linda’s face. This allowed her to see the struggle behind the girl’s eyes, as her own bright green ones were still glimmering with the remainders of her mocking smile. A part of Linda wanted to reach over and smack her square in her glib mug. Thankfully, reason prevailed with two quite indisputable arguments - first, Wint would find it as difficult to beat her to a pulp in return, as it would be to squash a bug and second - much as she didn’t like to admit it, the nightmare had shaken her more than she cared to admit and even the wind storm’s company was better than nothing, at this late hour.

“Wait”, she said, reluctantly. “I’ll tell you if you insist…”, it was a weak defence and she knew it, but it was the best her half-asleep brain could do at the moment.

“If I insist, she says…”, Wint huffed, but sat back down. “Listen ‘ere to what’s gon’ happen, little one. Me likes to sleep, ye hear? But me really likes it, I’ll have ye know. Tis what we do at night, in general… But I ain’t bloody well goin’ all the way back to mine just so I can be roused at ungoddessly hours because yer screamin’ can be heard all over again.” She paused for a bit, to size the girl with provocative intensity, as if trying to see if the girl would try to spew some more childish nonsense. Satisfied with the lack of response, she continued. “So I says to ye, I says, let’s us sit and hear what’s been buggin’ ye so hopefully ye get over it and we can both go back to sleep, like ye should.”

Linda nodded, painfully aware of the fact that this was the best semblance of empathy and caring that Wint was capable of showing, and started telling her dream in as much detail as she could remember, before it all got drowned down in a fuzzy mush inside her brain.

The wind storm was listening to her with increased alertness and only from time to time did she contribute a question or a comment. Mostly, she was just shaking her head and saying one of these strange words that Linda couldn’t hope to comprehend and could only imagine them being in some form of local dialect which her new body’s hearing wasn’t accustomed to.

“Phae-nix, ye say?”, Wint stumbled through the word. “What might that be?”

“Well…”, Linda paused in turn, as she’d never had to explain such words before and it took her a while to find a suitable description. “It’s a large mythical beast, similar to a bird, but capable of being reborn through its own ashes, after it burns.”

“A-ha, so like a firebird, then?”, Wint offered.

“Well, I guess so… Although this seemed like more of a lightning bird, if that makes sense?” - Linda shook her head. “I thought I saw it spew lightning out of its mouth, because as I turned to look at it, I felt the air electrify behind me.”

“Ah, so…”, the wind storm pursed her lips and all of a sudden her expression grew grim and hard. “And ye say that before this it was some boy?”, the girl nodded, but it was apparently not enough of a reply. “Yer sure then? A boy? Not, say, some girl… that really fancies dressing up as a boy?”

“I’m sure, yes,” Linda replied, although her tone wavered a bit, more due to the inquisitive stare Wint was bombarding her with for some time. “It was a boy. A very…”

“Yeah, yeah, a great beauty, I know.”, the wind storm interrupted her with an impatient wave of the hand. “Fascinating stuff… very fascinating stuff…”, she fell silent a moment, and her face went through a bunch of different expressions, like a storm. When she spoke again, her voice had dropped even more and it was one step away from a whisper. “Hear me and hear me well, little one. Ye can take this as a sign, te can accept that it means nothing, but no matter what ye do, please don’t tell this to the Rulingness.”

“Why not?”, Linda was surprised. “I mean, what could she do? Didn’t you just say it was only a dream?”

“I think it is just a dream, yeah”, Wint nodded, “But this be me, little one. Most people on this planet can’t tell the difference between old man’s tales and scientific fact.”

“Well, I can’t really blame them…”, Linda said quietly. “On my planet we just have science and despite that we have people who believe in all sorts of stuff. And on yours there is magic…”

“Magic?”, the wind storm repeated, an eyebrow raised.

“Yes, magic - all these supernatural abilities you all have here - the water, the wind...:”, she started explaining.

“There be nothing supernatural about what we can do.”, Wint shook her head. “This be also something that science hath explained. But no matter how hard ye try, ye can’t win over universal stupidity. Some people would place their faith in childish tales, so long as they live. It be more comfortable for them so, I suppose. It’s only a pity that there be people - capable women, that would benefit from this folly to do their dirty work for them. They’d sit around, while many able-bodied women fight over the wind that roams the deserts, and they would scream grandiose phrases at them, to make them fight even harder.”

“And you think that the Ruling is such a woman?”, Linda’s brows furrowed. “I don’t think that she would…”

“She’s a politician, little one.”, the wind storm interrupted her. “You don’t become a leader of women, lest you have some bits of talent for manipulation in yer head.”, she saw the girl’s critically raised eyebrow and she continued. “I know ye like ‘er… And it must be quite difficult fer ye to picture ‘er in such a light. Alas, there be but two types of politician on Alaiah - there’s the ones that will drag ye about for their own sake and those that will do the same, believing that they be doin’ ye a favor. Now this second group is the most dangerous. And our lass ‘ere be just like that. She’ll spin yer head with tall tales not to do ye wrong, but ‘cuz she honestly believes she’s doin’ what’s right. And it don’t get scarier than that, trust me.”

“Alright, alright”, Linda cut her off, slightly irritated from the conspiratorial turn that their conversation had taken. “I still can’t see what’s the...”

“I’ll say it like this”, Wint interrupted in turn, but with a noticeably softer tone this time. “This dream of yers fits perfectly into a legend that our religious folk on both sides of the big blue love quite a bit. It speaks of a time when the women of Alaiah had forgotten the ways of the Goddess, and as punishment, She sends them a nasty illness to take away their powers from them. Ye might have heard already that we have such issues in AWA. When we met, I told ye that I was one of the last remaining wind storms. I didn’t lie to ye. There be many a village on the Air Twin, where women like me are nothing but bedtime stories for the little ones. When they start talking about ye in past never-was tense ye know that things are goin’ seriously rotten.” she sighed heavily before continuing. “We hear now that the water ladies have begun to suffer from the same. Young girls be born with nothing but their ancestors names and not an ounce of their power. People be desperate. And desperate people be the easiest to brainwash. Some of ‘em are practically beggin’ for it. Especially if you tell them you’ve got a solution to their problems.” Wint paused again, to shoot an inquisitive look her way. Linda couldn’t say a word - ever since she had met the wind storm, she had never seen such a serious expression on the woman’s sharp features. “Ye seem like a reasonable girl to me, despite not showin’ it often. Tell me, what sort of solution do ye think one can find in some ancient religious text?”

“Bloody and restrictive…” the girl muttered and felt chills run down her spine at the memory of religious fanatics back home on Earth. People who were looking for any sort of excuse to saw discord and chaos, instead of admit that the ancient tales they were placing their beliefs in were just that - pieces of prehistoric fiction.

“Aye, bloody and restrictive”, Wint nodded, “exactly so. And here be a piece of bait for a million fish to swallow - the same legend says also that our dear Goddess might not be merciful enough to just make us all worthy of her Gifts again, but she is kind enough to send us a Saviour.”

“The Lightning Child?”, Linda asked, despite being sure of the answer already.

“The Lightning Child”, the wind storm confirmed.

“I see”, she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“I hope so little one…” Wint nodded and sighed heavily once again. “I hope you do see…”

“Wint can I ask you one final question?” Linda asked.

“How can a woman say no to ye?” The wind storm shrugged and the girl felt a wave of relief wash over her at seeing the woman’s lips twist in the all-too-familiar ironic smile.

“Where are we?”

“I’ll remember ye for that question, ye know”, Wint laughed a little. “A few hours ago we boarded a sea ship and we’re now sailing for the Fringes - these be the last isles which are considered part of the territory of the Alliance.” She got up off the bed, yawning widely and made a couple of steps towards the door, before turning her head back to Linda. “Let’s sleep some more, ‘cuz from here on out, there be our real adventure.”

Linda stayed like that a while, after the wind storm left - hunched over in the bed and staring at her hands. Then she remembered to lie back down again, but sleep was evading her. The momentary calm she felt from seeing Wint’s typical mocking demeanor return, had left her as quickly as it had came to be.

Her mind was racing between the nightmare and her conversation with the other woman and it couldn’t find rest. On one hand she wondered how it was that the woman always managed to convince her she was right. How was it that someone could be so callous and abrasive and still inspire so much trust? And what of Wotar?

She really was growing quite fond of the Ruling over Sea. She was strong, clever, courageous… A true leader whom Linda couldn’t help but admire. Not only because of her noble demeanor, because that could just as easily be a mask, but no - Aquina Wotar was honourable and virtuous, with such a hard set moral compass that not even a mountain of magnets could shift even a degree to the left. And therein could lie the problem it seems...

“There be two types of politicians on Alaiah”, Wint’s words echoed through her skull for the millionth time. And she remembered Earth which also had a ton of honourable and virtuous people, capable of great monstrosities in defence of this or that cause.

She tried to imagine what would happen back home if someone had suddenly announced the arrival of one of the “saviours” so many people believed in. There would be joy at first perhaps, but then… Then there would surely come a ton of opportunists, trying to take advantage of people’s naivete and trust and they would surely preach, spread propaganda and instigate aggression and discord. And all the while, they would be desperately searching for more information about this messiah in question, find them if he or she truly existed and try to recruit him to their cause to use as a banner or a cheap marketing strategy… And amongst them there would surely be at least a few, deeply convinced that they’re right and are doing the best for the world as a whole.

Why did she think that she could trust Wotar to be any different then? Because she was a woman? Wasn’t that too presumptuous and closed-minded of her to believe that simply because the Ruling was of the same sex as her, this somehow made her worthier or more capable of withstanding the supreme temptation of power?

But Wint was right. Her dream was probably just that - nothing more than a regular nightmare. And it was entirely up to her at the moment to prevent it from becoming reality by overtrusting this alien ruler’s honour.

She let the decision set firmly inside her head, as she was trying to fall asleep again.

No, she wouldn’t breathe a word of this to anyone...

And not just because of what the wind storm had said.

No...

Mostly, because the face of the boy had imprinted itself onto the back of her eyelids - it held an expression of wild, genuine horror...