Saia stepped inside her house and immediately glanced at the bed: the woolen blanket was well hidden on the floor in the corner of the room, impossible to notice while standing. Now the problem was touching the sphere inside without alerting Aili.

She turned to see her gaping at the tank.

“You have a lot of snakes.”

Saia let the bag on a chair, took some strips of dried meat from a jar and approached the tank. She dangled one portion on the water, then dropped it.

Aili got closer, but stopped at a safe distance.

“You have to feed them one by one?”

“Yes, or the strong ones will eat everything.”

“Can I help you?”

Saia glanced at her. Even Dan, after three lessons on how to pick up and handle sea snakes, hadn’t yet earned the right to feed them again. But it could keep Aili distracted.

“Yes, but wear my gloves and be careful,” she said, taking them out of the bag.

While Aili put them on, she explained her what to do. Her eyes seemed focused on taking in every single piece of information, so when she finally nodded and declared to be ready, Saia believed her.

Aili fed the first snake, fascinated by the fight that ensued among the animals. Saia stepped back, took a vissin from her pocket and let it fall onto the floor near the bed.

“Damn,” she uttered, just loud enough to be heard by Aili. “Stupid pocket.”

She laid down with her belly against the pavement. The coin was just in front of her, but she ignored it and reached for the woolen blanket. She started unfolding it, but stopped when the blue light began to shine through.

“Everything all right?” Aili asked.

Saia heard her step closer. There was no way she could hide the golden light from her once Koidan was awake.

She took the coin and showed it to Aili.

“Don't worry, I found it.”

She went back to the tank and helped her feed the snakes. She couldn't ask Aili to leave her alone without making her suspicious, but they also risked facing a murderer soon.

“Shouldn't we get a weapon?” she asked. “Or bring a guard with us?”

“We can take some knives, if that reassures you. And the guards, well, it’s complicated. They pretty much agreed that they’ll stop minor trifles, but if we want them to deal with serious crimes we’ll have to pay everyone involved thirty vissins a day.”

“Too much.”

“Exactly. Let's talk with the cousin, then we'll pay one of them to come with us just for today.”

Saia nodded and dropped another strip of meat.

“We could take a snake,” she said.

Aili looked at her.

“What do you mean?”

Saia waited for another animal to approach the surface, then yanked it out of the water. She thought about the sea and the snake went limp.

“Are you insane?” Aili yelled. “It could've hurt you.”

“Don't worry, it’s paralyzed now. It won't move again until I want it to.”

She reached the table and took a beaker. She freed the snake just enough to let it bite the glass, then put it to sleep again.

Aili frowned.

“I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that.”

“It does.”

She put the snake inside the bag.

“You can't do that,” Aili said. “How are you so sure it won't hurt you?”

Saia sighed.

“I know how sea snakes work, I’ll take the risk. Let’s go.”

She was outside before Aili could protest.

“I really want to trust you,” she said, following her. “But you're making it a bit too difficult.”

Saia locked the door.

“Can we talk about this later?”

Aili crossed her arms, but didn't answer.

Dan had told them that Mili's cousin was Liraira, Orver’s daughter, so they headed towards the merchant's house. It was next to the central square and four times larger than a common house. The windows were all shut and nobody was carrying crates in or out of the small warehouse next to the building.

They stopped in front of the double doors and knocked. A series of hurried steps got closer and stopped in front of the doors.

“Who's there?” a masculine voice asked.

“Ailima and Saia. We need to talk to Liraira, if possible.”

The door to the left opened enough to show a servant dressed in the deep blue of mourning.

“She's still shocked by the death of her cousin.”

Aili lowered her head a bit.

“We are too, but we need to find out who did it. It's the only way to get some relief.”

The servant glanced behind himself, then pulled both doors open.

“Follow me.”

He led them through the hall, then inside a corridor, a second one, and into a living room. There was a lot of free space, with three tables and some chairs piled next to a wall. A young woman was sitting in front of a piano, her back to it, hands folded in her lap. She stared at the floor with swollen eyes, her dark brown hair tied in a ruffled tail. Orver, a tall man with gray hair and a short beard, was pacing in front of a window.

“Sir,” the servant knocked on the door to get his attention. “The administrator and her assistant.”

The merchant stopped, looked at them, then nodded.

“Thank you. We were expecting your visit, after what happened. Please, enter.”

They glanced at each other before stepping forward. Aili took a deep breath. For a second, Saia thought she was going to cry again.

“Mili was an amazing person. I can't even imagine how devastated you must feel.”

Orver nodded again, then looked at the young woman.

“Milvia and Liraira grew up together. It's as if she's lost a sister.”

His daughter glanced up, then resumed staring at the floor. Aili made a step towards her.

“I don't want to disrespect your grief, but I need to ask you some questions.”

Liraira gripped her skirt, but nodded. Aili sat next to her on the opposite side of the bench.

“Have you seen or heard something while you were knocking at the door?”

“No.”

She didn't move, not even to shake her head. Aili exchanged a glance with Saia.

“I don't want to insist, but we're sure that Mili was killed more or less half an hour ago. This means that it happened while you were there. That's why we need every detail you can remember.”

Liraira's hands twitched.

“I don't remember anything.”

“Liraira,” her father called. “Tell them what you said to me.”

She tightened her lips and shook her head. Aili turned towards Orver.

“What do you mean?”

But he kept staring at his daughter. Saia put her back against the wall and crossed her arms, shifting her gaze from one to the other.

“I don't understand.”

“I wasn't knocking at the door,” Liraira said. “I was inside the house.”

She hunched over and lowered her head onto her hands.

“It's okay,” Aili said. “We're not here to judge you. We just need to know what happened.”

Saia frowned. She didn’t understand why Aili was behaving as if she was certain Liraira wasn't the murderer.

The young woman sighed.

“I was at the market,” she said, straightening her back against the piano, “when I saw a man following me. I tried to elude him, but he got closer. I was so scared that I could only think about finding a place to hide. My cousin…“

She pressed a hand against her mouth. When she lowered it, her stare was lost on the floor.

“Mili's house was next to market’s street, so I went there. Of course she wasn’t home, but I had the keys, so I got in and waited. He banged at the door, shouting my name.”

“Are you sure it was him?” Aili asked.

“I saw him from the window. I feared he could break it and enter, so I ran into Mili's bedroom, locked the door and hid under the bed. He kept knocking for a bit, then stopped. I don't know where he went.”

“He probably just waited outside,” Aili said. “He couldn't break a window if there were people around.”

“After a while,” Liraira continued, “I heard someone unlocking the door. I recognized Mili's voice. She was talking with that man. He said that he was one of my father's employees in Elgen, that he needed to find our house and was tired from the journey. Mili believed him and offered to cook something.”

Aili shook her head and looked down.

“They talked about us,” Liraira said. “My father, me, the family's business. He asked if we were close. He seemed calm, so I thought he was just looking for information about me and wouldn't have hurt her. That's why I stayed hidden.”

She looked at Aili, then turned towards Saia, and finally glanced at her father.

“It's the only thing you could have done,” he said.

Aili nodded.

“He's right. He'd have killed you too if he knew you were still there. What happened next?”

“He was eating while Mili went to water the flowers. I couldn't hear her voice anymore, but I heard his answers and it didn’t look like they were talking about anything important.”

She breathed in.

“After a while, he called for Mili, saying he had to go. Then, I heard a loud,” she waved her hands in the air, “sound, I don't know how to describe it. And something fell. I didn't realize it was Mili. I just stayed hidden and listened to what was happening. He walked around the room, then the door opened and closed. I thought it was a trap, so I waited for a long time before leaving the room. And when I did...”

She put the back of her hand on her mouth, too late to stop a sob.

“She was dead,” Saia said.

Liraira nodded, and the movement made some tears fall. She wiped them away.

“Yes. I saw her and looked for help. I found a guard outside. They told Dan to call you and accompanied me home.”

Saia nodded. Aili was wiping her eyes. She realized everybody was staring at her and murmured an excuse.

Liraira stood.

“If you don't have other questions, I'd like to go, now.”

“I have one,” Saia glanced at Aili, but she was still trying to stop her tears. “Do you know something else about this man? How tall he was, eyes, hair and the like? Do you know his name?”

Liraira hugged her waist.

“It was Lorim. Or maybe Loren, I didn't hear well. He seemed a little taller than me, brown hair, pale skin, light eyes but I didn't see which color. Let's see... Deep voice.”

She narrowed her eyes, then shook her head.

“I don't remember anything else.”

Saia nodded and looked at Aili. She had calmed down, but didn't seem to have more questions.

“Thank you,” she murmured instead.

Liraira bowed her head and left the room. After she closed the door, Orver turned towards Aili.

“Why do you know Milvia?”

“I've seen her at the market.”

“Only her close friends call her Mili. I'm sure Liraira knows all of them, but she doesn’t know you.”

Aili took a deep breath.

“I was a regular customer. Can I ask you some questions about this Lorim?”

He frowned.

“I know she said he was one of my employees, but I assure you I don't know anyone with that name. And if he is, he can't possibly come from Elgen, because I know everyone there.”

“Maybe one of your employees hired him.”

“Not with my permission, I can assure you. But I'll write them a letter.”

Aili nodded, then looked outside the window.

“If things went as Liraira said...”

“You don't believe her?”

“I do,” Aili said, “but she was still scared and confused. Maybe she missed something.”

Orver crossed his arms.

“Go on.”

“I think that Lorim, for now let's assume it's his name, wanted to kill Liraira to take revenge on you. So he convinced Mili to let him in, probably with a lie. When he found out that Mili was really close to you, he killed her instead.”

“Then why he didn’t try to kill me?”

Aili leaned back. The piano emitted two high notes.

“I don't know. It depends on his reasons to take revenge on you. Have you made any enemies recently?”

“Sometimes I need to make tough business choices, but I try to never burn any bridge.”

“What kind of choices?” Saia asked.

“I’ve had to lay people off. I change suppliers sometimes, if I find a better…”

He stopped, staring at the wall as if he'd just remembered something.

“I had a supplier of beer from this village who might correspond to the description. Blue eyes, deep voice, and he was called Loriem, actually.”

Aili and Saia glanced at each other.

“And he doesn't sell you beer anymore?” Saia asked.

“No, I was offered a lower price from a brewery in Izgos. Loriem didn't take it well at all.”

Aili put her elbows on her knees.

“I imagine he must have lost a lot of sales, right?”

Orver nodded.

“I bought dozens of barrels from him each year. But he became rich with my money, so he shouldn't have any complaints.”

“Maybe he thought you betrayed him.”

“There was nothing to betray. I can choose from whom to buy my beer.”

“I agree, but I'm trying to think like him. Where does he live?”

“Down at the docks. It’s a two stories house with a large garden, I don’t remember the address. But I stopped working with him three years ago, why would he act now?”

“That’s easy: he knew there was a good chance Koidan wouldn't have stopped him.”

Orver put a hand on the windowsill and looked outside.

“Right, because he has to fight the evil god. Couldn't even spare a second to save Milvia.”

Saia clenched her fists.

“It's not Koidan’s fault if this Loriem is a piece of crap.”

“Thank you for your collaboration,” Aili said, raising her voice to partially cover Saia's words. “We should go, now. We’ve troubled you enough.”

Saia nodded and followed her out of the room. The servant showed them out and closed the double doors behind them.

“He didn't like me,” Aili said.

Saia rolled her eyes.

“So what? Nobody likes him.”

They got to the end of the road, then stopped.

“What do we do now?” Saia asked.

Aili looked around as if in search of an answer.

“Maybe Loriem has killed Mili, but we should talk to him before doing anything else.”

“Talk? With a murderer?”

“Yeah, I know. I’m scared too.”

They stared at the ground. Saia put her back against the stone wall of a house.

“Maybe we could make him believe we don't know anything. That we want to talk to him just to, I don't know, change his task.”

“Right after Mili was killed?” Aili shook her head. “Everyone has heard of it by now, he'll be expecting us. And even if he believed us, we couldn't ask him anything too personal without making him suspicious.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

Aili opened the palms of her hands at her sides.

“Let’s just go there? We'll observe him for a while. Maybe we can find some clues about how he killed Mili.”

She headed down the street. Saia followed her.

“And why do we care?”

“Because we can't be certain it was him until he either admits he's the murderer or we find something that tells us he is without a doubt.”

“It just makes things more difficult.”

“I know. But would you like it to be imprisoned just because Orver said you killed someone?”

“Yeah, no. You're right.”

They walked in silence for a bit.

“You’re the letter carrier, right?” Saia asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“And you haven't met this Loriem before?”

Aili shook her head.

“It happens. Some people never send or receive letters.”

And she gave Saia a curious look, making clear that she was talking about her, too. Saia ignored her. She let her go first when they entered a narrow alley.

“Why that question?” Aili asked.

“Nothing important.”

Her tone hadn’t been convincing, but she didn't press the issue further.

“We're not going to the docks,” Saia pointed out.

“I want to go back to Milvia's house first. We can get updates on the situation and maybe convince a guard to come with us.”

Saia nodded. She looked at Aili, her long hair swaying behind her, and wondered whether she’d delivered some delicate mail in the past. Something the gods couldn't know anything about.

“Aili,” she called. “If you answer my question, I'll answer yours.”

The woman stopped and turned towards her.

“We're short on time, but... What do you want to know?”

Saia glanced up at the windows of the buildings at their sides: they were all closed and scattered just under the roof, too high for anyone to hear them.

“Have you ever carried something unusual?”

“Unusual like what? They did ask me to deliver a cow once, and I swear I'll never do that again. And I'd prefer not to deal with snakes. Unless they're dead and you beg me enough.”

She smiled. Saia shook her head.

“No, I meant something that has to be kept secret. From a god, for example.”

Aili's expression dropped into a frown.

“You do realize it doesn't sound good, right?”

Saia sighed.

“I had some problems with Vizena. I'm sure she'd destroy all of my letters the moment they arrived in her territory. Or do something worse, like changing the content, or…” She shook her head. “I don't know, but I can't risk it. That's why I asked.”

“Are you sure you can't talk to her about it?”

“No. Look, forget it.”

She tried to walk past Aili, but the alley was too narrow.

“Wait. Maybe there’s something I can do, but there's no guarantee it'll work.”

Saia stopped and crossed her arms. She stared at the wall to avoid Aili's gaze.

“It's fine, you don't have to.”

“But I want to help you, really.” She put a strand of hair behind her ear. “Vizena is a tough one, because she checks every single letter. First of all, we won't put your name on it, nor the ones of your relatives. But that's not enough, because sometimes she reads the text too.”

Saia exhaled sharply.

“Of course she does.”

“I'll carry with me something more interesting,” Aili said. “Hopefully she'll only focus on that. I do it all the time when I have to deliver sensitive things.”

“Something like what?”

“I don't know. Usually I just write fake letters from a crook to some sort of accomplice. I try to make them as complicated as possible, so it takes a long time to understand what they say. Vizena in particular can't stand bad handwriting.”

She resumed walking.

“Don't worry, we'll figure something out. But we should go now.”

Saia followed her, wondering how many things Aili had already guessed just from that conversation.