Saia woke up with sore legs from the walk in the woods. She felt a rustling at her side and turned to see Aili putting up her hair in a ponytail, already wearing the gray tunic and the red sash around her waist. She considered pretending to be still asleep until she left, but Aili had already seen her.

“Slept well?” she asked.

Saia sat up with a groan. She found the clean tunic neatly folded at the end of her bed. She put it on without answering.

“I'm going to Lausune tomorrow. We'll probably not see each other for two months. I wish we could talk again before then. You are a good friend and I’d hate to leave things like this.”

Saia put her bag on her knees and pretended to check the content until Aili left. Then, she spent the short minutes before her first turn feeding the snakes and thinking.

She had no idea of what to do next. Preparing for the debate felt as useless as not doing anything. She knew what she wanted: taking revenge on Vizena. But she had to leave the mountain first, keeping herself hidden from the sentinels. Leaving without permission would have meant being exiled, in who knew which one of the nine villages, without a chance to leave for the rest of her life.

She also wanted to save Zeles. She remembered the shard he had talked about, how the monks had managed to put him to sleep from the mountain. Maybe destroying it would have been enough. Sure, the monks would continue their search for him, but if she managed to wake him up before he was found he’d be free.

She heard the bells chime, so she put the bag on and left the room, heading toward the kitchen. She served food without looking up at the people sitting at the tables, avoiding Aili and anyone she knew. Every once in a while she glanced around, looking for Adus, but didn't find him anywhere. He probably was already at the lake.

She took the first batch of dirty plates to the kitchen and sat on a stool in front of a bucket of clean water. She started to scrub the tableware with an old sponge.

“Hi, Saia.”

She glanced up to see Ebus standing next to her, behind one of the counters. He was slowly chopping a green vegetable that she couldn't identify from her position.

“Hi,” she grunted. She was sure he wasn't there when she had sat down. She had chosen the corner of the room that was mostly hidden from the rest specifically to not be bothered by anyone.

“Is everything okay? I had to leave during the council so I didn’t see everything.”

“It was horrible. I made a fool of myself and didn't obtain anything.”

She expected him to point out that it wasn't true, the priors had listened to her after all, just like Aili had done.

But he didn't comment.

“You’ve been brave. Speaking in a debate for the first time is scary.”

She nodded, hoping to close the conversation there.

“I heard that Aili is leaving, with Daira nonetheless. Is she excited? Worried?”

Saia lowered the bowl she was scrubbing, letting it bang against the bucket.

“I really don't want to talk about it.”

“Sorry to intrude. I got the gist of what happened from Cailes and I was worried that you would still be angry with her.”

“I need all the help I can get, and she's leaving. How am I supposed to feel about that?”

“I know it's difficult, but there's a small chance you'll never see her again. You should try to reconcile while she's still here, even if it's hard right now.”

Saia was about to say that she didn't care, but a small part of her knew it wasn't true.

“Why wouldn't she come back? There's everything she's ever wished for, here.”

“We still don't know where Koidan is. It's very unlikely, but he could find a way to control the monks down there. He won’t be able to do anything without someone to wake him up and energy that he probably doesn't have, but we don't know enough to exclude this possibility. If the sentinels suspect that he’s using his powers, they won't let the monks come back.”

Saia put the clean bowl aside with a sigh.

“If it ever comes to that, I'll find a way to visit her. You and your husband can stop worrying.”

Ebus put the chopped vegetables on a plate and cleaned the counter with a rag.

“If only it was that simple. You're a helper, which means that your possibilities to go down there are limited. I learned it the hard way.”

Saia stopped scrubbing the next bowl and looked at him.

“Why?”

“It's usually a sentinels-only job. Sometimes for the scholars, if they need to examine something related to their area of expertise. Apparently, helpers are only useful down there when you have to keep a village in order because a god is dying.”

Saia nodded and rinsed the bowl. A monk came in with another cart of dirty tableware and gave a meaningful glance to the pile next to her. She scrubbed faster.

“I have a brother,” Ebus continued, chopping a carrot. “Technically a half-brother, but we grew up together and I've never thought of him as such.”

He put the chopped carrot in a small bowl and took a celery stalk.

“Two years ago, he committed a trust crime and was exiled. I was so angry at him that I never visited during the short time he spent in our prison, despite how much my mom, dads and grandma begged me to. I only gave him a short farewell when he departed. About a month ago, the sentinels told me that he had disappeared.”

Saia stopped again.

“I'm sorry.”

Ebus nodded.

“I'm only telling you because I thought that I could find a way to talk to him again, once the anger had left. Truth is, I'm still angry at him, but I also miss him a lot.”

“If he was exiled in one of the villages, how is it possible that he disappeared? Shouldn't the god there keep an eye on him or something?”

“The sentinels are trying to find out what happened. I bet it was his fault. I just hope they'll find him alive. Either way, it's unlikely I'll ever see him again.”

“What’s he called?”

“Rabam.”

Saia nodded, then breathed deeply.

“I... Again, I'm sorry for what happened to your brother, but I don't think Aili’s situation is that dire.”

“I just want you to treat Aili going down there as the important thing it is. Consider the fact that you might not see her again.”

Saia hesitated, then shook her head.

“Thank you, but I think she'll be fine.”

Ebus didn't answer while he took a big wooden bowl and poured a bit of water into it.

“What about the snakes?”

Saia blinked.

“That is a change of topic. What about them?”

“Have you found a way to breed them?”

“No. I've tried pretty much everything I know. Either they're eating the eggs,” she stopped to consider the possibility, “Or they never existed in the first place.”

“Maybe they need the sea to breed.”

“No, they leave it for shallow waters and bury the eggs under the sand.”

Ebus smiled.

“Maybe they need more sand.”

“Maybe,” Saia conceded. “I don’t know where to find it, but I’ll look into that.”

She focused on the tableware while Ebus stirred some unknown ingredients inside the bowl.

At that moment, a group of monks entered the kitchens, each holding either a huge pot of water or a handful of glass bottles identical to the ones Saia always took from the kitchen in the morning, before going to the lake. Everybody else interrupted their tasks to move the carts out of the way until there was enough space on the floor to line up bottles and pots. Someone else arrived with a handful of wooden funnels. They started to fill the bottles with the water from the pots.

“Couldn’t they just fill them at the spring?” Saia asked.

Ebus glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

“You haven't drunk from there, right?”

“No, I’ve always used the bottles. Why?”

“We don't have a god to purify the water, so we need to boil it before it's safe.”

Saia stopped scrubbing.

“Safe from what?”

He tossed more vegetables in the bowl, then took out some meat from a bundle of paper.

“It hasn't happened in a while because we've been careful for centuries, but in ancient times cloud people used to poison our water.”

Saia flinched.

“It wasn’t poisonous in the sense it killed directly,” Ebus continued. “But people started hearing voices and seeing things that weren't there. Some reacted to those visions, obeyed them, carried out what they told them to do. There were incidents and murders. And the visions became more specific over time.”

Saia was staring at him with wide eyes. He made a quick smile to reassure her before focusing on the dish again.

“Yeah, creepy. The visions started to call people by name and mention private details about their lives. So our predecessors made a rule not to drink unboiled water and told the gods to purify it in the villages.”

“You should really tell newcomers this kind of stuff.”

“It's things we've always known and take for granted, I guess.”

He opened a jar containing an amber liquid, then poured it on the vegetables. He added some slivers of cheese, finely cut herbs, and salt.

“Done!”

Saia put down the bowl she was cleaning to look at the plate.

“I envy Cailes.”

“It's not for him, this time.”

“Oh, thank you, then," Saia said with a smirk. "I might just forgive Aili for this.”

He laughed.

“Good try. No, it’s not for you either.”

He covered the plate with an empty one and handed it to her.

“Could you bring this to my grandma?”

She glanced back at the pile of tableware: two other helpers had sat in front of it and were now cleaning the dishes. Another one approached, pointing at Saia's empty stool with raised eyebrows. She nodded, then took the plates from Ebus’s hands.

“Where does she live?”

“In the elders quarters, room twenty-three. She should still be there, but in case you don't find her, give it to a neighbor.”

Saia nodded. Ebus wrapped a fork and a spoon in a clean towel and balanced it on top of the plates that Saia was holding.

“Thank you,” he said. “Now. Must decide what to do for lunch.”

He walked away, wiping his hands in his apron.

Saia left. She'd been in the elders quarters during the first weeks, to help feed whoever couldn't leave their bed. The area was constantly full of helpers, either visiting, taking care of the residents, or looking out for an emergency. Most of the scholars who specialized in medicine had their study rooms in the area.

She easily found room twenty-three and knocked. She couldn't hear any movements inside. She wondered whether Ebus’s grandma could walk or even hear her knock. She looked around for a helper that could tell her what to do, when the door opened a bit.

“What do you want?” a familiar voice whispered.

Saia recognized the woman who was spying through the crack. Her only visible eye widened.

“Ebus…” Saia said, holding out the plates and tableware.

The fisher let the door go for the instant she needed to grab them, then she retreated into her room, closing the door with a foot. Saia stared at the wood, thinking about Ebus’s story about his brother. She turned fast, headed straight to her room.