Aili lingered in Daira's proximity, watching all the four entrances to the square in front of the post office. The people of Lausune were mingling and eating the food from the tables. None of them seemed to notice that the monks either weren't eating or held the servings between their fingers for a long time before taking the first bite.

“I think we waited long enough,” she heard Daira say to another monk. “Bring me the list of inhabitants, let's check who's missing.”

Dan, Aili's mind screamed. He had to be the one hiding Zeles’s sphere. First, he had kept away from the monks even when his brother had started to trust them. Second, he asked about Saia every single time he talked to Aili. Third, he was the only one who didn't show up at the free buffet organized by the monks.

She breathed deeply, remembering the centering techniques Daira had taught her. She stepped forward to take a piece of cream cake from a trail, paying attention not to brush against the monks. She could pass a brief inspection, but an expert viss reader or a longer examination would have revealed her anxiety. She stepped back, closer to Daira now, holding the cake between two fingers. The cream was filled with the viss of the monk who had baked it. She started to send her own energy forward, in order to erase its influence. It was a bit awkward, standing there with an intact piece of cake in her hand, the honey topping slowly leaking down toward her fingers, but she had to make sure that any external influence had disappeared before eating. If she didn’t, she would have felt the urge to lay down and fall asleep as soon as the buffet was over, as it would have happened to every inhabitant of the village who had participated.

Forcing everyone to fall asleep and searching their houses and bags thoroughly was the second part of the monks' plan, in case the first didn't work: checking whether someone hadn't accepted the offering of free food. Thanks to the influence the monks already had on Lausune’s inhabitants, there were slim chances of someone refusing, unless they had something to hide.

The monk returned and gave Daira three sheets of recycled paper.

“Aili,” she called. “I need your help.”

She ate the piece of cake whole to quiet the pang of anxiety and approached the two monks.

“I'll read the names, you'll tell me whether you see them here.”

Aili nodded. She frantically searched for Dan's name on the list, but it wasn't on the first page.

“First one is…”

She squinted to read the calligraphy.

“There,” Aili pointed, anticipating her.

Daira nodded, crossing out the name.

They kept going, walking along the square's perimeter when Aili couldn't immediately find the person.

“Dan Lauhas?”

Aili pretended to look for him in the crowd, ignoring the heart pounding faster and faster in her chest.

“I don't see him, let's circle around.”

She moved slowly, eyes tracing a confused line across the crowd. She didn't know what to do, whether he was there or not.

“You don't see him?” Daira asked.

“I thought I saw him before...”

“Have you seen him eat?”

Aili shook her head. Daira propped the sheets against the closed door of the building behind them and circled Dan's name with a piece of graphite.

“There's another person with his family name. Morìc?”

“His brother. There.”

Aili pointed at him: he was well dressed, with dark makeup around his eyes, laughing and drinking grapefruit juice with a young woman roughly his age, seemingly unfazed by his brother's absence.

“Are there other family members?”

“No, they live alone.”

“We should send someone to control their house now. If he's hiding Zeles, he probably has already taken precautions.”

She gestured to a group of monks near the buffet. They abandoned the food and approached them. Aili could feel herself thinking less and less clearly the more her heart accelerated.

“Dan is just a kid,” she said. “He and his brother are not very well-off. Maybe he has found the sphere and just thought it was something of value, that's why he fears you might take it away from him.”

“Maybe, but if he's that young, it's even more important that we act quickly. If he awakens Zeles by mistake, it could be a disaster.”

“Let me talk to him, first. He knows me, maybe I can convince him to give up the sphere without scaring him too much.”

Daira nodded. The monks, three in total, were waiting for her order.

“There's a chance we have found who has Zeles. Follow Aili, she'll try to convince him to give us the sphere. If she fails, be ready to step in.”

Their attention switched to Aili. She turned and started walking, her head in a haze. She felt the urge to laugh: it was a nice spring evening, there wasn't a single cloud in the sky, and they were marching across the village to face off a teen and the kindest god in the world as if it was a matter of life or death. She clasped a hand to her mouth and breathed deeply. Saia would have known what to do, even if it meant wielding venomous sea snakes in the face of her enemies. At least, she knew what Saia would have wanted: protect Dan and Zeles at any cost, even if it meant betraying Daira and giving up any chance to participate in the trials.

They reached his house. There was no light inside, and almost no movement. She put as much distance as she could between her and the other monks, smiling at the window from which Dan was observing their approach, hidden by the curtains. She lightly knocked on the door.

“Dan,” she called. “I need to talk to you.”

There was no sound inside.

“It's either me or one of the other monks.”

She glanced back at them: they were a few steps away, but quickly approaching.

“I want to help Saia too,” she said, lowering her voice in the hope Dan was behind the door.

“He's not answering?” a monk asked.

“Give him time.”

“If he wakes up the god, he could kill us,” he replied, urgency in his voice. “And the ones of us who survive will be stuck here forever. They won't take us back.”

Aili nodded in acknowledgement and returned her attention to the door. She pressed hands and forehead against it, thinking. She had to give Dan a sign she was on Saia's side, but without giving away her involvement.

“I know that you have the sphere. It's important, even if not precious in the traditional sense of the word. It's... It’s like snake eggs.”

It sounded so absurd she felt the need to laugh again. She pressed the forehead harder against the wood.

“Look, if you don't talk to me now they'll get the information in other ways, and someone might get implied. I have friends waiting for me, and I want to go back with good news for them.”

She bit her lip and resisted the urge to glance back at the other monks to gauge how much they had understood. She heard a metallic sound at lock’s height and stepped back. The door opened a smidge, a chain keeping it connected to the wall. A portion of Dan's face was visible through the gap. He looked up at Aili.

“I don't have a sphere.”

Aili tried her best to smile reassuringly.

“Can I enter?”

“No.”

“We could just break the windows, if you prefer,” another monk said with his booming voice.

He retracted a bit at that. Aili briefly considered reaching through the opening to touch his arm and manipulate him into trusting her, but immediately rejected the idea. Even if she had no intention of winning the trials, it felt like the first step to become exactly like Vizena.

“Dan, I'm not your enemy. I'm not her enemy either.”

He stared at her, then unhooked the chain and grasped Aili's hand. He pulled her inside, with not enough strength to actually oppose her in case she didn't want to enter, but she followed him without struggling. He closed the door immediately and put the chain firmly in place. Aili blinked, looking around in the dark room. She could only distinguish weird shapes everywhere, as if the furniture was covered by a thick coat that connected chairs to tables to floor. All the windows were closed, except for the one from which Dan had been spying outside. There was no source of light the sentinels could use to see inside.

“I know Saia gave you a sphere before leaving,” Aili whispered.

“Speak louder,” one of the monks yelled. “We can't hear you.”

Aili sighed.

“I'm asking him where is the sphere,” she said out loud. “He's not holding it, so there's no danger for now.”

“Alright, but we're entering in five minutes if he doesn't tell you where it is.”

Dan took something from his pocket, and Aili saw the glint of a kitchen knife. He held it by his side, point down. He didn't seem ready to actually wield it.

“What do I do?” he asked Aili, eyes wide and defeated. “I should have gone to the buffet, but I was scared.”

“Don't worry,” Aili said, eyes scouring the room. She needed to keep the sphere safe, but there wasn't a single place in Lausune where the monks wouldn't have looked that night. The sentinels would have kept guard from above, in case the shining body of the god made its appearance, and the village's territory wasn't that big to begin with. She needed to divert their attention.

“I have a plan, but you might not like it.”

“What plan?”

“You'll tell them that you sold the sphere to a merchant from...”

She thought about the villages. Whatever one she would have chosen, its deity would have been implied in Zeles’s disappearance. The monks would have probably shut them down and searched the village too, and it wouldn't have required long for them to find out that Dan had been lying. If she wanted to keep them busy, she needed to make them freak out.

“Dore. I mean, Tilau, Dore's village. It's the only one that's connected to the external forest, and Dore is the only thing preventing people to leave. This will make them consider the idea that someone might take the sphere away from the mountain at any moment with Dore's complicity, and they'll make it their priority to search for it there.”

“I... Don't understand. They’ll look for the sphere somewhere else?”

“Exactly. But they'll also search the houses here, so you'll have to give me the sphere.”

She had expected him to be reluctant, but it still hurt when he stepped back, clutching the knife tighter.

“No. I know you live with them. You trust them.”

He had raised his voice, and immediately from the door came two strong knocks.

“Aili?”

“Everything's fine,” she yelled, then lowered her voice: “They'd never think of looking for the sphere on a monk. And I can move freely inside the village, while you and the other inhabitants are being closely watched.”

He lowered his eyes.

“They have a way of influencing people to gain their trust,” Aili added. “I can protect you from that.”

“Saia told me to keep it safe.”

“I'll tell her that you did your best, and succeeded.”

Dan looked up at her, then nodded and ran into an adjacent room. He returned with something in his arms and kneeled to lower it onto the floor.

“My brother made three copies of this carpet,” he explained as he unwrapped it. “When the monks came here to examine the house, they didn't check inside this carpet because they thought they had already opened it, but the first one was just an empty copy.”

“That's smart,” Aili commented, kneeling in front of him.

The blue light started to light up the room even when the sphere was still mostly covered by the carpet.

“Wait, stop”, she whispered, opening her messenger bag. “Put it here.”

Dan raised the carpet and carefully let the sphere fall into the bag. Aili quickly covered it with a clean handkerchief and closed it. She turned it around to make sure that the blue light wasn't visible from the outside.

“Are you still there?” the monk asked. “We're coming in.”

“Yes. Wait.”

Aili touched Dan's forehead with the palm of her hand. He jumped a bit at that, but didn't retract. She felt the familiar buzz of energies in both of their bodies. She looked for his distrust and reluctance and amplified it.

“Remember the lie,” she said while she manipulated his emotions. “You sold the sphere to a merchant from Tilau, long before the monks came here. If they touch you like I'm doing, pretend you start to trust them or they will undo the protection. It will disappear once I go to sleep, so keep away from them at night and come to greet me every morning at the post office.”

He nodded. Aili mixed the traces of emotions together, fear and anger with a touch of calm happiness, making it more difficult to understand whether he was lying or not. She retracted her hand when a loud bang came from the window. She stood and opened the door.

“Bad news,” she said before the monks on the other side could ask her anything. The one who had tried to break the window stopped mid-kick and lowered her leg.

Aili lightly pushed Dan forward. She noticed too late that he was still holding the knife with two hands, close to his chest, looking like he wanted to find comfort rather than attack someone.

“Where's the sphere?” the monk with the booming voice asked.

He put his giant palm on top of Dan's hands, preventing him to move the knife while also gaining access to his emotions.

Dan managed to repeat the lie in a convincing way. He added details while he talked, pretending to relax a bit the more he spoke, even if his voice was still trembling. In the meantime, the other two monks went inside. Judging by the clang of kitchenware and the noise of moving furniture they were inspecting every corner of the house.

Aili witnessed Dan's interrogation, clutching the strap of her bag, ready to interfere in case he said the wrong thing or hesitated too much. But it wasn't necessary: at the end of the inspection, all three monks were alarmed and impatient to go back. Aili pretended to be just as scared and led them back to the buffet, in equal part proud and guilty of having saved her god.