The following days were just as full of boredom as the first one. The engineers came in the morning, worked for four hours, then left for one, leaving Saia alone in the room. They returned to work for four more hours, at the end of which Saia was deactivated for about three hours, when she was awakened again to work with the next turn of engineers. The only pleasant part of the nocturnal turns was Hilon’s absence.

She tried to fight the boredom. She started to examine the engineers' viss to hunt out the information hidden inside them, hoping a big enough amount would allow her to transform into one of them. It seemed like a useful skill to have, even if it wouldn't save her from the birdguards.

All her efforts ended in failure: she could change the shape and color of her statue well enough, but the only human face and body she could produce were her own. Anyone else looked too wrong to be a human, and she could imagine the guards giving the alarm as soon as they saw her, even if they didn't know about the sphere or powers.

After she’d accepted there wasn’t much else she could do in that direction, she started mulling over the rebels’ request. If they had access to the factory, they probably know about her situation, how she couldn’t move around freely or leave her room without permission. So the weapon deposit had to be somewhere nearby, in the maze of rock tunnels and doors, otherwise she could never reach it and the rebels wouldn't obtain what they wanted. She periodically expanded her domain to look inside the closest rooms, but she couldn’t reach far enough to cover half the corridor outside, let alone the factory.

The only thing left to do was to press her face and body to the wall of glass, expand her domain as far as she could, and take in what little of the land below she could glimpse through the clouds, hoping every day to see the mountain despite knowing they were too far from it. One night, she saw a distant light twitching over the waves, but a cloud covered it before she could establish whether it was a ship or something else entirely. Her first instinct was to record the image for Aili, and with a double stab of pain she remembered she was asleep when Serit had taken away her shard.

One morning in which she was mentally begging for a disaster of some sort to shake her routine, luminescent fog started to seep in through the door's lock. The first to notice it was Sibe, the engineer sitting at the communication machine. She yelled something indistinct, prompting her colleagues to turn in alarm. At first Hilon was just as surprised, then she rolled her eyes and passed a hand over her face.

“What did I tell you?” she said to the fog, who was now becoming more compact and changing shape.

“I know, sparkle,” Filsun said, keeping his body gaseous to hide the lack of clothes. “I was bored and wanted to visit you at work.”

Hilon looked at her engineers with a forced smile.

“Please, take a break. I'll call you when I need you again.”

They left their notes on the table and scuttled out of the door, passing so chose to Filsun that his contours trembled. Hilon waited for the door to close before speaking again.

“Dad, I’m working and the elders are probably hunting you right now. You should stay in my house, possibly in your room.”

“I miss my job, so I thought that I could keep teaching Saia. It was an interesting challenge.”

“It's not needed anymore. The representatives have deemed Serit's research too dangerous, so the experiment is over.”

“But you said they're continuing to work on it.”

“I in secret! In hiding, not in plain sight. The representatives think they've been kidnapped.”

Saia listened with interest: she hadn't asked Hilon about Serit, and the engineer hadn’t mentioned anything in their regard. Not that she cared about them specifically, but there was a chance they knew exactly where Aili’s shard was, and since the rebels probably didn't know about its existence, she'd have to ask Serit instead.

Filsun floated toward her.

“What do you think? Do you want to continue with our lessons?”

Saia was surprised to feel a glimmer of hope.

“Yes, please. I'm bored too.”

Filsun crossed his arms, fog joining them until they became one, and looked at Hilon.

“Absolutely not.”

“Do you ever let her rest? Or you work her to the ground like you do with your employees?”

“I… that's not true. My workers signed a contract, they knew the hours and the pay before accepting.”

Saia remembered Serit's pact: her protection and help in exchange for simply being kept awake and not having her viss harvested. She suddenly understood why they could think it was a fair exchange, given that Hilon was their mentor and the person they admired the most.

“She gets one hour of break, as we do,” Hilon continued. “Which is more than what I can afford, considering she's a prisoner and could kill us all in an instant.”

“All the reason to thank her for not already doing that,” Filsun said, then looked at Saia. “I don't really need her permission. I'm a wind spirit, no guard will try to stop me if I decide to throw everyone out of the room and train you.”

Saia smiled.

“They can stop me, though.”

Hilon sat down rigidly on a chair.

“If I allow you to train her for one hour a day, will you promise me you'll stay hidden from everyone who isn't me or mom?”

“Of course. I know how to be secretive. Your workers thought my fog was a loose sprite.”

“Looking like a loose sprite in a facility that's meant to contain them perfectly is not being secretive.”

“They were freaking out a bit,” Filsun admitted. “Next time, I'll come here from the outside. So?”

“Fine. Noon break is yours, hopefully you won't be too visible flying around.”

Filsun nodded.

“And you'll let Saia out at least once a week.”

Hilon's eyes narrowed again.

“No. She has to remain strictly under control. This isn't a game.”

Filsun turned toward the door.

“Fine. I'll take her out myself.”

“She'll be deactivated.”

“I’ll find who's responsible and change their mind.”

“Then I'll tell the elders about you.”

Filsun looked at her, his light fading a bit as the movements of his fog became more confused. Hilon looked pained too, but her jaw was set.

“Yes, I will do it if you ruin this. This project is too important.”

“More important than your own father?”

“Yes,” Hilon said too quickly. “And for your information, I was already planning to let Saia visit the Festival of Light.”

“What is that?” Saia asked, more as a formality, before adding the question that really mattered: “Where?”

“It's an annual celebration for the goddess of death. It'll start next week and last for ten days. The forest at the fifth level will be covered with lights, most of the sprites in the temple and the arena will be captured and brought there as decorations.”

Saia could barely contain the excitement in her viss in hearing the words 'fifth level'. It was the chance she needed to get her shard, and maybe, with a bit of luck, she could hide among the lights of the sprites and not be recognized by the guards, then get closer to the building...

And find nothing, most likely. Hilon would have warned the guards before she got any closer to the fifth level, and they'd have all the time they needed to move the shard away. If anything, accepting that invite would mean ruining her possibilities completely, right when she had just learned where the shard was.

She considered preventing Hilon to alert them at all. She couldn't see how, unless maybe breaking the little light she had in her pocket. That would mean not being brought to the festival at all, though, and kept under closer surveillance, but at least the shard wouldn't move from the building. It was a last resort, but she needed to think of a better plan first.

“What about the zoologic garden?” she asked.

Hilon sighed.

“What about it?”

“Serit has told me that my snakes are being kept there. I want to see them. And visit the place, if it's not too much to ask.”

She distractedly tapped the round handle of a rod to underline how what she was asking was nothing, compared to what they were asking of her.

“Your snakes?” Filsun asked, hovering a bit closer.

“I had some sea snakes in my bag when I came here. I couldn't take care of them properly, so I asked Serit to put them somewhere safe. Ask them, if you don't trust me.”

“I know about the snakes,” Hilon said. “But why do you want to see them exactly?”

“Knowing for sure that they are being taken care of properly would help a lot.”

Filsun became solid enough to look at Hilon with an air of expectation.

“That would be difficult to arrange,” Hilon said. “The fifth level is well-guarded, the zoology garden is... Well, if you're not an animal, there's not much they can do about you.”

“And yet,” Filsun interjected. “You keep her here. I don't see many guards either, even if this project is apparently more important than your own father.”

“Fine,” Hilon spat. “I’ll arrange for us to go tomorrow, and when I say 'us' I mean Saia and me. And you know what? I'll bring her to the festival too, if you stay hidden. Happy?”

She was staring at him as she said that, and only once he had nodded she looked at Saia. She made herself nod, despite the urge to tear some of those precious rods from the floor and throw them out through the window.

“Now go, dad, please.”

He seeped out of the lock, shining with satisfaction. The other three engineers returned shortly after. The route needed a bit of rearranging after that delay, but soon they were ready to work until evening.

“I haven't thanked you properly for today,” Saia said at noon, after Filsun had come back for their first training session at Iriméze.

“There's no need, really. I enjoy our lessons.” He held out both of his gaseous arms. “Let's start from the beginning, shall we?”

Saia reproduced on him the patterns she had memorized, adjusting them almost instinctually every time he moved his fingers. She didn’t need to focus as much as during the first lessons, so she had all of the time to mull over why Filsun had decided to reappear in her life right at that moment.

“I’m glad you're enjoying the lessons,” she said once she had a good enough grip on his viss. “Besides getting my protection for when the elders come to look for you. They’ve sent someone, right?”

He tensed to the point the rest of his body turned completely gaseous and started to float upwards.

“I… How did you guess?”

“Since I came here, everyone wants me for my viss and my powers. And from what I've seen of you, you don't seem particularly brave.”

Filsun slowly regained his composure, as well as a more human shape, even if his viss still buzzed with fear against her domain.

“But I convinced Hilon to let you go outside! I ensure you I had no ulterior motives, it was just because I felt bad for how she treats you.”

“Sure,” she answered after a bit of silence. “I know, and I thank you for that.”

Even if it was another empty gesture. He'd felt bad, either for her situation or for exploiting it, but he had no real interest in helping her.

With a family like that, she understood Serit's own empty offers a little better. But understanding didn't mean forgiveness, not after they had taken Aili's shard. She just needed to free herself, then their hiding place was the second stop on her path.