The zoologic garden was situated at the very limit of the bottom level. The first time Saia had seen the structure from afar, she hadn’t realized the various pieces that composed it belonged to the same building. Besides the long corridor of the entrance there were ten domes of glass of different sizes, the surface made of multiple panels that resembled the multi-faceted eyes of a fly. Some of those panels were covered on the outside by thick carpets of undyed wool, probably to prevent excessive heating.

The line only started halfway through the entrance corridor. Hilon had chosen the morning because there were fewer visitors, mostly groups accompanied by guides. When one of the guards that were escorting her and Saia asked why she didn’t ask the zoological garden to close for the day if she was so worried about security, she’d explained it would mean letting both the representatives and the zoological garden know about that improvised visit, and also to shut up and do what they were paid for.

Saia observed her while they waited in line: she seemed extremely nervous about the visit, to the point she couldn’t figure out why she was going through with it at all. It didn’t seem to be loyalty to her father, considering their last conversation. There had to be something else.

Since she couldn’t figure out what she was thinking, she focused on the three guards escorting them. They were all dressed like normal visitors, the tridents disassembled and strapped to their chests under the tunics. Two were always one step behind her, the third one followed from afar, exactly like the birdguards had at Ifse.

“Which dome is the aquarium?” she asked Hilon.

“None of them. It’s inside.”

She spoke through her teeth, as if to dissuade Saia from ever talking to her again. She derived a petty pleasure from her nervousness, but was also aware that it complicated the situation: there was a task she needed to fulfil, the whole reason why she had asked for a visit to the zoological garden in the first place.

“And the birds?” she asked.

Hilon turned with an even more annoyed look, her eyebrows causing disappointed ripples all over her forehead.

“Why are you asking about the birds, now?”

“You shilvé like them a lot, so I thought I would enjoy seeing them.”

Hilon spun to look at her, despite the queue advancing.

“Wasting my time is a really quick way to not come out of that room again, not having breaks, and not to train with my father ever again. If by being good and understanding this is what I get, I prefer trying the opposite route.”

Saia felt a spike of bitter hilarity in hearing she actually considered her forced generosity being 'good' or even 'understanding'. Her face didn't show anything.

“Threatening me is a quick way to make sure I let everybody know who I am,” she answered. “Also, I’ll tell your dad.”

Hilon’s lips quivered, as if she was caught between threatening her more or letting out a small laugh. In the end, she sighed and covered the distance that divided their group from the rest of the queue.

“Work with me, Saia. I don’t want this visit to last forever, and I guarantee you that three-quarters of this place’s animals are birds. Let’s compromise and visit one exhibit, then go straight to your snakes.”

Saia nodded, even though Hilon’s words poised a new problem: if it was true that most of the exhibits held birds, she needed to find the right one without letting Hilon know about her goal. She didn’t have much time, as there were just two groups of visitors in front of them. One, since the first had finished the admission process. Their guide started talking immediately, a worn-out speech about the building’s foundation.

The second group had almost gotten all their tickets, made of cloth like the ones at the arena, when the speech ended.

“Any questions?” the guide asked.

There was a lull in the conversation. Saia thought of how Aili had imitated Zeles’s voice to perfection and wondered whether she could do the same. She expanded her domain until it included part of the first group of visitors.

“Where are the jacinth eagles?”

The question came from the middle of the visitors. The closest ones looked at each other, failing to figure out who had spoken.

Saia, for her part, was too alarmed by the sudden buzzing of her viss to rejoice at the success of her experiment. She did not expect that hearing Aili’s voice again, even if it was just an exact copy, would have such a piercing effect on her.

She almost missed the guide’s answer.

“We’ll see them, of course, but if you’re impatient their exhibit is in that direction.” She pointed at the end of the corridor, where a branch turned sharply to the right. “Turn left when you see the albatross sign. Now, follow me this way for the big herbivores.”

The group left. Hilon quickly paid and retrieved tickets for the two of them and the guards.

“Have you decided where we’re going?” she asked.

“The albatross exhibit,” Saia answered, still a bit shaken.

She kept her domain expanded as they followed the main path. The corridor’s wooden walls weren’t particularly solid, propped directly against the glass domes, so she could see a bit of what was going on inside them.

One on the left seemed like a huge forest, as if the fifth level of the city had all been shrunk to fit one place. It was divided into smaller areas by tall fences of metal, and paths between one fence and the other allowed the visitors to walk around and take a look at the creatures they contained. Saia saw one that looked like a cow, except for an elongated nose that seemed fused with its upper lip. A shilvé child passing in front of it kicked at the bars, and the animal became invisible. Saia could still perceive where it was due to the viss circulating inside its body, but the visitors cried out in delight, trying to guess where it could be based on foliage’s movement.

They soon reached the sign of a bird with a wide wingspan. The doorway led to another dome of glass. Saia was surprised by how big and sparse the trees were, making the cages look even bigger by comparison. The sloshing sound of water came from the shallow lake at the center, surrounded by sand and wooden tables on which the visitors could stop to eat.

Saia walked along the path that traced the entire dome, feigning interest in the birds of each cage, despite seeing no trace of the blue eagles in any of them. She could still sense Hilon’s irritation at her side, but for the moment she seemed to be enjoying the visit enough not to complain.

A chilling presentiment attracted her toward the only empty cage in the area. Right under it, there was a plaque that recited ‘jacinth eagles’.

She looked around for a member of staff and found an elderly man walking up and down the path between the cages, wearing a light blue tunic with the zoologic garden's stylized building sewn on the chest. She pretended to look at other cages, approaching him slowly to not attract Hilon's attention.

“What happened to the jacinth eagles?” she asked him in the lowest voice she could produce.

“They were taken away this morning for a routine medical check.”

Saia wanted to ask him where they had been brought to, but Hilon had noticed her talking and was already approaching. She just thanked him and moved on, thinking it didn't make that big of a difference: if the guards had understood she was looking for the eagles, they would be on the lookout for her approach. They probably were already far away from there.

She read the plaque, thinking she might as well get as much information on those animals as possible. The text confirmed they were able to see viss as well, then specified that they only lived in captivity or on a small island on the earth, and as such were extremely rare to find above the clouds. All the ones that could be found inside the exhibit actually belonged to the hunting division of Iriméze’s guards, there weren’t other exemplars inside the city.

“Have you seen what you were looking for?” Hilon asked.

Saia nodded and let her guide their small group toward the exit. The rebels’ request to sabotage the weapons had given her the idea of sabotaging the eagles instead, since the guards needed their plumes to keep their shape and still be able to track her. Now that her plan had been foiled, she needed to find another way to make that visit to the zoologic garden productive before Hilon closed her into a room again.

They entered the portion of the building that was sculpted inside the wall of rock. Spherical lanterns bolted to the walls illuminated a long corridor, a diffuse blue light waiting for them at the end.

“This is the beginning of the aquarium,” Hilon said, smiling despite her annoyance, as the group stepped inside the bottom of the sea.

For the first time since she became a goddess, Saia's all-around vision felt more of an obstacle than anything. She felt frozen on the spot, trying and failing to take in everything at once.

There was water at her sides and water above her, only a thick tunnel of glass keeping it at bay. Creatures moved in the semi-darkness beyond, scales shining when hit by the sparse rays of light that seemed to come from a towerlength away. There were two fish so big she could probably use her to tow a boat, the dark eyes to the sides of their heads lit with a murderous nothingness. Smaller fish moved in lightning-fast schools, shining of silver at every change of direction. The rocks and viscid vegetation at the bottom were traversed by small shadows, feeding with the mouth on the bottom and their caudal fin up in the water.

She was marginally aware of the small crowd pressing behind her to enter, the guide trying to catch her attention, a child slipping past and finding she was impossible to nudge aside.

“Come on, there's more further ahead,” Hilon said, and those words convinced her body to move, because 'more' was just what her mind wanted.

As they slowly stepped forward, letting the other visitors enter the gallery, Saia read the inscriptions that were engraved on plaques of metal bolted to the floor: along with the names of the species, there were details on their place of origin.

“Where's the Viniya sea?” she asked.

“On the other side of the world from where we are now.”

Saia observed her to make sure she wasn't smiling or joking. There was no trace of hilarity on her face and viss, only a slight annoyance at how slow they were moving.

On the other side of the tunnel there was a large room, perfectly round, immersed in the same azurine light of a group of lanterns with colored glass. The same hues came out from each of the five tanks around the room, big enough to fill the wall up to the ceiling and leave only three armlengths of bare rock between each other, filled with more plaques of metal.

“The aquarium needed a sturdy support structure,” she could hear the guide say, the tunnel's walls amplifying his voice. “It was impossible to build one entirely from nothing, since the weight of the water was already too much for our city to bear even without adding more heavy materials. So they decided to excavate the walls of the bottom level, removing rock instead of adding it.”

The species contained inside each of the tanks were less varied in shape compared to the ones in the tunnel. The first one contained small fish with brown and red scales, even if there were some in the middle of the school with bright green colors, and even two iridescent ones with black dots. The inscription explained they were three possible variants of the same fish. The iridescent pigmentation depended on the kind of algae they consumed, while the fluorescent green ones could distract predators by projecting light. There were more details on how the staff managed to preserve those differences, but Saia was already distracted by the third tank.

It was full of sea snakes.

Hilon was already heading there, so she merely followed her, keeping all of her attention on the creatures behind the glass. The majority of the snakes was different from the ones she used to fish at the mountain: the vast majority had silvery scales and an elongated head with the shape of a sharp triangle. Some of them were a muddy green, a couple of others sand-colored. The remaining ones were her red, black and white snakes.

She had to admit with a pang of jealousy that it seemed a better habitat than anywhere she could have put them, except maybe the sea. She reached out with her domain to include them, but they didn't even seem to notice.

Hilon traced with her finger the lines on the inscription next to the tank.

"So your snakes are of the… blood variant?”

Saia stepped closer to read the inscription. The silver snakes were apparently the standard version of the species. The green ones ate frogs and lived in brackish water, but they could survive both inside lakes and seas. The yellow ones hunted near the sand bottom of the ocean, targetting the fish that camouflaged there. Her own snakes...

The blood variant, so called because of its color and unusual level of aggression, is a new addition to our exhibit. We don't know enough about its diet or habits, but we located the area of origins as the waters of the isolated mount Ohat. We're glad to announce that next year's research efforts will include this variant, as we'll send our human staff to investigate its origin together with the one of dozens of other species.

The text kept going about how the visitors could donate to the cause at the exit, but Saia was too busy reflecting on the implication of what came before to worry about that. They couldn’t reach the mountain, of course. There was the guardian, and even in the case they could avoid it, the gods would be enough to keep them away.

She kept staring at the snakes, perceiving the slow movement of visitors all around the room but too mesmerized by the snakes’ gliding through water to observe it. She remembered how she’d used those very snakes to fight against Vizena and the monks. She wished she could use them again, but they were all trapped in different cages.

She was about to turn away from the tank and tell Hilon she was ready to go, when an inkling of a plan started to form in the back of her mind.

She looked again for a staff member: the only person wearing the garden’s tunic was a woman sitting on a wooden chair in a corner. She observed the visitors, standing every time someone banged a fist against the glass or the children started running and screaming. Saia approached her.

“What are you doing now?” Hilon asked, trying to stop her by touching her shoulder, but being dragged forward instead.

“Excuse me,” Saia said addressing the woman. “I’m the person who gave you the blood snakes.”

The woman gave her an uncertain look. Saia realized she had no way to prove her claim.

“In that case, we thank you and hope you have a marvellous day,” the woman said quickly, then looked around as if to communicate that she considered the topic closed.

“How do I get them back?”

“Excuse us a second,” Hilon interjected, then stepped closer to Saia. “What are you doing?”

The woman smiled tighter and walked away, apparently to check the other side of the room.

“I gave my snakes to Serit because they reassured me they would be taken care of, not because I wanted them to permanently stay here. And now that my task is so boring, maybe having something to take care of would make me feel better.”

As she said that, she realized it was probably true. Taking care of the snakes gave her days at Lausune the comfort of a routine.

Hilon stared at her. Saia could recognize the calculating expressions she could sometimes see on Serit's face. She didn’t seem completely against the idea, not as much as going to visit the bird exhibit was. She guessed it was tied to the reason why she had accepted to bring her to the zoologic garden, despite everything.

“We could at least ask,” she added. “But I'll need your help for that, because she didn't seem to believe me.”

Hilon produced an imperceptible nod and marched up to the staff member, guards in tow.

“I’m engineer Hilon,” she said. “I can testify to the words of my colleague. Is there someone I can talk to about this matter?”

The woman seemed to recognize her name. Saia imagined that being the person responsible for keeping a whole city afloat made Hilon famous enough.

“Give me a second.”

It took no more than a couple of minutes for her to find someone to take her place. A second later, she was guiding the group out of the aquarium, with great disappointment of Saia, and up a set of stairs that was labeled as 'staff only'. The first floor was entirely comprised of administration offices. They stopped in front of the last door, marked as the director’s office.

“The sea snakes,” he said once they had all sat down, guards outside, and Hilon had finished her explanation. “They’re a recent donation, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Yes, by one of my engineers on behalf of Saia,” she specified.

He briefly went through a stack of papers.

“It doesn't matter, we can't give back donations. We can ony sell the animals, but not all of them.”

“Sell for how much?” Saia interjected before Hilon could say anything.

“There isn't a fixed price, we're not talking about carpets.” He seemed weary, waiting for the day to be over while being aware that there was still a big part of it left. “I’d have to consult with my staff, but two thousand breaths each seems like a good starting point.”

Saia didn't know how much it was, but Hilon looked at her and shook her head.

“Not even one?” Saia asked directly in her ears. “I’m sure there’s some way I can repay you.”

Hilon looked at the wall behind the director, deep in thought.

“You did help my workers, after all,” she mumbled with a sigh.

The director blinked.

“Did you say something?”

“Yes. We'll buy one snake.”

“Do you have the proper facilities to take care of it?”

Hilon frowned and opened her mouth to answer, but Saia anticipated her.

“We know what they need,” she said with a smile.

They concluded a quick negotiation, Hilon and the director promising to contact each other again to refine the details of the deal.

They returned to the navigation room shortly after, after one of the shortest descents in an elevator Saia had ever experienced.

“So, what will we need for your snake?” Hilon asked after they stepped out of the room.

Saia was about to answer, then noticed the door she’d seen the first day before the factory’s entrance: staff-only, in an area surveilled by guards. She expanded her domain a bit to look on the inside: empty rakes were aligned all over the walls, while stacks of crates piled up at the center. A glance inside revealed rows and rows of weapons, too many to be deactivated all at once.

“Saia?” Hilon called.

“A tank,” she started.

While she listed all that was needed to house the snake, she noticed that Hilon’s irritation had turned into a constant smile, as if she was incredibly pleased to have bought Saia’s gratefulness without any real effort or loss on her part. Saia smiled back, eager to keep her thinking that way.