Saia awakened. She saw grayness all around, the wind blowing past her as she fell. It took her a few precious seconds to piece together what had happened.

She’d grabbed Nuras’s hand in an attempt to prevent him from deactivating her. If he had, the statue could have fallen over the border, carrying him with it, or at least blocked him in place until the guards found out where he was and recognized him as a traitor.

She hadn’t quite managed that, but her grip had been tight enough that he could only free himself by opening his hand. Or at least she hoped so.

She peered inside her fist: she was clutching five blue feathers. No sign of her shard.

She let herself fall a second longer, thinking that her plan had been useless. Forty years of life gone, and she hadn’t achieved anything.

But there was still Aili’s shard up there.

She created a wind to break her fall, gradually using more viss until she could propel herself upwards, trusting that the city was somewhere above her. The thick clouds came out from its patterns.

She was keeping her domain as small as possible, so the pipe appeared above her as if from nothing. She changed the direction of her winds to avoid it, then dropped on top of it with a hollow thump. Two more years of life, gone.

The metal screeched under the push of the winds, but didn’t buckle when she stepped around, wondering in which direction to go. At that moment, she felt her viss tremble with a message from the outside. She focused on Aili’s words, glad she could finally communicate again.

Awaken Aili now. Emergency.

She waited a bit, but didn’t receive further explanations. The message wasn’t from Aili, that much was clear.

She could feel her viss buzz with panic while thousands of scenarios were going through her head. She had to reach Iriméze in any case, and from there decide where to go. She was tempted to expand her domain, but the recent expense of viss held her back. The way the pipes curved and jutted out from nothing made it clear the city was somewhere to her right.

She needed a plan, unless she wanted to climb the entire city to reach the top. If what she needed was Aili’s shard, she had to find Serit. And the only person who knew where they were was Hilon.

She had to go back to the navigation room. At least the representatives and their guards couldn’t control her anymore, and the person who had her shard thought she was gone, which let her free to roam as she pleased. If only she knew in which direction to go.

The temptation to expand her domain was strong, but she held back, forcing herself to think as if she was a simple human again.

She took out the last rebel map from her bag. The building where her shard had been was highlighted. There was also a symbol for the elevators, where one of the cabins went straight down to the factory and the navigation room. The spot from which Nuras had pushed her off wasn’t that far, as long as she walked counterclockwise.

She turned around and headed toward the end of the pipe, keeping the city to her left. She found another one to climb, and soon it crisscrossed with two more. It was encouraging: the pipes were closer right around the factory, after all.

Soon enough she saw the wall of rock of the city emerge from the fog of fake clouds. She examined it attentively as she walked on, dispersing the fog with small winds when it was too thick. After a few minutes, she finally saw the wall of glass a few armlengths above her.

She crouched to hide her presence, observing what was going on inside the room. She could see shapes of people moving, even if she couldn't distinguish who they were through the layer of condensation. Engineers, she imagined. More numerous than the team she'd been working with that night, so she could hope that Hilon was among them.

She climbed the pipes until she was in front of the room, then pushed as much viss into her legs as she could spare, readying a fist. She jumped and hit the glass in close succession. It gave way much more easily than she had anticipated. The sound of the winds was briefly covered by screams of fear and surprise. She expanded her domain and recomposed the glass without thinking, much as Vizena had done to repair her temple's window. Then she made everyone sleep, except for one person.

“Hilon,” she called her.

She stood with her back against the wall, looking around the room as if to find help. The eyes fell onto the snake, still swimming inside the tank, then shifted back to Saia.

“How did you know…?”

She stopped, maybe sensing her irritation.

“Where's Serit?” she asked.

“Hidden,” Hilon immediately answered.

Saia created a wind to pin her against the wall.

“I know you work with the rebels. They have Serit, right? Your offer of help was just a ruse to kidnap them.”

“Yes, but they forced me.”

“I’m sure they did,” Saia said, letting the sarcasm shine through her voice.

“No, think... Think about it, please. I rained, you saw me become éshan. How could I get back so soon?”

“I want to know where's Serit. Anything else is irrelevant.”

“They're in the rebels' hideout. I can bring you there, a ship should arrive in about five minutes.”

Saia let her go.

“If you try to deceive me, you're dead."

Hilon shuddered. Saia hoped her words were convincing, because not even she knew how far she was willing to go.

“Follow me,” Hilon said.

She stepped around her sleeping colleagues, heading toward the corridor outside. Saia considered whether to return to her human form, but decided against it. She changed the color of the statue instead, from red to a deep blue.

She followed Hilon as she crossed the factory, heading toward one of the side rooms that connected with the tunnels. After a short staircase, Saia found herself standing in front of another section of pipe covered with the glass through which the workers fed the sprites. There was a door beside the window, another way to enter the tunnels.

As they approached, a shining mass of sprites passed in front of the glass. After they were gone, Hilon waited a few seconds, then opened the door with one of her keys and stepped inside.

“Be careful,” she said.

She looked like she was about to add something. In the end she didn't, maybe remembering that Saia wasn't in danger of being attacked by stray sprites.

They proceeded in the opposite direction from where the sprites had come from. Saia was on the lookout for traps, like the walls of steel that could be lowered at a moment's notice. Nothing she couldn't take care of, but she had only fourteen years left, and the mountain was still taking its toll.

They had just entered a new section of pipe, when Hilon stopped next to another door. While all the previous ones had looked seamlessly integrated with the rest, probably because they’d been set up when the pipe was first created, that one had such irregular borders that it had been clearly added at a later moment.

Hilon opened it with a key that was dangling from her neck, kept separate from the others. She held the door open, but Saia expanded her domain to look inside instead of entering.

She saw an opening to the outside on the opposite end of a small circular room. She could see the clouds beyond, to the point a bit of fog even obscured part of the ceiling.

“There’s someone inside,” she said.

Hilon nodded.

“We're not the only ones taking the ship. The rebels trust me, they'll just think you're a worker like the others that decided to join them.”

Saia reluctantly entered. There were three people in total, all of them waiting along the wall. Each was carrying bags and baskets full of clothes or food.

Hilon took a spot next to the only portion of the wall that was mostly empty.

“You can hear me if I speak quietly, right?”

Saia stepped closer until her domain brushed against her shoulder.

“Now I can.”

“Their ships are hollow at the top. It’s a sort of empty pool that they use to kidnap people when they rain. Then they bring them to their hideout, where one of their unlicensed memory readers examines them.”

She had crossed her arms, not in anger, but as if she felt cold.

“That's how they learnt about Serit, I think. And about my daughter: they kidnapped her to force me to obey. After they read people’s memories and are ready to use them for their plans, they fill their éshan with viss and bring it down to the earth.”

“The humans?”

“Yes, of course. Only the human rebels can fly under the threshold to kidnap people. They bring them there, where they have a series of pools. They’re making experiments to find out what makes shilvé evaporate. They haven't discovered exactly what it is yet, but they managed to increase the rate at which we’re ready to leave.”

Saia took a moment to recall what Serit had explained about the end of the rain-voyage.

“And then you reappear…”

“Usually at the top of the city we come from, because it’s the place we’re most connected with. There was a birdguard waiting for me when I did. He said the rebels had my daughter, and if I didn’t follow him, I would never see her again.” Her voice trembled. “They're keeping her in a bottle.”

“Where?”

“At their hideout. They keep everyone they don't immediately need there. They told me to keep an eye on you, so I used the navigation room as an excuse. And I helped them kidnap Serit.”

“And this place?” Saia gestured to include the room, uncaring of the three sets of eyes glancing at her.

“Someone else built it. A lot of my workers joined the rebels.”

“I wonder why,” Saia commented.

They couldn't talk further, because the doorway to the sky was obscured by a hull of iron. Saia wanted to check the surface, to feel the viss that was running along the patterns that covered it, but held back. She needed to, in case there were other bird people among the rebels, ready to identify her.

A portion of the hull started to detach, creating a gangway. One extremity passed through the room’s external opening and clanked onto the stone floor, then the rest of the bridge shifted inside, perfectly connecting the opening to the ship's entrance. A mixed group of humans and shilvé dressed and behaving as factory workers stepped out, carrying crates and heavy bags.

The three other people in the room stood in a line, patiently waiting to be admitted into the ship. Hilon and Saia followed them.

Even after seeing the inside, Saia didn't know why everyone kept calling those things 'ships'. Only the porthole and the curving hull were slightly reminiscing of a vessel, the rest just looked like a sparsely furnished room. There were copper pipes jutting out of the wall, each connected to valves that were probably needed to redirect whatever sprites were moving on the inside. At least a dozen people were operating them, while five more pushed their viss onto the pattern that began inside the room and snaked out onto the surface of the ship. They detached their hands at regular intervals, so Saia suspected they only worked to redirect the vessel, not making it float.

The center of the ship was remarkably useless for the maneuvers, which was probably the reason why it was occupied by six stools in two adjacent rows, bolted to the floor. The other three passengers showed a blank piece of green cloth to a member of the crew before being allowed to sit inside. There wasn't anything sewn on it, but the crewmember touched each one of them, closing their eyes for a few instants before nodding and letting the person sit. Saia imagined they contained viss with a specific imprint or intensity.

Hilon took out one as well.

“New recruit,” she said, pointing at Saia.

The boy nodded without giving her a second glance.

“‘I was forced to help them’, you said,” Saia commented as they sat down. “And yet they trust you blindly.”

“I’m a valuable asset close to the representatives. I succeeded with you, and they still have my daughter. They don’t expect me to act against them.”

Saia expected a long flight. She was surprised when the ship slowed down and stopped only a few minutes later, and the light of the bridge’s opening flooded the small room.

The rebels’ hideout was a smaller imitation of Iriméze, except it only had the bottom level and a tall wall around it to keep out the strongest winds. The gray fog covered the outside world, hiding the sky completely. She imagined it was a mixture of the fake clouds created by Iriméze and some disguise produced by the rebels themselves, since they managed to fly that close to the city without the guards noticing.

“How did the birguards not see all of this?” Saia asked.

“The rebels fly close to the city, so from above it looks like it’s just part of it. Nuras is an eagle person, so he made sure that the distribution of viss from the ships and people doesn’t look suspicious. They can move it out of the way if someone ever gets sent to investigate. And when a ship needs to depart for a longer voyage, they free a cloud of sprites to hide it until it’s far enough.”

Hilon walked with purpose on the rock floor of the hideout. Saia followed her, looking around without moving her head. The walls and pavement had holes where the material wasn’t enough to repair them. Nets and plaques of metal covered them, preventing people to fall down while still leaving some space for the flying ships to dock. There were two more identical to the one she’d boarded on, attached to the city at different spots, maybe to preserve some sort of balance.

She looked for the flying system in the midst of all the movement of crates and people: there was a pattern of pipes similar to Iriméze’s, except for the fact they didn’t just envelop the outside of the hideout, but were visible on the inside as well. She saw various panels of glass complete with brass handles for feeding the sprites. The small crowd that took care of them was composed of shilvé and humans combined. She focused on them as they fed a group of sprites, then crossed to the opposite side of the hideout, chatting among themselves. No guards to control them, no narrow tunnel of rock to cross.

Hilon followed the round perimeter of the hideout, steering clear of the activity at the center of the rebel city. There was a tall stage of wood full of activity: some rebels were hanging lights on posts planted in the ground, others were carrying chairs.

“Do you celebrate the Festival of Light here too?” Saia asked.

“No. There’s going to be an announcement later from Nuras and Vanan. Something about the plan and their deal with the wind spirits.”

Saia felt her viss buzz faster in recognizing the name of the birdguard who had pushed her down from Iriméze. She needed to confront him and get back her shard.

But first, Serit.

“Where are we going?” she asked Hilon.

She pointed at a series of wooden buildings, clustered together much like the houses at the higher levels of Iriméze were, despite not occupying the entire space at disposal.

“The first building is the deposit in which they keep the shilvé they kidnapped. Then Vanan’s laboratory, where Serit works, and the private quarters of the bosses.”

She pointed at a structure that didn’t seem larger than the rest, but was the only one with a carpet hanging from it. It showed decorations made with triangles that recalled Iriméze’s symbol, but only in shades of gray.

Saia examined the cluster of three buildings to look for an easy way in. The windows were close and far too conspicuous. Two doors opened in the front, where someone was bound to notice Saia enter, while a third one was behind the corner, but guarded by four people.

She approached it. Hilon scrambled to get ahead of her.

“Let me talk, I’m sure I can convince them to let us in.”

Saia expanded her domain and put them all to sleep. She looked in all directions, making sure that no one was looking at her, then kicked the door open and dragged the four guards inside with the help of her winds.

She found herself in a gloomy warehouse. Rows of bottles held in place on their shelves by metal supports projected spots of translucent light onto the floor. Hilon closed the door behind them, breathing so hard Saia couldn’t focus on any other sound.

Saia saw a door on the opposite side of the warehouse. She advanced among the bottles, trying to imagine each one as a person. The room felt just as crowded.

They came across a couple of guards alarmed by the violent opening of the door, and a group of rebels moving around a cart of bottles. Saia put them all to sleep, accompanying their fall with some winds to make sure they didn’t crash into something.

They finally reached the door. Saia broke the lock, letting the noise reverberate in the dark warehouse.

The room on the other side reminded her of Serit's laboratory, except it was bigger and divided into multiple sections. One corner was entirely dedicated to a series of libraries that exposed a mix of books and story-bottles. Rows of tools in various shapes and sizes hung from hooks set into the wall. Some were scattered on the floor instead, with no apparent criteria. Crates full of, she guessed, materials occupied the rest of the space, leaving free a circular area at the center that was entirely occupied by a circle of thick wood, composed of various pieces glued together as if it was the section of a huge trunk. An intricate pattern was traced all along the border, not touching the innermost part. Right next to it she saw the kernel of iron that Serit had planned to use on her, still open and incomplete. It didn't look like it was being worked on, abandoned as it was on the floor.

Saia looked for Serit, but there was no one inside the building. A door led to the outside, another to what she presumed were the bosses’ quarters, as Hilon had called them.

“Where are they?” she asked.

“I don't know,” Hilon said, closing the door behind her. “They're always here, but I admit I didn’t have time to check lately.”

Saia touched her shoulder to feel her viss: judging by the growing panic, she was telling the truth.

She let her go and approached a stack of crates in the corner, determined to open them one by one. She might as well look for Aili's shard, while she waited for Serit to return.

The door to the private quarters opened shortly after. Saia didn't hide, even if she was aware that the crates piled up in front of her partially hid her from sight.

“Why are you here?” Serit yelled.

The door slammed closed. Hilon stepped back to the point she almost stumbled onto the circle of wood. Serit brusquely nudged her aside.

“What now? Do you want to lie to me again? Tell me you'll help me escape just to throw me into an even worse situation?”

“You know I had to. There was nothing else I could have done.”

Hilon was repeatedly glancing in Saia's direction, but Serit's eyes remained fixed on her.

“She was right,” they said after a bit. “It does sound stupid coming from someone like you. You invented an entire navigation system, but a way to alert the representatives about what was happening? Too difficult.”

They knelt on the floor next to the circle of wood. They passed a hand over the engraved pattern, following the twists and turns of the lines.

“What do you want? Vanan just told me I have ten minutes to make sure this works and I'd like not to waste more time.”

From that position Saia could see them well: their hair flowed free, looking like it hadn't been brushed or cleaned for a few days. The tunic was stained of green near the bottom and presented visible creases. She was sure that if she was to expand her domain and touch their viss, she would find it entangled with fear and worry. But she wasn't inclined to waste her energies, not so close to her goal.

Finally, Hilon's glances over her own shoulder captured Serit's attention. They were startled in seeing someone staring at them from the corner. Saia shed off her disguise, returning completely human. She’d expected Serit to panic, but they produced a hesitant smile.

“They didn't deactivate you,” they said.

Saia thought there was no reason for them to be so happy to see her. Maybe they thought she was there to save them. She almost laughed out loud.

“I want Aili's shard,” she said. “Now.”

Serit stood, wiping their hands on their tunic.

“I don’t…” they started, but the door opened once again.

Saia immediately disguised herself as a tanhata, fearing it could be Nuras. But a different man stepped through.

“Is it ready?” he asked, then hesitated for a moment in front of Hilon. “Hello, engineer. Why are you here?”

She didn't answer, staring at the man with wide eyes. Saia had the impression he was someone important.

“She arrived for the announcement,” Serit said. “And as far as I can tell, the pattern is ready.”

They spoke without ever looking the man in the eyes. He bent down, examining the circle of wood. He was a shilvé as well, an orange hue in his dark gray hair, the limbs long and thin. He wore a cape over his tunic, with the same gray triangles of the rebels' carpets.

“Perfect. I see you followed my last suggestions.”

For some reason, that sentence made Serit flinch.

“Yes, it should work,” the man added after observing the pattern more closely. “I’ll send someone to carry it outside for the announcement.”

He turned, and in doing that, saw Saia. His eyes narrowed a bit as he tried to recognize her.

“A new recruit petitioning as my assistant,” Serit explained.

The man chuckled.

“My right arm wants an assistant. Sure, why not?”

He walked away, a smile still attached to his face. The door closed behind him before Saia could fully process his words.

“His right arm? You've been a rebel this entire time?”

But it didn't matter, she realized even before finishing the sentence. She cut off Serit's answer.

“Where's the shard?”

“I don't have it. I gave it to the representatives for safekeeping.”

Saia stared at them, hearing the insisting buzz of her viss all over her statue.

“I know it doesn't look like it, but I made you a favor,” they continued. “If the rebels had taken it, it could have been everywhere in the world by now.”

“So where is it? Don't tell me you don't know, because I swear I will kill you.”

The door opened again. Two people stepped inside, a shilvé and a human. They took the wooden circle from the floor and carried it through the door, not without a few difficulties. Serit caught the handle before they could close it behind them, then pointed at the hideout outside.

“Look.”

Saia did. She was aware it was all a big waste of time, but she couldn't shake off the dissonance between Serit’s anger toward Hilon and the man calling them his 'right arm'.

“He's Vanan,” Serit explained as she looked for him in the midst of the growing crowd outside. “The second head of the rebels.”

He moved from person to person, exchanging a few words with each. In a moment where he was facing the door, Saia saw that he missed one arm.

She turned her head to fixate her eyes on Serit.

“I don't understand.”

“Almost all of the memories I have since my first appearance in this world come from that man,” Serit explained, talking quickly as if fearing she could return to the topic of the shard. “A few years ago, he delayed his rain-voyage for too long to work on a project. When he returned, he was missing an arm. Apparently, most of the viss and memories stored in the éshan he left behind are now in me.”

Serit closed the door and gestured toward the abandoned kernel of iron.

“The whistle, this project to use your viss to keep us solid past the rain threshold... They were all his ideas. Losing an arm meant losing part of them, that's why he wanted to capture me so badly. And he has worked on it in the meantime, so when we put our researches together he was actually able to create the link, not just modify it. He reproduced what the monks did in connecting you and the mountain. Do you understand?”

They passed a hand between their hair.

“Now I’m nothing more than an assistant, a glorified handyman to sculpt the patterns he wants with the right precision. He's an absolute genius, and I'm just... A missing piece.”

Saia grabbed them from the shoulders.

“Nice story. Now tell me where Aili's shard is.”

They grimaced.

“Stop talking and just kill me already.”

Saia didn't know what to answer to that, so she just let them go. Serit crouched, as if they had received a particularly strong punch to the stomach.

“I failed everything. I didn't complete my research, I didn't take the children of viss out of that dumpster of a house at the fourth level, I was betrayed,” they raised their voice into a scream, looking at Hilon, “by one of the closest people I have, and now my ideas are not even mine? Fuck this world. I want to meet my goddess, maybe that's where I'm meant to be.”

Saia realized that threatening them wasn’t going to work.

“Something bad is happening at mount Ohat,” she said. “I need to find the shard because my friend is in danger. If I don’t reactivate her, I don’t know what could happen. Maybe helping me is what you’re meant to do.”

They looked up at her: their lost gaze became a bit more determined. They slowly stood, then turned to Hilon and said: “Go away, please.”

She quickly scrambled through the door. Once they were alone, Serit took a deep breath. Saia could see that their closed fists were trembling.

“Let’s make one last deal,” they said.

For an instant, Saia couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“You’ll help me stop the rebels, I’ll lead you where your shar…”

They were cut off when Saia pressed them against the wall with one of her winds.

“Are you joking or what?”

Serit laughed, even if she was close enough she could feel both their desperation and fear.

“We just need to alert the representatives to what’s happening,” they said. “It shouldn’t take much.”

“I don’t care how long it takes!” she roared. “I want the shard now.”

Serit shrugged, smiling with their lips, and tipped their head back against the wall.

“Then go ahead.”

Saia felt the need to punch them, but knew she could actually kill them that way. She dismissed the wind, letting Serit fall to the ground.

“Why do you even want to stop them?” she asked. “They want the same things you do: making your people stop raining, having humans and shilvé working together.”

Serit stayed seated on the floor, their back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of them.

“It’s more complicated than that. But tonight they’re going to enact their plan and it will become close to impossible to stop them.”

“What’s their plan?”

Serit didn’t answer, reaching out for the door’s handle instead. Saia looked at them fumbling for a bit, then stepped forward and opened the door in their place.

“Watch the announcement,” they said. “It won’t last long and will explain everything better than I ever could.”

Saia glared at them.

“If something happens to my friends while I’m here wasting time, I’ll consider you responsible.”

Serit nodded, then slowly climbed to their feet. They stood beside her in the doorway, looking toward the stage at the center of the hideout. Two people paced on top of it. One was Vanan, the other the same bastard that had pushed Saia from the top of the city.