“Didn’t I tell you not to let these two attend the meeting? We have been talking about this matter for over a year now!” he yells and looks directly at Tirad.

“We cannot allow any such thing! Who can say if they kill the giant fish out of defence? If we let them do this, they will start killing the fish as they wish and declare it was to defend themselves… They will start to undermine the Saviour Rules one by one…we can’t control them! Who knows to which wrongdoing of these people are we caught in this disaster?” Khunas continues with scowled face and shakes his head. The other members agree with him except for Hurmaz who is still silent. From his frowning and the way he tightly presses his lips together, it is obvious that they have had this debate before and he is trying hard not to answer Khunas in rage. Tirad can’t keep his head high from the spate of Khunas’s angry words. But he can feel Mart’s scoffing look upon him. The murmurs continue between the men. Hurmaz invites them all to calm down.

“Yes! We had talked about this. And we also agreed that Mart and Tirad should be sent to Oxan as our representatives to solve the crisis. Perhaps it would have been better if we had invited them to the Circle sooner…” Hurmaz says with a steady voice. Tirad finally understands why he was invited to the meeting and feels the sweet taste of Lealy’s potions that she sometimes prescribes for him to soothe his soaring stomach. He finally raises his head and looks at the members of the Circle who are still whispering to one another. Mart smiles proudly. Tirad’s first mission for the Saviour Ship is finally handed to him, and what a difficult mission it is! Tirad knows he can’t say another word or ask any more questions. He just needs to await the final decision of the Circle and execute them successfully and exactly as they are ordered. He has already made up his mind and is eager to do whatever it takes to finish this mission and come back to Circle with his head high. Even though this mission has to be done with Mart’s collaboration and means having to tolerate him in the journey. Hurmaz silences the Circle once more and says, “Our next meeting shall be held tomorrow after the Spawn-Scorching ceremony. Come back with ideas and plans for this issue. We don’t have much time. Our meeting with the Oxan officials is on Thursday night. It means that our representatives must set off to Oxan at the latest, the day after tomorrow… That’s it for now…” the Circle members get off their chairs one by one and exit the cabin in pairs. Mart leaves behind the last member. Tirad stands up and waits for everyone to leave and steps towards the doorway. But Hurmaz stops him and asks him to stay a little longer. He has another important business that he wants to talk about with Tirad.