Armina shakes her head and shows Hurmaz’s letter to Tirad. He immediately recognises Hurmaz’s handwriting and starts reading. Hurmaz has expressed his sincere devotion to Armina and to the true followers of the Saviour and Lady Parsana. He has written that his life is in danger and the Circle is trying to poison him. He says one of the maids was forced to put the poison in his food but she had given them up in fear of being punished by the sea. But he knows they will carry out their deed sooner or later and has asked Armina to hand the attached documents to his most trusted disciple, Tirad. He has added another line under his letter saying Tirad doesn’t know much about the Parsana Ship and he hopes to have given him enough leads to find his way there. He has asked Armina to tell Tirad about the true history of the Saviour and Lady Parsana. Tirad reads the letter again, taking in every word. He looks at Armina with a half-opened mouth.

“You should start with the true history of the Saviour!” he says and takes out the pages he had found in the forbidden library: Parsana’s exile sentence and the Saviour’s prophecies. Armina takes the pages and starts talking like a grandmother telling a night-time story to put her grandchild to sleep.

“The Saviour was indeed the only survivor of the library ship, but he was not a baby. He was fifteen years old and had hid himself in the book cupboards, staying alive through the Great Fog. He was an intelligent, learned young man who knew mathematics and astronomy. When Hami, Ariad and Parsana found him, he helped them find their way to the highest areas drowned by the new sea. He was one of the few people who knew the topology of the new world after the earthquakes. They had sailed towards the Zagros heights but accidentally found another island on their way that they called Oxin, changed through the years to Oxan, since it was near the drowned city of Ahwaz and Oxin was its ancient name,” she explains while Tirad listens with wonder. He doesn’t want to hear more. It all seems to be a great lie. It cannot be. What about the Saviour’s marvels then? The Narratives? She must be telling him a fantastic, make-believe tale like most people of the sea love to do so.

“It was Hami who set up the Oxan trade system and came up with the Saviour Rules. The Saviour and Parsana fell in love from the beginning and were separated from Ariad and Hami. The exile sentence for Parsana was signed when she was carrying Saviour’s baby,” she continues and shows the exile paper to Tirad to prove her word. Tirad still doesn’t understand what she is trying to say. He tries to overcome his rage and let the old woman finish her tale.

“Parsana and the Saviour came to this ship. They had two children, one of them died young and the other lived. I’m a descendant from their daughter. I know their true life story since it was told to me by my mother who had heard it from hers and so forth,” she says proudly and doesn’t seem to care about Tirad’s ignorant reaction. Tirad doesn’t want to interrupt her. He just wants it to be over and take the parcel.