“I’m looking for someone… I was told he was last seen here!” Lealy replies to Ashid’s question after a long pause.

“You need to see Armina then! Let me send a word,” Ashid answers and goes out. But Lealy asks her to stay. If Tirad had come to Parsana, this old woman must have seen him too. She wants to ask her first and then talk to the legendary Armina that the healers told mythical tales about.

“A few months back, after the Oxan fire… Did Tirad come here?” Lealy asks frankly. Ashid stands by the door and puts her hands around her waists. She doesn’t know whether to answer her or not.

“This ship is a sanctuary for all the Saviour Disciples who run away. But Armina didn’t take him in. She wasn’t sure if he was truly innocent or not… But why do you ask?” Ashid replies after a short pause. She then smiles as if she has read the history between Tirad and Lealy in a glance. She comes to her and sits on the bed by her side.

“You loved him, didn’t you? Only a lover would come searching for her lost love like this… So worried and desperate!” Ashid asks. Lealy looks down and doesn’t answer. She doesn’t know if this woman is a healer or a fortune-teller.

“Am I the first woman who has come looking for him?” Lealy asks trying to control her tears. Ashid smiles but it’s a bitter smile, more like a loose sneer.

“Tirad wasn’t alone!” she says. Lealy had heard Tirad was with two other people, one of them must have been Dalia from her weird specifications. But she didn’t know the man and that was one of the reasons she doubted Tirad’s innocence. He might have been innocent himself, but what about that man? She still doesn’t know how Dalia had gotten to Tirad. It seems to her that it was all planned ahead and she didn’t know about it. Lealy asks Ashid about the man and the girl that were with Tirad. Ashid tells her about Narivan’s deadly wound and Tirad’s marriage to the girl.

“How could it be? Tirad hadn’t known her for more than a week! How could he have told such a lie?” Lealy asks and drowns in her thoughts again, condemning Tirad to the worst crimes, from burning the refugee harbour to the disobedience of the Saviour Rules. He had betrayed her. She had confessed her love to him many times, asking him to leave the Saviour Ship with her but he had refused and his excuse was the redemption of the Saviour! Lealy hates herself and feels humiliated in front of Ashid. Tirad didn’t want her! The Saviour Rules were just an excuse to get rid of her… And now she has spent so much time and money to find him, belittling herself before this woman.

“How can you be so sure?” she asks desperately.