Who had brought the note to his room? And when? Last night, he had gone out of his cabin two hours after dinner and had returned at midnight. But he hadn’t seen the note when he came back from the library. Or perhaps he had just put down the book on the desk and missed the note. He feels horrified of the thought of someone having entered his cabin and had put the note under the forbidden book. If Mart had been sent to deliver the note, he might already be in trouble. But he did the right thing hiding the handwritten pages under his pillow. He doesn’t want anyone to see them before he shows them to Hurmaz. Perhaps he was too busy hiding the pages that he had missed the note on his desk and didn’t get to attend the meeting. But he thought the meeting was in the afternoon. Why did they have to change its time? Why didn’t they ask someone to wake him up in the morning, a maid or a student; they usually send someone up to fetch him, not just a note! He won’t know what had happened exactly until he talks to Hurmaz. Now he is worried to see Hurmaz. What excuse shall he give for missing the meeting? But he has so many questions that he wants to ask him. To ask why they hadn’t sent someone to fetch him for the meeting is the less important of all.

Tirad passes through the pilgrim crowd and makes his way to the great fire. Khunas is standing by the flames with a copper bowl by his hand. He picks up a few dried spawns with a metal prong, holds it over the flames and sings the Saviour Hymns with a beautiful voice: “Faults burden the man’s shoulders… They hang from him, pulling him down… He is forgiven… With the burning flames…reborn…by the scorched spawns…the flaming embryos of the sea…shall unburden all…burnout the wrongdoings…all faults are forgiven…” And he puts the heated spawns on the shoulders of a young, thin man who is crying like a baby. He puts them on his right shoulder first and then on his left. Tirad doesn’t know if the man is crying because of the smoke that has gotten into his eyes or from the joy of being relieved of all his faults that burdened him. The man bends a little so that Khunas can put some scorched spawns on his neck back to unburden him of any faults that might hang from there. Khunas takes the prong away and continues with the same melody: “You are now free…by the Rules of the Saviour…may you stay light and free of all faults and impurity…” The roasted spawns leave a red trail on the man’s sunburnt skin. Tirad know his back neck will be blistered, but his shoulder burns are minor. The man goes to Lealy so that she would place moist napkins on his burned areas.