He hears unclear voices of laughter from the crowd. He is not sure if he is dreaming or awake. He opens his eyes and rolls his tongue around his dry lips that taste salty. He must have been moved to the other side of the deck, away from the fire and the crowd, after he had passed out. Lealy puts the salt stone on Tirad’s lips again and some fish-oil soaked napkins on his forehead burn. The smile she wears on her face contradict her frowning. The laughing sound of the crowd continues. Tirad looks around to see the little girl. She is staring into the flames and even if she had seen him fall, she hadn’t waited for him to wake up and ask questions.

“Don’t worry! They wouldn’t dare to laugh at you! They are burning the crippled baby,” Lealy says, sneering. Tirad asks about the mother and the daughter. Helay replies that Hurmaz didn’t allow them to come out with this mad crowd. Tirad praises Hurmaz for his wise decision but they had to tattoo their hands. There is no point in arguing with Lealy when Hurmaz had ordered them to stay inside.

Healy starts giving advice to Tirad like a kind Master: “Try not to take the ritual with an empty stomach or you’ll pass out like you did today and it won’t be good for your reputation!” she says with a smile. Tirad understands. Lealy stands up and before Tirad gets the chance to thank him and ask more about Dalia and her mother, she vanishes into the crowd. The crowd has tightened and Tirad cannot see the baby or hear what Khunas is saying. He doesn’t care to see the burning of the little deformed body but wants to hear Khunas’s speech. As he stretches his neck to focus on Khunas, he feels a touch on his soaring shoulder. Hurmaz is standing behind him. Tirad lowers his head to respectfully say hello.

“Mart came to fetch you this morning… He said you weren’t well! Now I see! What’s wrong? Are you ill?” he asks straight away.

“I am fine… I just overslept. I was in the library last night…” Tirad replies, but Hurmaz stops his sentence.

“I sent you a note last night, after dinner. Didn’t you get it?” he asks. Tirad lowers his head and says he didn’t see the note last night. But he never left his room until two hours after dinner and no one came to him at that time. He wants to explain this to Hurmaz, to say that he never saw Mart that morning and to apologise for missing the meeting. He opens his mouth but doesn’t know where to start and how to say it.

“You should have come to the meeting… For your own sake and for mine. They wanted to cancel your mission at first but I told them that you have a personal mission too… Go and get ready now. The arrangements have changes and you are leaving this afternoon!” Hurmaz says with a serious tone. Tirad is confused again and whatever he says comes out of his mouth with a stretched mumbling sound. He finally pulls his thoughts together to explain that he was in the forbidden library and that Mart never gave him the note after dinner and didn’t come to wake him up in the morning. He goes on and Hurmaz listens without any interest until Tirad starts explaining about the pages he had found, Parsana’s handwritten narratives omitted from their copied books. His voice becomes stronger as he talks about his research and tells Hurmaz that he still has to study more and he has so many questions. He begs Hurmaz to give him more chance so he can investigate further what he has found and talk to Hurmaz about the founded pages. Hurmaz signals him with his hand movement, to lower his voice.