“She is a competent swimmer… Don’t worry about her!” he says, as he calmly goes back to the Boat rudder. Mart mumbles that they are not least worried about her and they don’t even care. He curses the boatman who doesn’t seem to pay attention to him and then turns back to Tirad.

“This is all your doing! You should have ordered her death when you had the chance! Who knows what this animal would do to us!” Mart says frowning. Tirad grins. Mart’s fear is a sign of his weakness which he always tries so hard to hide and what he is afraid of is amiss, now revealed unknowingly. But he doesn’t like Tirad laughing at him. He leaps over to punch him, but Tirad steps back dodging him. Mart falls hitting the gunwale.

“Don’t you dare laugh at me!” he says shouting.

“If you ever laugh at me again, I will throw you in the water! And we’ll see how long you’re going to survive till you drown… And then I’ll take care of those animals myself!” he continues. Tirad feels threatened. Mart knows very well that he can’t swim for long and will lose his breath quickly and he has used his weakness to his advantage. Yuma interferes, pulls back Mart to give Tirad enough room to distance himself from the gunwale, reducing his chance of falling into the water or being pushed into it. Tirad steps towards the middle of the deck. He tries to walk as he normally does, even though he is hurrying to get away from the wall as fast as possible. He sees Dalia in the water staring at the scene that Mart has started. He wants her to see and listen as he is going to defend her.

“You tell me! Which Saviour Rule allows innocent women to be killed but doesn’t allow the killing of giant fish that attack the ships? Making so many women and children flee their homes? Ha?” Tirad asks arrogantly. But Mart ignores him, turns his face away and walks towards the cabins. Yuma follows his friend, but stops and takes Mart’s side.

“You can fool yourself…but you don’t fool anyone else! Everyone knows that these women had disobeyed the Saviour!” Yuma says with a disgusted tone.

“This woman doesn’t even know who the Saviour is!” Tirad says excitedly, pointing to Asin who gives him a confused look as if she didn’t expect to be brought up like this in their conversation.

“Her daughter hasn’t done anything wrong to be punished for!” Tirad continues. Mart takes another leap towards Tirad.

“So! You have finally fallen for someone! An animal it seems!” Mart sneers. Tirad didn’t expect such a reaction, although he knew that defending these two women might have brought suspicion towards him but he had done everything he could not to pay attention to them. He knows this conversation is not going to go in his favour. It is not in favour of getting closer to Mart and gaining more information about their mission either, let alone developing a positive relationship with him. If he doesn’t step back now from this quarrel, it may end up bad for everyone, even the poor refugees as Mart may exclude Tirad from all decisions. He isn’t tired yet to go to bed but he would like to draw something to calm him down. He goes towards the cabin to fetch his bag, paper and charcoal. But Mart is in his way. He is blocking the short corridor that leads to the cabins. As Tirad tries to pass, Mart shoves him pushing him to the corridor frame. Tirad groans. Mart stands in front of him. He is a lot taller than Tirad. He puts one hand on Tirad’s shoulder and leans his other hand against the wall behind Tirad’s head. Tirad’s burns from that morning’s Spawn-Scorching ceremony still hurt and soar more with the touch of Mart’s hairy hands.