Mart was an arrogant boy and didn’t like to be called ‘stupid’ in front of other students. He was always proud of his birthplace and bragged about it. He belittled the other children telling them their fathers, unlike his, were worthless boatmen or fishers. But his father was a wealthy tradesman that would buy electrical cables from the divers and sell them to ships that produced engines. He would say to them that his father was always travelling and that’s why he was sent to the Saviour Ship and claimed that his father was coming to get him any day. But the children knew none of that was true and they would start a fight about it every once in a while. It would suffice to ask Mart why his father hadn’t come for him yet, annoying him to starting a fight that would always end up in Mart’s favour, since he had precocious puberty and was bigger than the rest. After each fight, they wouldn’t dare to mention Mart’s vague childhood for some time, especially what he hid about his mother. If they mentioned that his mother worked in a brothel, Mart would start another fight and claim that his mother owned the house and didn’t work in there herself. And even though his answer was not convincible, he made them believe it with the punches he threw at them and the noses he broke.

Mart hadn’t said anything to anyone. He had fled the class where he was called ‘stupid’ and spent all afternoon in the harbour to see which boats would go to Oxan. He had hid himself in the supply cabin of one of the boats that was headed to Oxan the next day. But it didn’t last long. After a few hours, Hurmaz and two guards had brought him out and taken him back to the Saviour Ship. Mart blamed Tirad and believed he had given up his hiding place. Tirad had come to the harbour that afternoon to collect a bundle of paper from a boatman. He kept saying he hadn’t seen Mart, but Mart had seen him helping the boatman unloading his paper cargo. Hurmaz had looked out for Tirad. He knew that the furious Mart, who smelled like the dried fish of the boat’s supply cabin, would beat the poor defenceless Tirad to death and he hadn’t allowed it. Later on, when Mart found out that it was the boatman who had seen him hiding in his boat and called the guards, he didn’t apologise to Tirad for accusing him of being a snitch. As time passed, he changed the story telling his peers that he never wanted to leave, he had just rested for the day and enjoyed himself in the harbour.