“I don’t want to go back to our ship…because of my mother. Our people are not kind to her,” she says. Tirad needs more explanation. He doesn’t care about making a conversation anymore, he is really curious to know what has driven away these women. Dalia also looks tired of the long silence and she wants to speak. But she seems unsure whether to speak or not. It is not a matter of trust, for Tirad would get rid of them shortly after they get to Oxan. She is not sure whether her story is appealing enough to be told. Why should Tirad want to know? Tirad reads all this from her face and the way she nervously strokes her balm on her thighs. He assures her that he would like to hear and know the truth. They both sit by the fences, side by side, facing the sparkly island. As the boat moves closer to it, its tiny light dots seem to join and create larger, bright spots.

Dalia starts explaining. At first, her story is fragmented and vague and Tirad hardly understands what she says. She goes back telling her life story from the moment her mother was found half dead on the sea by the divers of Avij. She tells him everything she can remember, from her deaf and mute father to the deformed stillborn babies of Asin. As she goes on, her story starts to make more sense and her voice becomes bolder and stronger. Tirad does not interrupt her. The stories of the sea people are always mixed with horrific and peculiar happenings. But Dalia’s nail-less fingers move before Tirad’s face as she talks. If he hadn’t seen them, he would think of her story as an imaginary tale made up by a wandering girl. But this time, her story adds up. Asin’s alien behaviour and strangeness makes sense now. Dalia’s mastery on the waves is the result of her being raised as a diver and the far distance of Avij to the Saviour Island justifies their estrangement to the Saviour Rules. Even though Dalia had lied to him before in the Saviour Ship and Tirad is not happy about it, yet he somehow understands why she had lied, their story is hard to take in. Tirad had read many fiction books of the pre-rain era and had felt connected to the stories, but Dalia’s tale seems more farfetched. If Dalia had said then all the things she told him now, she wouldn’t get out of the Ship alive.

Dalia is staring at him awaiting a response or a reaction. And Tirad is speechless again. It doesn’t matter what he says, whether to forgive her for lying to him or to say her story is not easily believable, there is only one option in front of them: Tirad has to send them back to their ship. Oxan would not allow them to stay especially now that they wanted to evict the refugees from the temporary harbour. He should have stayed out of Dalia’s business. Her life story has messed up his mind. He didn’t know talking to Dalia would come to this. He just wanted to talk to feel less lonely. It is already too late to react to her. He won’t say that he forgives her for lying to him. He only suggests that Dalia should cleanse herself from the fault in a Spawn-Scorching ceremony. Dalia accepts the suggestion but it is clear from her indifferent and not sorry face, that she would not do it. Not because she doesn’t want to or she isn’t sorry for lying, because she doesn’t believe in the ceremony! Tirad thinks to himself that if he could truly convert Dalia maybe he could take her back to the Saviour Ship as a maid. He explains the situation to her and proposes his suggestion and excitedly waits for her reply. But Dalia is as indifferent as before.