“Some say they do this to take revenge…but we never killed any of the giant fish. What have we done wrong to be punished for?” The old woman replies with tears rolling down her wrinkled dry face. Another woman starts to talk.

“We have heard that some northern ships were given high-tech boats by Oxan and they have been fishing the large fish without the Saviour permission…but the fish don’t know who is who. They have been attacking us, seeking for revenge,” she says. Tirad asks further questions about the illegal fishing and their relevance to the eaten babies. But the women keep repeating themselves. They start talking simultaneously, confirming the words of the old woman and the other refugee woman who explained about the new fishing boats. Tirad can’t keep them calm anymore. He doesn’t believe their words; it all seems like another myth made up by the people of the sea. How could there be such fishing boats and hunting activities in the north and he had never heard anything about them? How could the fish understand such things and want to revenge? They might attack the boats for food, killing and eating the fishers, but a new born baby? Why should they eat the baby and leave the mother? He doesn’t understand which is the main reason for their fleeting? Having their ships attacked by the revengeful fish or their babies being eaten by them? It seems more like an imaginative tale told by the weary women. While it could all just be random incidents, and the death of the pregnant women might be due to some kind of sickness.

Tirad makes them quiet again and asks the number of pregnant women who were killed. The numbers don’t add up with the reports received by Hurmaz. The old woman says six from their ship and at least thirty women in their area. Another one says at least fifty women and the number goes higher to hundreds as the others try to guess. He can’t take in these words anymore. The refugee children run along between his legs and the women constantly try to send them away. Tirad feels dizzy from standing on the floating surface that drifts all the time, making it hard for him to stand still. He is also annoyed by the buzzing sound of the woman talking simultaneously and the moist breeze that fills his ears. He feels like throwing up and he should get out of there before he really gets sick and embarrass himself in front of the refugee women. He needs to go to Lealy and then head back to the harbour. Although he hasn’t found much from these women, but at least he can tell Hurmaz that he has started the investigation, if Hurmaz is alive by the time he gets back. Tirad takes another look at the slum, makeshift shelters of the floating harbour and the poor women who are still speaking loudly. He promises them that he will take care of the problem and hastens towards the eastern iron gate of the Island, trying to pass through the naked bodies and hands that are begging him for help.