That afternoon at the beginning of Winter Alondra went to look for Mirlo. She still didn't speak to her, and since Alondra knew that Agua would be on the lookout, she didn't insist much either. On the other hand, it wasn't so bad that she ignored her, since she made the goal of dissimulation much easier. But it was the first time she had to make her go down to the dome, so she decided that she had to instruct her. She suddenly found herself explaining to Mirlo where things were, what the cults consisted of, and how she should behave. She had become an Idente. Mirlo continued looking into the distance with a grimace of displeasure and contempt without giving her a single glance. They went down the path to the bottom, where they crossed paths with some Identes who were surreptitiously observing Mirlo. She, the Radix Speciosa, the authentic and original. There was great expectation after two months of absence of the second Water. Only the ten Identes who participated in the mysterious rites had seen the Radix. For the rest, it was the first time.
Alondra ushered Mirlo into the dome. Like every afternoon, the dome was full of Identes practicing their usual exercises. Mirlo had only been there the night of her arrival, which brought back ambiguous memories. But the dome seemed like a completely different place tonight. It was well lit, so that from the outside it looked like an egg covered in protective filaments. Upon entering, the spotless spruce wood floor shined. The Identes practiced their sacred movements in absolute silence. Alondra tried to explain to her what the strange ritual consisted of. Mirlo ignored her, but nevertheless she seemed very interested in seeing what they did. For the first time since she arrived, she focused her eyes intensely around her and scrutinized each of the women who were there. She sat on the edge of the great circle, rested her cheek on her fist and watched. Alondra, who had also not gone down to the dome for two months, joined in to participate in the cult, seeing that there was no case for Mirlo to show the slightest sign of interaction. But as she moved again on the ground as she had done during the five months she had spent in Las Identes before Mirlo arrived, she remembered the morning they had seen the rainbow, and how they had played on the carpet, and how Mirlo had brought the soap and had cleaned the house, before leaving. She understood that there was a continuity between the rituals of Las Identes and the games they had had with Mirlo in her old house. She was aware that that was no longer her house, that she no longer felt that she had lost her house. Between movement and movement, between the folding and stretching of her limbs, the anarchic field of bodies of the dome, the sensation of liberation of her ligaments between the joints and the unconscious rhythm of breathing with the extension of her vertebrae, Alondra felt that was watching her. She stopped. Yes, she was staring at her. Then she looked at other bodies. And finally she began to crawl through the space with great naturalness. Everyone was paying attention to her, although they didn't make it known. Mirlo mingled between the rest of the women and crawled, dropped and got up many times. She breathed with the rest and without the rest. She breathed with the sum of the rhythm of all of them and against the sum, isolating herself. She spent a long time kicking on the ground aimlessly, flailing her arms and legs. Afterwards she crawled for almost an hour, moving her spine like a shingle. After that it seemed that small legs had grown on her sides and she walked like a lizard or a spider. Later she began to move her shoulder blades and release her arms as if she wanted to fly. Then she got on all fours again and ran everywhere. Finally, she stood up, closed her eyes, and began to cry silently. By then all the Identes had convinced themselves that they had never seen anyone who could most certainly be the Radix Speciosa. On this occasion, they did not retreat to the shores, but rather they all stopped what they were doing when they heardMirlo's cry. They stopped completely, so that the silence of the voices was joined by the silence of the movements. Mirlo was crying discreetly, so when she realized that her crying was the only sound in the room, she opened her eyes and felt that strange sensation in her stomach, like a small internal explosion. Standing, while everyone else was lying or kneeling on the ground, she looked one by one at many of the women in the dome, searching for something in the depths of each of them's gaze. This lasted quite a while, considering there were almost a hundred in total. She looked at Alondra last. And then she ran out of the dome with her eyes full of tears, and Alondra after her.
[...]
Alondra knew nothing of the divisions that existed among the Identes. It was not customary to gossip about it, especially with the newcomers. Even less with the new Water, who for months had been believed to be the Radix Speciosa. Not everybody had accepted well the rapid turn of affairs after Mirlo’s arrival. There was some mistrust in the new role of the newcomer Agua who, in the eyes of some, had not earned the title. There were also those who believed that the new Agua had been an unexpected but necessary transition that had allowed them to keep pace with the rhythm of the city, since there had been no new news after her arrival. The change in the prayers had made many Identes uncomfortable. It seemed to them a sudden doctrinal transformation that had not been well explained. And they were all very concerned about the question of what would be the steps to follow once the start of ecumenical action was declared. It did not seem that the change in the hierarchy of Las Identes was shedding light on this matter. So when Mirlo appeared in the dome, the anticipation stemmed not only from being the Radix Speciosa by right, having arrived at the designated time, but from the need the two groups had to find common ground.
Since this division on the role of the second Agua, in reality, was based on another much older division, which in fact was said to come from the times of the First Tillers: the division between those who understood that the ecumenical mission should have for its object the transformation of the customs of all the converted people, and that of those who thought that it was rather a matter of creating new monasteries for women wherever they went. And this division was based on yet another division, which had to do with the interpretation of the heart of the doctrine: "Do not break the seeds." What did this mean? All the Identes agreed that it implied the sacredness of fasting and the search for the necessary technology to stop producing food through the pregnancy of the earth. But, beyond this consensus, there was those who believed that the ecumenical mission of Las Identes should be towards the Gentiles, thought that it should be preached against heterosexuality, and more generally against reproductive sexual practices. And those who believed that the mission of Las Identes should consist of the extension of the sect as a sect, thought that "Do not break the seeds" implied male infanticide, the selection of female fetuses and the development of the technology of reproduction by addition of ovules.
The mysterious movements of Las Identes had to do with the idea of returning to the maternal womb, walking backwards in the history of the kinetic development of the human body. This path was interpreted phylogenetically as a return to the great nature, of feminine sign. For that reason, Mirlo's display had been revealing and impressive to both groups: the Radix Speciosa had traveled back not only in the lifetime of the human body, but in that of animal nature in general. Her return was towards the praised vegetable seed, towards the very matter of full consciousness and without language, from which all beings start. Her weeping had been the water from which all life starts and the infinite thought that materializes as a suffering body. Her gaze had been the sword that pierces in war, the fire that burns everything, humanity in corruption, locked up in their absorbing passions. The silence that she had been known to keep, despite her youth, was considered a display of innate wisdom. No one had been left indifferent. All the Identes had felt that she had transmitted great teachings to them. So the climate was created that it was possible to find common ground across the historical divisions of the community. Moreover, they felt in communion with the first Identes, and the Ten, who had witnessed the rites of the second Agua and the new and mysterious Radix Speciosa without a name, declared that they were having strange dreams and visions that had been expected throughout the community for centuries.
The Ten, like the Radix Speciosa, were not chosen by the community, but inherited the title by chance if they arrived at Las Identes after the death of one of the previous ones. In other words, there had been an Encarnación, a Fei, an Aisha, a Carmen, a Nadia, a Yanael, an Ujué, a Marta, a Carimea, and an Alberta since the 21st century. Their duty was to be enlightened, but their personality was unpredictable, so they formed a heterogeneous group and often not capable of leading the community as such. The title of Agua, on the contrary, was granted to whoever showed greater self–sacrifice and ability to enforce the doctrine and guide the community. For this reason, the arrival of a second Agua had been greeted with suspicion but also with curiosity and hope, giving many the feeling that command would be strengthened. Others, on the contrary, understood that the Ten should be trusted. A symbolic power was enough to lead the community without ruling it. The spirit of equality that prevailed in Las Identes should not be broken by themselves or by Agua. From this point of view, having two Agua was seen as a threat to the pillars of the organization chart of Las Identes. That threat was sometimes seen as a positive and sometimes as a negative, depending on the person and the moment.
But in the days after Mirlo's intervention in the cults, all tendencies began to find common ground. They began to talk about what they shared and the essence of the community. It was understood that the arrival of the second Agua had been a design, or else she would have had any other name. A friendliness began to be generated that not even the oldest remembered. They deepened in the doctrines, in the discipline, and in the devotion during the cults. They also began to remain silent after meals, because all the Identes once again deeply empathized with the suffering of the life they ate, and they returned to genuinely feeling disgust at the pregnancy of the earth, at having to ingest the lump that she stood out and the infinite colors, shapes, tastes and smells of her eruptions. Mealtime was again a very disgusting time, as it was said to be in the early days of the community. The communion of belief that was generated was as unpleasant as it was intense. All the Identes thought about how the Radix Speciosa had shown with her actions the body of the seed.