Now that the coasts had cleared up again, now that boats were never seen anchoring in the coves again, the beaches once again seemed like tongues of sea instead of places where the future of the community was at stake. Águda felt a deep pride for having remained unscathed for more than two decades, for never having transitioned to commerce, for having maintained the idente traditions despite all the horde of invaders, the murders, the sale of its people as slaves, the tithe. Duga have learned that these processes could go on for millennia, so Águda thought that they were the very example of luck. They had managed to get rid of the renaissance in only twenty years. As if this rebirth was already completely impossible. Águda remembered the ship Senyania had arrived on, completely different from those of the invading peoples who began wading into Duga's waters not long after. How was it possible that the periodic wars had finally ended? This was definitely more a wish than a fact, of course, but the absence of ships confirmed it. The delicious smell of seaweed, the foam and the tails of the fish trotting in the water, the fine sand flying over the beach at low altitude... all this reminded Águda of Tajo. Águda wondered if Tajo had died, but something inside said no. Shenyania came walking from the other side of the beach, holding a bundle of what looked like fabrics, in an animated sign of wanting to show them to Águda. A soft wind swirled in the ears and the rushing of the waves on the shore formed infinite silver mirrors.
"We narrowly escaped," Águda thought.
- Let's go to the forum!? - Shenyania shouted from afar.
Águda turned around and began to head towards the town. Shenyania ran and put an arm around Águda’s shoulders. They walked to the end of the shore and only then turned off onto the cliff path to return to Duga.
The dissolution of the assembly of old women had been effective in the times of the periodic wars with the invading peoples. The invading peoples were never called by their names in Duga, so as not to give them any credit. When they came to slaughter people and impose meat, gender or money, Duga never accepted it. Why didn't Duga disappear? Because the rest of the surrounding towns did not accept it either. They kept the idente traditions at all costs, knowing that they were as powerful as weapons. It became an even more conservative community than it had been in Alondra's day. More and more children appeared around the town, and they were all welcomed, even at the risk of famine. The famine came, of course, but even in the times when even the water rites could not be performed, because it exhausted the energy of the people, no trade was carried out, nor were fish eaten. They had, that is true, good luck with the harvests. And they also had Shenyania, who was basically the one who had saved the whole town. Shenyania became the living divinity of Duga through Águda, who had known how to convince everyone that a higher power did exist beyond the rites. The trick to all this was that neither Shenyania nor Águda had ever succumbed to this belief.
