Before dawn Yanael put on a coat and left without saying anything to anyone. They had a hunch that Xurde was in the same cabin where they had found them when they were looking for Ariel and Bjorn. This made them wonder if this latest crisis was related to Roane's death, or Bjorn's disappearance. That night they had said that the children were fine and that they shouldn't worry, which, in fact, had turned out to be true. Whatever was happening to Xurde, it was clear that it affected the entire community. And just as Xurde kept the community together in a negative way, feeling like the chalice from which everyone drank, Yanael was the one who gave it shape, rite and flesh. Finding Xurde, in soul or body, was a personal matter. It was a cold and shady morning. There were at least three layers of clouds and a soft pouring of thin water that pierced any skin. Exactly one of those days that Roane loved. On the way, Yanael remembered many days of Xurde's childhood, and when they had gotten pregnant with Bjorn, and Xurde would stick to their belly and say that they could hear Bjorn’s little heartbeat. Yanael was not much older then than Xurde was now. Xurde was now the same age Yanael was when Bjorn was born. They thought that if they were in the cabin, that meant they wanted to be found. They wished with all their might that was the case.
When Yanael arrived to the cabin they were afraid of what they might discover there. They thought that perhaps Xurde wanted to take revenge on everyone, giving them a horrible purple corpse, or one turned green by poison. They feared that all the conflicts that Rueda had avoided by drowning them in wine and in the confidence that Xurde would ward them off with their shouts, would have become the force that Xurde could direct against their own body. Sure enough, they were there, in exactly the same position they had been that other night, huddled at the other end of the cabin door, facing the wall. They didn't seem to detect Yanael’s presence when they entered.
– I've come looking for you without telling anyone.
Xurde did not answer. Yanael touched them, and their body shuddered. A wave of relief moved Yanael.
– Xurde. I'm not leaving without you.
They moved closer and placed their hands on their side and sat behind their back. Then they realized that it smelled like blood. They pushed their body over theirs and saw that Xurde was clutching a knife in their hands. Yanael was counting on the fact that they could have hurt themselves and had brought the basics for the case. Xurde's body was rigid as if they had died, but it was also warm and their wounds were not deep. They were in a state of paralysis. They bound their hands and stretched them out like a newborn deer to get them out of the cabin and onto their feet. They hugged them around the waist and started walking.
–Do you remember when you and Bjorn taught us all to dance? You may not remember, but when you were a baby, the whole community would gather in the dance house and imitate your movements, crawling, rolling and somersaulting, and that is how the youngest people learned to remember how to communicate by touch. Later, when Bjorn was born, you taught them everything you had learned in those three long years, and Bjorn taught you again everything they knew about nature, and we all learned again from Bjorn. Perhaps you do remember that, because you already knew how to speak, and how you spoke! Roane made sure you talked a lot... Xurde, you and I are the pillars of Rueda. About the rest, you already know that half are just passing through and the other half will die soon. Whatever our community is, you, me and Bjorn were born in Rueda and it is our home. You are free to leave if you need to, but the house will never leave you.
Yanael told Xurde these words as if in confidence, but the truth is that they used to treat them with the same solemnity as most people in Rueda did, as if they were not one of them.