Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Gathering
Erzvilkas and Dzeze return to town and share the truth about the Voice with the waiting women. As dawn approaches, they organize a search of the collapsed mine. Dzeze reviews her footage and notices a crucial detail: the woman mentioned a second location. Before they can act, a faint whisper drifts from the forest, suggesting the Voice may not be silenced after all.
The walk back to town was long and silent. The lantern cast a weak, wavering light on the path ahead, and the dust from the collapsed mine still hung in the air behind them. Erzvilkas moved with a limp, favoring his left leg, but he did not slow. Dzeze kept her hand on the camera, the weight of the recording a reassurance and a burden.
They reached the first houses as the sky began to lighten—a pale gray seeped through the trees. The streets were empty, but here and there a curtain twitched. The women were watching, waiting, as they had been all night.
Dzeze led them to the community hall, a small wooden building with a bell on the roof. She had used it before for screenings of her documentary footage. Now it would serve a different purpose. She rang the bell three times, the sound sharp in the quiet dawn.
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