"Mama saw her dead body. She's buried in the garden, under a tree."
Celeste felt sick and was about to faint.
"She told me so that I could understand why it was so important to hide my knowledge from Father. And, also, so that I understood why we must always obey. Mama said Father had threatened to do the same to her. But I'm sure whom he really threatened was me - maybe even you, his daughters, too. Mama would have risked her own life trying to escape, but not ours."
"You're still calling her Mama," Celeste gently remarked.
"She is Mama, although she's also my aunt."
"She'll always be Mama for me too."
Alan then returned to the room. He had calmed down and no one felt the need to seek explanations from him, neither did he want to give them.
An overwhelming weariness overtook them all.
"The thing is," spoke Celeste, after a couple of needed minutes of silence, which Alan wisely didn't take to be provoked by him, "Griselda has actually seen the witch."
Roxanne was more astonished than ever.
"One day," the girl in blue continued, "I never got to know why, Father considered he ought to teach her a lesson and took her to see the witch - so we were told. This was several years ago, and Griselda has never been the same again."
"I had no idea," said Roxanne. "But, then… was that why she changed and became so… so… dependent on Dora?"
"She never told us what she saw exactly. Father forbade her to talk about it and we, of course, never asked. But she was terribly affected and never again did she contradict anybody. That's why Dora takes advantage and always has her at her service."
"There is no witch," interrupted Alan, in a calm but firm manner. "On this planet there are many unscrupulous people, but I guarantee you," he said, looking first at Celeste and then at the eldest, "that not one of them is endowed with any magical powers."
Roxanne thanked, with a tear that ran down her cheek, the enormous relief his few but comforting words had brought her.
To Celeste, however, he had brought further unknowns.
"Planet?"