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SIX. A RETURN TO THE FOLD
new monsters   ,   -lantsov
"dirtyhands and his serpent"
˖⁺ 🪶⋆ ୭ ⚔️ .⋆｡⋆༶⋆˙⊹

INEJ WAS SENTIMENTAL. Vera, Jesper, and Kaz were well aware of this, so it wasn't too surprising for Inej to pull Vera aside and beg her to check the lists of the dead with her. The lists of the dead in Novokribirsk counted the people who had died inside the Fold, and Vera couldn't bring herself to tell Inej it was pointless to check them. Inej's parents were Suli acrobats; they would not have passed through the Fold.

However, Inej's sentiment fit in well with Vera's curiosity. Vera had grown up in Ravka; she had known people who went to the Fold and hadn't heard from them since. It was a grim thought, but she supposed it'd be nice to have a little closure on the people she hadn't thought of since she left Ravka.

Next to the stone monoliths listing the names of the deceased was a rally, more specifically, a pro-New-Ravka rally. Vera remembered seeing protests like these when she had first seen the west side of the Fold, and they still confused her. How could you break apart from Ravka like that? How could you deny the efforts of the First Army, the Second Army, and the Lantsov throne just because you believed the Fold gave you some divine right to become your own country? It seemed childish and idiotic, frankly. Was there really no sense of loyalty to their own country?

It disgusted her.

But then again, Vera had deserted her country and her army, so maybe she was no better than the protesters.

Vera was staring at the name of a girl she had once known, a scrawny and young soldier for the First Army, and slowly rubbing her neck when Kaz approached the duo. She turned around to face him, her eyes catching on the goat in his arms and an involuntary smile coming to her face.

"He's adorable," Inej said, voicing Vera's thoughts exactly.

"Don't get attached," Kaz replied. "I didn't think I'd have to specify no detours to you two."

Vera turned back to Karine Abdulov's name as Inej snapped back, "even if just a few minutes could end a lifetime of questions?"

There was no point in listening to Kaz and Inej argue. Besides, right underneath Karine's name was Leonid Popov. Karine's name hadn't affected Vera too much, but Leonid was wrenching at her heart. Vera remembered her last interaction with Leonid vividly; it had been in Kribirsk on the day of Vera's swift departure from Ravka.

Leonid was the son of some First Army general, and he hung around the First Army barracks a lot. He was only six when Vera left, and he was the sweetest little boy she had ever known. In fact, on the day Vera left he had been talking her ear off about how excited he was to cross the Fold the next day.

That was probably when he died, Vera thought grimly. Shit.

Inej eventually walked away with an annoyed attitude, and Vera barely noticed Kaz come to stand beside her and stare up at the list.

"And you? What's your excuse?" Kaz asked.

Vera lifted a finger to Karine's name before sliding it down to Leonid. She knew that Kaz's Ravkan wasn't the best, so she specified, "I knew them."

The goat in Kaz's arms bleated, and the tension in Vera's shoulders softened slightly. She turned to Kaz and scratched in between the goat's ears.

"Were you close?" Kaz asked.

Vera shook her head. "Not really, but close enough that it feels weird."

Kaz nodded, and Vera scratched in between the goat's ears again.

"Well, when we get back to Ketterdam, you can mourn them all you'd like," Kaz said.

There he was, Vera's favorite apathetic asshole.

The Ravkan rolled her eyes and turned on her heel. She walked at a pace just a tad too quick for Kaz to match, just to let him know she was pissed. It was in Kaz's nature to be unemotional, and Vera reckoned he had treated Inej the same way before she left, but it was still brash and uncalled for. Vera had never had the time to mourn anyone from Ravka, and Kaz had just taken that time from her.

Maybe it was Ravka that was making her feistier than usual. It was like she had returned home and suddenly wanted nothing else but to be one with her culture again. She wanted to go back to speaking Ravkan, go back to the homemade food that was a million times better than anything in Ketterdam, and go back to the churches built in honor of the Saints Vera had lived her childhood hearing stories about. Ravka was making her nostalgic, and it was likely going to mess things up for her. Kaz was right, unfortunately, they did not have time for her to mourn the dead.

Vera and Kaz eventually met up with Inej and the Conductor. The Conductor was carrying a torch to help them see in the night, and the goat Kaz was pulling along had gotten rather loud during their walk.

As the Conductor's light hit the sign written in Ravkan in front of the field, Vera read, "'Caution: landmines. By order of King Pyotr.' Well, this is wonderful."

"We'll wait," Kaz said to the Conductor as the man continued as if the sign hadn't existed. "Follow the path that you carve."

The Conductor turned back to look at the sign. "Oh, that sign. That was my idea to keep people away. Can't be too careful. We're fine. Come."

Reluctantly, the trio of criminals followed the Conductor towards the Fold. Despite being in the army, Vera had only crossed the Fold once, but she had seen it countless times in her life. It was in textbooks, paintings, stories, and she had even ridden alongside it on horseback once. The looming wall of darkness had once kept her safe from the rest of the world, but now it kept her safe from her past. Her fear of the west side had turned into a fear of the east side some time while she was living in Ketterdam.

"It's one thing hearing about it," Inej marveled, "but this is—"

"Nothing compared to what lies within," the Conductor interrupted.

The goat bleated nervously.

The Conductor handed his torch to Inej and walked towards the edge of the Fold. Vera watched as he cranked a strange lever. Eventually, the body of a train car emerged from the dark, and the squeaking wheels were anything but reassuring. It looked shoddy if Vera was being honest. The more that emerged from the Fold, the less certain Vera was that they would survive this journey.

"There," the Conductor said. "So, goat, jurda... Thank you. Now we're just waiting on..."

As if summoned by the man's words, Jesper shouted, "wait for me!"

On the other side of the fake minefield, Jesper was sprinting away from a group of men who were firing shots at him. Vera grimaced as Jesper continued running, knowing fully well that Kaz would eat him alive for this. Metaphorically, but possibly literally, depending on how mad he was.

"They can't see the train," the Conductor panicked.

"Jesper, get here now!" Kaz shouted.

"Leave the lantern," Inej added.

Vera could see Jesper stopped and panting for breath, his eyes fixated on the sign in front of the open field.

"Landmines!" He protested. A bullet fired at him from behind, and he dropped a metal box into the sand. "Oh, wait for me! Don't you go without me! Wait!"

Jesper ran to the train, Kaz growling in annoyance from the train. Vera practically shoved the Zemeni boy on board before hopping in behind him. Inej slammed the doors shut after them.

"Please tell me you have twenty pounds of alabaster coal," the Conductor said.

"Slight snag in the plan," Jesper replied. "Turns out that the kid who was helping me buy the coal didn't exactly know how to, uh, buy coal."

"Nope," Vera chimed in, knowing fully well that he was lying.

"We know you gambled it away," Kaz said.

Jesper took a deep breath. "I lost a little bit of the money. I lost all of the money. Uh, but I managed to steal twenty pounds of alabaster coal."

Jesper handed the bag to the Conductor who immediately tutted, "no, no, there's sixteen pounds."

"Sixteen pounds of alabaster coal," Jesper restated.

"Can we do it on sixteen?" Kaz asked.

"Never been done before."

Vera lifted her hand to her neck once more and rubbed the skin at it. Their trip to Ravka had given her so much anxiety already that she wouldn't be surprised if the skin at her neck grew red by the end of their trip.

A gunshot hit the back of the train, making a clanging metallic noise.

"Sit here," the Conductor commanded, gripping Jesper's shoulders and shoving him into a seat against the back. "Never shift your weight."

The Conductor lifted his sleeves to deal with the coal, the scarred lines on his arm catching everyone's attention. Vera had no line to show for her journey; no scar on her arm to prove she had crossed the Fold. If they had offered her it, she would've taken it, but alas, there had been no offer.

"You've crossed that many times?" Inej asked.

"It's a numbers game," he replied. "Cross this often and you get nightmares."

Vera tightened her grip on the lump of fabric she had been carrying since Ketterdam, clinging to it like it could provide her any safety. She dug her fingers into the material, trying not the let them dart up to her neck again like they usually did when she was nervous. Across from her, Inej began a prayer to the sankts.

An explosion went off outside and Jesper remarked, "landmines!"

"I thought you said they weren't real," Kaz said to the Conductor.

"I said nothing of the sort," he answered. "I just said I put up the sign myself."

Kaz looked to Vera expectantly, but the Conductor wasn't technically lying, so she simply stared back at him motionlessly. He nodded once in understanding, his focus shifting back to the Conductor. Bits of coals were thrown into the fire, and with the pull of a lever, the train car went rushing into the darkness of the Fold.

˖⁺ 🪶⋆ ୭ ⚔️ .⋆｡⋆༶⋆˙⊹
Episode Three : The Making at the Heart of the World