Chapter 41

                                    

                                          
Hope is the last thing you lose
They decided to approach from West Ravka, there were too many of them to go on the flying boat so they agreed that Tolya would escort the Soldat Sol to the eastern shore of the Fold and wait for them there.  It would take them a full day on horseback and that would give the rest of them time to enter West Ravka and find a suitable base to camp. And then they will enter and the war will start.
They boarded the Bittern and mere hours later Kaida was facing the big, black cloud. The gray eyed girl hugged herself when they entered the Fold. Alina spread her arms calling the light, protecting them from the volcra. For once, Kaida was ready for the feeling of familiarity and anguish that overcame her everytime she entered the Fold, but as always she tried to push it away, not wanting to feel what the volcra and her friends were feeling. She squeezed her eyes shut trying to control her emotions and push the other's away.
"Don't push it away," a voice said inside her head, but it wasn't Eleanor this time, she didn't know who it was.
But Kaida didn't listen, she kept trying to push away those feelings. She was relieved when they started flying above West Ravke.
The territory west of the Fold had been evacuated and Kaida was grateful for the lack of people, without people there were no emotions. They flew over abandoned villages and houses, all without seeing a soul. In the end, they decided to set up in an apple farm just southwest of what was left of Novokribirsk, less than a mile from the dark reach of the Fold.
The owner's house was lavish, a perfect little cake of a building, lovingly maintained, and topped with a white cupola. Kaida felt almost guilty as Harshaw broke a window and climbed inside to unlock the doors.
"New money," sniffed Zoya as they made their way through the over decorated rooms, each shelf and mantel brimming with porcelain figurines and curios.
Genya picked up a ceramic pig. "Vile."
"I can now add breaking and entering to my list of crimes." Kaida said
"I like it here," protested Adrik. "It 's nice." 
Zoya  made a retching sound. "Maybe taste will come with age"
"I'm only three years younger than you."
"Then maybe you're just doomed to be tacky."
Kaida laughed slightly and started looking around her. The place was nice, but it wasn't Kaida's style.
They went to the neighborhood houses to pick up some food and when they were ready they left David, Genya and Misha to get started procuring materials for the production of lumiya and blasting powders. Then the rest of them reboarded the Bittern to cross back to Ravka.
They'd planned to reunite with the Soldat Sol at the monument to Sankta Anastasia that stood on a low hill overlooking what had once been Tsemna. Thanks to Anastasia, Tsemna had survived the wasting plague that had claimed half the population of the surrounding villages, but the Fold took her, the same way it did with a lot of people.
Kaida started to think about the Saints. Anastasia was a really powerful Healer, but that's it. She did what every good person would have done. Did that make her a Saint? The people called Alina Saint just because of her small science, there were even some people that called Kaida Saint. Were they Saints just because they were different? Because they were going to save them? A lot of people were helping them, a lot of people died trying to save Ravka but they weren't called Saints, but without them Kaida was sure they would have never survived. So why not call them Saints too? Kaida didn't want to be a Saint, she didn't consider her a bad person but she also did bad things that a Saint shouldn't have done and it was too much pressure to take. She didn't want people looking at her as if she was perfect, because she was far from being perfect. She didn't want people thinking of her as something she was not.