Beautiful and Broken

23.

We didn't take many people with us to the Fold, none of us wanting this to be some public affair with fanfares and cheering. Aleksander was silent most of the way, sometimes I've caught him staring in the distance with an array of emotions swirling in his eyes, though his small gestures, a touch on my shoulder, a caress on my hair made it clear that the fight he had was against his own demons. Alina was riding next to Mal, quietly conversing, from time to time arguing about something, but mostly peaceful. She seemed to be avoiding me along with Aleksander, against which I had no real objection. 

Nikolai was riding in front of us, because as he stated, there was no way in hell that he was going to miss it. He was the only one in favour of announcing the end of the Fold to the people of Ravka, to give them a memorable experience, but he was quickly downvoted. "What if it doesn't work," Alina objected. "It will work," I've stated. "I haven't researched the thing for months on end for nothing." Aleksander frowned. "We're not public entertainment, Nikolai. They'll have enough to be happy about when they see it's gone without us still being there." So it was only the bare necessity of guards who followed us, stopping at the edge of the darkness as we dismounted our horses before we entered. "You're coming with us," Aleksander took my hand as he observed that I wasn't following them.

In the end, he made the right call. As they stood inside the fold, him summoning the shadows, her summoning the light, their powers surging against each other, nothing happened. "How do we do this?" Aleksander asked. "Make it up as you go," I've answered. He rolled his eyes. "Holding hands will probably help. How are you willing to work together if you even refuse to touch?" He grunted. "You should refrain from visiting Baghra, it's rubbing off on you in the wrong way. Glad you don't have a stick." I've summoned one and held it out to him. "Now hold hands or I'll smack you." Alina chuckled. 

Good. Laughter was everything the Fold wasn't, as was love, or sunshine, or anything that sparks happiness, so they needed all the joy they could muster to use against it. They tried again, this time holding hands. The light mingled with the shadows, first dancing around each other in wisps, then more and more light and shadow started sticking together, their powers finally fusing the way it happened in the chapel. 

The fabric of the Fold was weakening around them, allowing the smallest rays of sunshine to seep through, then it started shredding, giving way to light and fresh air and sounds from the outside. The volcra were frantically shrieking above us, trying to shelter in the remaining darkness, plunging to the ground as there was nowhere left for them to hide. They held on as their power surged through the entirety of the Fold, washing it away from the face of the earth.

The lifeless ground littered with bones and skiffrecks and the dead bodies of the volcra stretched out to the horizon, everything about it still wrong and unnatural. I knelt, touching the ground, making it swallow the bones, the skiffwrecks, the bodies of the volcra, forming small mounds above them not entirely unlike graves. Aleksander knelt next to me, touching my wrist, amplifying my power, helping me. 

I formed the image of a rich pasture in my mind, making grass cover the whole stretch of land, small white flowers blooming on top of the mounds. From the corner of my eye I saw Mal stepping to Alina, putting his arm around her shoulders. A light wind touched our faces, bringing with it the scent of pine forests, of blooming flowers, of baking bread. Of life.

Somewhere, in that very moment, a child was born in Ravka, the first of many who will be able to wield magic in its fullness, restoring its balance, making it sing with the joy of creation.