The water roared.
It surged through the forest, churning up roots and bones alike. The group clung to whatever they could as the dark flood threatened to pull them under.
Then something changed.
The water grew calm—but only around Kyi.
He floated in the center of the chaos, still holding the old Holy Text, soaked but intact. Its pages glowed faintly with a blue shimmer, as if alive.
And then from the text, she appeared.
Solomiya.
Not the twisted Mavka they once fought. Not the hollow-eyed spirit who whispered death.
But her.
Her hair was long and dripping like silver thread of braids. Her eyes deep as moonlit wells. Her hands made of the tide itself.
"Mother…" Kyi whispered.
She smiled.
She didn't speak, but her expression told him all: I see you. I'm proud of you. I never left.
She raised both hands.
The wave surged again—not toward the group, but beneath them. It lifted them gently, like a great hand of water, and pushed them away from the drowning woods.
Toward a hill.
Toward safety.
She pressed a kiss to Kyi's cheek.
Her lips were cool, like river stones.
Then she turned to mist—steam rising into the air and dissolving.
The water rolled them onto the grassy slope at the forest's edge. They coughed, gasped, drenched but alive.
Kyi held the book tightly. It no longer glowed.
They barely had a moment to breathe.
Shapes moved below.
Pale figures.
Hands dragging through mud. Eyes glowing faint green. Wet hair and bloated skin.
Mavkas. Drowned souls. Nav'—the vengeful dead, cursed to wander.
More than they had ever seen.
"We're not safe yet," Lybid gasped.
Methodius opened the Bible.
"Hold them off!" he shouted. "Give me time to call the light!"
The spirits wailed and rushed the hill. Water surged upward.
A great wave aimed to crush them all.
But Kyi stood.
He raised his hand.
The wave stopped mid-air.
Frozen.
The Mavkas hissed.
Even the drowned halted.
Kyi's eyes shone faint blue. His hand trembled.
He lowered it slowly.
The water parted around them.
His mother's last gift.
He turned to the others.
"Now," he said. "Whatever Methodius is doing—make it count."