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CHAPTER EIGHT ▪▫▪▫▪
THERE WERE TALES AMONGST THE PIRATES ABOUT THE FOLD. Many claimed to have been there, to have heard stories of the feared place that split Ravka into two like a wound. They'd told her as the darkness embraced them, fear seeped into their bones as if the Fold itself was alive, waiting to swallow up any unsuspecting soul who ventured too close.
Morana didn't feel the fear surge into her body as the Hummingbird was plunged into darkness. She didn't feel her soul being swallowed up by the shadows. She felt like she belonged. She felt familiarity in the way the Fold felt alive—she could feel its hunger for the light of anyone who entered, its hunger to destroy.
She stayed at the back of the ship as they entered the Fold, holding onto the light of West Ravka for as long as she could before they sailed right into the shadows. And that feeling of belonging came with a feeling of dread.
The monster inside her was trying to claw its way out, show itself, carve out her soul, and place it on a pedestal for everyone to see the abomination.
Morana felt that darkness at her fingertips, as well as everything that tried to balance the monster out, every blessing the Saints had given her. Looking down at her hands she saw shadows flickering around her fingers; dancing with the light she had not summoned.
Turning her back on the people in the front, Morana twirled her hands in the air seeing shadows and light mix. Closing her eyes she tried to control them like she usually did; only this time it was as if the power was surging from within her—unnaturally so.
She didn't feel weak as she made a pirate ship appear on top of her hand. But she didn't feel healthy, Grisha-like either. She stumbled back, shaking her hands as she tried to get the shadows and light to stop forming.
Her head snapped to the side as a burst of light exploded from the front of the ship. Alina was summoning the sun. Trying to destroy the Fold. Tear down the shadows. Morana felt a weight lift off her shoulders as the area surrounding the Hummingbird was bathed in light, and the monster inside her eased, though it kept calling for what lay beyond the light.
Shadows and flickering lights kept following her fingertips, as Alina's power surged stronger. But Morana knew she wouldn't be able to, she could feel the Fold's power, she could feel its hunger and Alina's power was no match to it—not without the Firebird.
And she was right.
The light flickered around them. Morana drew her sword from her hip. She could feel the Fold's yearning to slaughter them, she could feel the incoming danger, the creatures that occupied the darkness hovering by.
"She's not going to do it!" Morana shouted over to the people at the front, as Alina started trembling. "Get ready for the Volcra!"
Nikolai nodded and turned to the Squaller amongst them, "Kovu, get us out!"
