The sun had come up by the time the team had decided to stomp out the fire they'd made the night before. Sleep pinched at the edges of everyone's minds and Valya cursed herself for staying up so late when she needed to help out the next morning. Many people in Corinth learned to train themselves to live on less sleep, but Valya wasn't one of them. She savored her time in her bed, wrapped in several threadbare quilts until her mother barreled into her room and ripped them off.

Sleep wasn't as important to her as friendship felt these days. She finally felt accepted by every member of the group, not just Hershey and Jasper. She would take countless sleepless nights over being the odd one out any day.

Pollock held his hand out in a motion for all of them to stop and placed a finger on his lips.

Quiet.

The forest was silent, a stray ray of sunlight peeking in from between the trees as the wind rustled around them, but what Pollock had noticed was not a sound. A bare arm, half hidden by the thick trunk of a tree, lay in the leaves.

The team sprung into action, the festive air of the campfire quickly dissipating in favour of a stern, serious demeanor. They fanned out and surrounded the body in a tight formation; Jasper reached down to check the pulse on the arm. He shook his head.

Dead.

"It doesn't look like there's any wounds." Jasper said.

The team studied the body, a woman lying face-down, her clothes almost completely covered in leaves. Valya couldn't recognize her, if she was from the town or simply a traveler passing through. The consensus amongst them was that a human must have gotten to close to the Strigoi that lived in the mountains and was killed. That is, until they turned her over.

Gin and Hershey recoiled immediately in shock, Gin's hand grasping Pollock's, but Valya stood where she was, frozen in time, as she gaze upon the face of her mother.

Rose Hathaway was dead.

"Stasla," Jasper said, breathless. He began checking her over for wounds. "Oh my god."

"Jasper," Valya said, her tone wavering. She clenched her hands into fists. "What happened?"

"I-" Jasper continued to search for any sign of a Strigoi attack or even a bullet wound, but was coming up empty.

"What happened?" Valya's voice held barely-contained rage. Her shoulders were trembling.

"I'm trying to figure it out, Valya," Jasper shot back. "Give me a second, alright?"

Valya attempted to compose herself. Gin grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug to distract her, turning Valya's head away from Rose's body.

"We need to move her," Gin said.

"Where?" Pollock asked.

"Anywhere but here," Gin retorted. "She's lying in a forest, covered in leaves. We can't leave her here."

"I can clear off one of the tech tables in the basement," Hershey said quietly. Her eyes hadn't moved from Rose's body since they'd discovered her. "It's not perfect, but it'll do."

Jasper nodded, grim, and gestured for Pollock to help him carry Rose. They hefted her body up onto their shoulders and began the slow, silent walk back to Ekaterina's house.

One down, five to go.

They placed Rose's body on a card table that was moved to the center of the room, in between the makeshift beds and endless tangle of electrical cords. A shaft of sunlight came in through the window and illuminated Rose's face. Somehow, it didn't feel as if the mission was nearly as important anymore.

"This wasn't how it was supposed to happen," Pollock whispered. Even he was cowed by the death of his mentor. He touched her hand lightly, like she was a wax figure.

"How was it supposed to go then?" Valya said, her shock and confusion quickly turning bitter. "Did you two have a plan?"

"Shut up, Valya." Pollock bowed his head and leaned on the edge of the card table for support. He squeezed his eyes shut.

"Was it what you were arguing about yesterday?" Valya continued.

"I said, shut up!" Pollock stood suddenly, his eyes wild.

"What were you two keeping from us?" Valya shouted at him. Tears pricked at the edges of her eyes. "All I know is that yesterday I had a mother and now she's dead after having an argument with you. Sorry if you're looking a little guilty right now!"

"I didn't kill her!" Pollock roared. "What we were talking about doesn't matter anymore. It's useless to our mission, anyway."

"Then was it the Pennsylvania mission? We all want to know, Pollock!" Valya opened her arms wide and gestured wildly. "C'mon, I'm all ears."

"You don't understand a single thing about what your mother actually did in Corinth, do you?" Pollock spat. "You just skip around in the background, having a grand old time while she actually got work done. She was busy protecting all of us, you especially, although I have no clue as to why. You're nothing special."

Valya screamed and launched herself at him. Gin and Jasper rushed to pull her back before she could do any damage, but Pollock already had that covered as he swatted her to the ground. Pollock stood over her, his head blocking out the light from the window.

"We need to pay our respects, Valentina," he said, his voice cold. "You should do the same."

Valya clutched her cheek, a large red handprint forming. She forced back tears that were threatening to spill over. If there was anyone who didn't deserve to see her cry, it was Liam Pollock.

Pollock took a phone from a bag next to the computer and made for the door. "I need to inform main command what has happened."

Gin and Hershey helped Valya to her feet.

"What will happen now?" Valya asked. She brushed dust off of her clothes.

"We'll get a new commander," Gin said with an astonishing amount of composure.

"And then?" Valya rubbed her cheek one final time.

"We return to Corinth and start again."

They'd moved Rose outside in preparation for her funeral. Sending the body back to Canada would cost too much money and open up too many avenues for questions that would end in the discovery of Corinth by both Court and the human authorities. Valya didn't know what main command had decided to do with everything else of Rose's things, but she assumed they would have some sort of normal memorial service when they arrived back.

Valya sat down on the stones outside of Ekaterina's house and stared at her mother's body as it lay on the same card table she had been placed on earlier, the sun streaming down from between the trees. Jasper had inspected her body, but found no wounds and no signs of toxins or magical interference. He'd decided to clean her off and change her into her best Corinth uniform. It felt cheap to Valya: like a hollow, toy soldier version of her mother.

"I'm not going to clean your room," Valya said softly. She glanced at Rose's hand, stiffened and pale with rigor mortis. "It was always messy, but I'll leave it just how you like it. I'll try to do the dishes, though. I think I left the muffin tin in the sink, but I never told you. I made some blueberry ones for Sasha before we left."

Valya stood and walked closer to the body. Rose looked younger in the sunlight, like she was simply sleeping. Unfortunately, Jasper couldn't reform Rose's expression from one of terror into one of serenity. Her mouth was twisted, but he'd managed to wire it most of the way shut.

"Pops is gonna be so mad, Mom." Valya slipped her hand into Rose's and attempted to pretend that, even for a moment, her mother was still alive. "He always said that he had to go first. I don't think he can live without you." Valya's voice caught in her throat. "I don't think that I can either."

She fell to her knees, clutching onto Rose's hand for dear life. The tears that she'd been keeping in since the discovery of Rose's body in the early hours of the morning bubbled over and Valya found herself, sobbing and rasping, on the sodden grass next to her dead mother.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this," Valya sobbed. "None of it was supposed to go this way. You have to be alive. Please. Please be alive."

She screamed into the bright afternoon air until her throat became raw. She screamed and yelled and thrashed until she couldn't speak anymore and suddenly, like someone had flipped a switch, she became calm again. Shakily, Valya got to her feet. Her hand found Rose's again.

"Tell me what you want me to do," Valya whispered. "Please tell me. I can't go on until I know what to do next."

"You stop talking to dead people, that's what."

Valya heard footsteps behind her and turned to face Pollock. She wiped the edges of her eyes.

"What do you want?" Valya asked with vitriol.

"Not me, main command." Pollock handed her the phone. "Someone wants to talk to you."

Valya snatched the phone from him and turned away. She put it to her ear. "Hello?"

A voice filtered through the speaker. "Valya?"

She nearly began crying again, but managed to catch the sob in her throat instead. "Pops?"

"Yeah, I'm here, honey." Josiah's voice was music to her ears.

"She's dead." Tears pricked at Valya's eyes. "S-she's gone."

"I know, I know, Valya," Josiah said in a soothing tone. "But I need you to focus. Are you listening?"

Valya nodded, then remembered that body language doesn't translate very well over the phone. "Yeah. I hear you."

"I need you to finish the mission," Josiah said. "You need to have Mom's funeral, then continue with your research."

"What?" Valya felt her stomach sink. "We should be going home right now. Corinth just lost its commander!"

"We can't get an earlier transport for the entire team back to Canada," Josiah continued. "And whatever killed your mom is still out there. You need to stay and find it."

"N-no, we don't have a team leader anymore," Valya said. "Protocol says that if a member dies, we have to come back. It's the right thing to do."

"You mom had other plans for this mission, Valya," Josiah said. There was an edge to his voice. "You're to stay where you are until the scheduled return date. That's the end of it."

"Who's going to lead us?" she asked.

"Pollock will," answered Josiah. "He's the second-in-command."

"No." Valya clenched her jaw. "No way. I will not be following anything he does. Pollock is a total dick."

"Language, Valentina!" Josiah chastised her. "You will do as you're told or face disciplinary action. Remember, you're still a soldier of Corinth."

Valya was silent, but she couldn't disagree with Josiah. He was right: she still had to do her duty no matter who her commanding officer was or what had happened to the members of the team. In the eyes of the law, she had to follow protocol.

"Fine," Valya said through gritted teeth. "Whatever you say."

She could hear Josiah sigh on the other line. "I love you- remember that. Dad sends his love too."

She bit her lip. "Love you too. I'll be home soon."

"I'll be waiting." Josiah paused. "Follow Pollock: he knows what's best for the mission."

She sighed. "Of course he does. Bye."

"Goodbye, Valentina." Josiah hung up the phone.

Valya handed the phone back to Pollock with a stern glare.

"Everything clear?" he asked.

"Crystal," she replied sullenly. She shoved her hands deep into her pockets. "Guess we're staying here for a while."

He narrowed his eyes at her, but avoided eye contact. "Until the mission ends."

Ekaterina arrived back from work as they were building the funeral pyre and regarded Valya with a grim expression. Now that she was the only fluent Russian speaker left, all business with the team had to go through Valya- Hershey's rudimentary knowledge of Russian and hesitance to talk to anyone that was not her brother or Valya notwithstanding. She walked up to the team and, without pausing to ask what they were doing, began stacking the wood along with the others.

"Spasibo," Valya said quietly.

"She was not the first to be taken by it," Ekaterina said in Russian. "She will not be the last."

Valya paused for a moment and brushed bark off of her hands. "Is that what happened to your husband?"

Ekaterina sighed. "Da."

Valya wanted to ask her to elaborate, but she knew Russian society, especially society this far up in the mountains, to be notoriously closed off. It was rude to pry into Ekaterina's personal life, but Valya had a morbid curiosity. She needed to know how her mother died. Still, she returned to cutting wood and adding it to the pile.

"His name was Petyr," Ekaterina said after a few minutes. "He and Emiliya were on a walk when it happened."

Valya froze. "She saw it?"

Ekaterina's grasp on the tree branch tightened. "Yes and no. She was there when he died, but it did not take any interest in her. She was spared; the only one in town."

"Could she help us find it?" Valya asked.

Ekaterina shook her head. "No. She was different before her father died. Now she only talks in riddles and fairytales. She will be of no help to you."

"Does..." Valya hesitated. "Does Emiliya know things? Thinks she shouldn't be able to?"

Ekaterina glanced towards her house. The curtains in one of the windows shifted and Valya swore she could see the flash of a faded blue ribbon. "She is human."

Valya thought of her last encounter with Emiliya in the kitchen. The young girl had a strange aura about her that felt all at once mystical and foreboding. She had seen death- touched it, even- and returned intact. Mostly.

You will find it.

She struggled to understand what Emiliya had meant by that. Valya was looking for whatever was haunting these woods, but it was more than that. That was the mission: straightforward, clear-cut. She knew when Emiliya touched her heart that the girl meant something else. Monsters come in all forms, not just those who kill in the night.

What you're looking for.

"She was a good woman," Ekaterina said to Valya. She placed a hand on Valya's shoulder in a rare show of affection.

"So I've been told," Valya answered. She put down the piece of wood she was carrying and chuckled. "You know, everyone's talking about how nice she was but she could be pretty awful too."

Ekaterina smiled softly. "She was a mother after all."

"Yeah," Valya said. Her shoulders fell. "You have any vodka? I think we'll need something for the funeral."

"Of course." Ekaterina broke out into a wide grin. Valya thought that she should do it more often. "What kind of Russian do you take me for?"

"Thank you," Valya said. "For everything."

"As long as you rid the mountains of the evil, I will help you," Ekaterina said. She glanced back at the window. "We can't do it alone."

Valya nodded. "We will try our best."

It took another two hours before the pyre was ready and Pollock carried Rose's body, wrapped in a sheet from Ekaterina's linen closet, to the center. He took a moment by her body, but Valya couldn't tell what he was doing.

"This is going to smell awful," Jasper said. "I don't want to be disrespectful, but it will. Just warning everyone."

Valya shrugged. "She always said she wanted a Viking funeral, but there's no waterfalls nearby to send her over."

"Prepare your nose plugs everyone," Pollock said sardonically. Gin scoffed and cuffed him over the head.

Ekaterina and Emiliya joined them for the makeshift service, but as the wind rustled through the trees that evening they all realized that no one knew exactly what to say. Ekaterina passed around chipped cups with vodka in them. It smelled potent.

"Should-" Valya looked at Rose's body amongst the intricate stack of wood. "Should we say something, or...?"

"The brat should start," Pollock said. She could tell he wanted to down the vodka already, but he was waiting for the go-ahead. "She's Stasla's daughter, after all."

"Now's not the time for name-calling," Gin said diplomatically, her hand on Pollock's shoulder. "I'll do it."

Valya let out a breath and relaxed her shoulders. She despised public speaking and even though she'd spent her entire life with her mother as her best friend, she couldn't think of a single thing to say. It was odd- there was so much that they'd done together that nothing stood out in particular. Valya had the strange sensation that she never really knew who her mother was, only what she presented to her.

"General Stasla Belikova recruited me when I was seventeen years old," Gin began. "I had been born into a poor family of dhampirs and after a group of Strigoi came through town, my entire family was dead. A group from Corinth came to kill the nest, but it was too late. The town was decimated and I was alone."

Gin looked at her glass and hesitantly took a sip before continuing. "Stasla was running it. She found me in the hospital with four breaks in my left leg and said she knew I was a fighter. Seventeen and I'd killed two Strigoi in the madness, just like she had. She asked me if I'd like to join their group. I had no prospects at the time: no money to send me to St Vladimir's or another academy, no family, and no Moroi to protect. And then..." Gin looked at Valya. "Well, then she showed me a picture of her daughter. She told me that anyone in Corinth could make a new family for themselves. I looked at this little girl, just a baby, and thought: I want that. I didn't want to be alone for the rest of my life. So in a way, Stasla saved me, like she did all of us. Even though I had to have a cast on my leg through the first few months of fighting drills."

Everyone chuckled.

"A boy in my trainee class used to make fun of me for it." Gin tipped her glass towards Pollock. "And I felt at home. I will never forget what Stasla did for me." She turned to the funeral pyre and raised her glass. "May your journey be easy."

Everyone drank from their glasses as Gin stepped down and took the lighter from Pollock. They exchanged a meaningful glance, then handed the lighter to Valya, who stared at it in shock.

"You want me to do it?" She asked.

"She might have felt like a mother to us," Gin began. "But she was your actual flesh and blood. This is your duty."

Duty. The word had been thrown around her entire life, but Valya never felt the true meaning of it until now. Family was her duty, her mother was her duty. Valya took the lighter with a somber nod and flicked it open. The flame danced happily.

"Time to say goodbye, everyone," Valya said. Then, quietly, "See you in the next life, Mom."

She threw the lighter onto the funeral pyre and Rose's body was quickly engulfed in flames. Valya watched as the wind blew the ashes away into the night sky, and felt a little piece of herself go with them. Valya clenched her hands into fists by her side, but they unclenched as Hershey interlocked their fingers. Valya turned towards her, her breathing unsteady.

"It's alright," Hershey said. She squeezed Valya's hand. "It'll all be okay."

Valya nodded and placed her head on Hershey's shoulder. They stood by the fire, the flames lighting up the night and keeping the darkness at bay for as long as they could. They watched the flames until there weren't any flames to be had, and with the last ember, Rose Hathaway was finally gone from this world.

From across the ashes, Emiliya Omarova looked at Valya with an inscrutable expression.

You will find it.