Chapter Text
Alina was drawn to the forest from her childhood. She lived near the forest thicket and periodically saw moose walking past her house, hares running, heard the cuckoo calling and fell asleep to the hooting of an owl. But she was especially fascinated by the howling of wolves, their wild voices singing about freedom and calling her to follow them.
“They’re not wolves, they’re evil spirits,” her guardian, an eternally grumpy and dissatisfied old woman named Ana Kuya, used to tell her, driving her away from the windows and locking them with shutters.
In the village where she lived, there were three rules: never go into the forest, never take off your pectoral cross and never, under any circumstances, go outside on the night of a full moon.
“Why?” the girl once asked. “Because otherwise, bloodthirsty volkolaks will come for you from the darkness, and only bloody scraps will remain of you, stupid girl! Keep sewing and don’t ask any more stupid questions!” her guardian scolded her, distracted from her embroidery.
Since then, Alina did not ask any more questions. In the village, her attraction to the forest was shared by another boy - the son of a farmer named Mal. When Alina had free time (which was not often), she played games with the boy, and shared her dream of one day seeing what the mysterious forest hides.
“We could explore the entire forest, if not for the damned volkolaks !” Mal complained, kicking stones under his feet. “Because of them, my father has to make a sacrifice every month to appease them. I swear that when I grow up, I will definitely become a hunter of evil spirits and rid our village of this infection”.
Alina remained silent. The hunters of evil spirits did not stay in these lands for long, the volkolaks mercilessly tore apart anyone who dared to challenge them. They were strong and fast, no weapon could take them down, but as long as the residents of Keramzin regularly made sacrifices, they were not touched. Most of the locals had long since come to terms with the order established by the evil spirits and believed that a monthly offering in the form of some appetizing ram or a fat pig was not such a high price for ensuring safety. But Mal did not think so, and when one day the Tsar's people came to the village, recruiting future hunters for evil spirits, he volunteered without hesitation.
"Don't go, Mal, you are my only friend," Alina begged with tears in her eyes. Mal was her only consolation, her only respite from the harsh reality consisting of endless household chores, reproaches and prayers in the name of the one Lord. The other children refused to play with her, considering her strange. Their parents supported their prejudices.
“Have you heard? They say this girl was found near the forest. What if she is one of those forest creatures?”
“Skin and bones, she seems to be sick with something. Don't go near her, God forbid, she will infect you with something else.”
“Ana is a kind soul. She took on such a burden - the child can barely walk, what good is she?”
“We should have just left her near the forest, the volkolaks would have finished the job for sure, the girl will not live to adulthood anyway,” they whispered behind her back.
“Alina, don't be selfish,” the boy frowned, packing his bag. “I'm leaving to train as a hunter of evil spirits and save our village from the volkolaks .”
“I don't want to stay here alone. The villagers don't like me, you know that,” she sobbed and said in a breaking voice. “O-once Ana Kuya threatened to sacrifice me to the volkolaks . She said that the cattle would be more useful than me. I'm scared, Mal.”
“You're exaggerating, Lina,” Mal waved her off.
“Take me with you,” the girl begged, clinging to the sleeve of his vest.
“Lina, girls have no place among the hunters of evil spirits!” the boy tore the sleeve out of his grip, starting to lose patience. “Stay home, safe.”
“Didn't you hear me? I'm not safe at home. If you leave, I'll be left all alone at the mercy of Ana Kuya!” Alina sobbed. She knew that she was behaving extremely inappropriately, but she couldn't help herself. Fear twisted her eternally empty stomach into knots. She was so afraid of being left alone in a place where no one would help her or hear her screams. Ana Kuya periodically deprived her of food and flogged her with rods, but Mal always brought her something tasty and stole medicine from his mother to treat her. What would happen to her without him?
“Let's do it this way, you stay in the village, and when I return, I will marry you and free you from your guardian,” Mal suggested, taking her hands.
“Do you promise that you will come back for me?” the girl asked, sobbing. She would have endured everything if Mal had promised to save her from her cruel guardian.
“I promise.”
He left her that same day. She watched him go for a long time.
Ana Kuya's punishments became more severe over the years, and her patience diminished, but Alina endured the reproaches and punishments, comforting herself with the hope that Mal would soon return and take her away from the cruel old woman. So, a year passed, and then another two. Alina continued her miserable existence, twice she was on the verge of death: the first time the old woman whipped her for breaking a cup so hard that she thought she would bleed to death right there on the wooden bench, the second time when Ana Kuya threw her out on a cold winter night because she forgot to put the pot of porridge in the entryway, and the porridge went sour. Sometimes it seemed to her that she continued to live only thanks to hope. But one day destroyed all her hopes.
The day began as usual. Alina got up before dawn and began the endless chores around the house: cooking, then washing and ironing. Ana Kuya, as usual, was unhappy with her and scolded her for every mistake, but Alina was already used to it. After all, she should be grateful to her guardian for taking her, an orphan without a tribe, under her wing, even if the old woman did it to get a free servant. Alina was grateful, honestly. But dreams of more did not leave her despite countless hours of prayers for humility and sermons on sin.
Having finished cleaning, Alina moved towards the market to buy the necessary products for dinner. She chose the most unattractive vegetables, knowing full well that they were sold cheaper. Out of the corner of her ear, the girl heard someone gathering a crowd in the square. Deciding to find out who made the noise, Alina froze when she saw him. She sighed, not believing her eyes. The love of her life, the boy who had left three years ago, her only ray of hope in the darkness, stood in the middle of the square, surrounded by an excited crowd.
“I have returned to my native lands with a decree from the royal family, in order to spread the word of God. We have lived under the yoke of evil for too long! We will no longer sacrifice our cattle to them! It is time to eradicate the volkolaks from our lands!” the young man chanted in the middle of the square.
Some of the villagers, mainly young people and farmers who had to sacrifice cattle to the volkolaks every month, supported him. Most responded with doubt. After all, the young man was not the first to dare to challenge the wolves, and they all ended the same way - as torn corpses. This arrogant boy will certainly become another victim. No one has yet managed to kill a single volkolak in these lands.
“Listen to me, I underwent training and brought with me a sacred weapon capable of defeating evil spirits,” Mal showed a quiver with illuminated arrows to prove his words. “Let’s gather together as a whole village, set traps and kill the messengers of the Evil One! Let's not allow them to rule our lands anymore.”
“Yes!” clear voices rang out from the crowd. Alina recognized the voices of Dubrov and Mikhail - Mal's friends with whom he played when she was busy with work.
“Do not listen to this youth! Heed the voice of reason, the volkolaks will not forgive us for breaking the agreement. Follow the word of the ancestors, otherwise human blood will be spilled on the sacrificial altar!” a lonely old man intervened.
Most of those gathered agreed with him.
“I am the messenger of the Lord himself and I am not afraid of evil spirits, unlike you, old man,” the young man answered with his nose in the air. “I swear that I will go out against the werewolves this full moon and bring back the head of their leader. Who is with me?”
Several men from the crowd, including Mal's friends, agreed. The rest waved their hands at the young man and hurried off to their business.
“Mal!” she exclaimed, running towards him as fast as she could, pushing aside the dispersing onlookers.
He turned to her and smiled broadly. “Lina!” the young man embraced her.
“You have grown so much,” the girl noted, taking a closer look at him. The skinny boy she knew was gone, and now a handsome, broad-shouldered young man stood before her.
“And you are still the same. You need to eat better, Lina, otherwise you look pale as a toadstool,” he grinned.
Alina's face sank. She could eat better if her guardian allowed it. Didn't Mal remember that? Ana Kuya was a miser, shaking for every penny, she carefully watched that the girl did not eat even an extra crumb, as a result, Alina was constantly half-starved. When she was younger, she asked for more, to which the old woman responded with a long and tedious sermon about how wanting more is a sin, after which she put her knees on peas and made her pray for her sin in the red corner of the hut. After several such "prayers" Alina stopped asking.
But all this did not matter now, because Mal came back for her. They would get married, and she would no longer be a servant.
“When did you come back?” asked Alina.
“A couple of days ago.”
“Why didn't you come to see me?” Alina said slightly offended. Didn't he really have time to visit his future wife? “I've been waiting for your return all these long three years.”
“Sorry, I was... busy,” he answered evasively.
“Mal,” a female voice called out to him from the crowd.
Alina turned towards the voice.
An elegant blonde was moving towards them from the crowd, holding a one-year-old child in a bundle. The girl approached Mal with a worried look and, putting her hand on his broad chest, asked, “Are you sure this is a good idea? The evil spirits have taken such deep root in these lands that the locals don’t even try to help destroy them, I’m afraid for you, dear.”
“Don’t worry so much, Ruby, I can handle it,” Mal assured her with a charming smile that he never gave Alina. “In the end, the Tsar himself and his spiritual advisor, the Apparat, blessed me for this noble mission.”
“Who is this?” Alina asked in confusion. Did Mal have a sister?
“Oh, sorry, Lina, I didn't introduce you. Meet my wife, Ruby, and this is our son Anton,” the young man introduced his newly-made family with a proud smile.
Alina felt the ground slipping out from under her feet. She dropped the basket from her hands, the girl was shaking all over. “Wife, son?.. But, I don't understand... y-you promised...” she looked at the boy, who had been her only hope all these years, in confusion.
“Oh, yes. Sorry, Lina, I blurted out something without thinking,” Mal scratched the back of his head, looking a little guilty. “You looked so unhappy that day when I left, threatened to follow me, so I said the first thing that came to mind, so that you, God forbid, would not actually run away.”
“Why, why didn't you let me follow you that day? Why did you give me false hope?” Alina asked in a half-whisper, feeling tears gathering in the corners of her eyes.
“Lina, you are so weak and sickly, if you had followed me, you would have only become a burden and eventually died. I did it for you.”
She clenched her hands into fists and bit her tongue until it bled. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs that it would have been better for her to die then than to continue living, comforting herself with empty hopes for a better life, but Alina was a good girl, and good girls never raise their voices.
“Thank you for your concern, Mal,” she finally bowed and went wherever her eyes looked.
At first, Alina walked with a slow, measured step, but the further she moved away from the young man who had just broken her heart and destroyed any hopes for a future life with just a few phrases, the faster her body, exhausted by hunger and illness, moved. Soon, without even noticing it, she was running as fast as she could. Away from the cursed village and the locals who looked at her with either pity or disgust, away from the cruel guardian and her endless reproaches and punishments, away from the traitorous friend who, out of cruel mercy, gave her false hope.
The houses that rushed past her gaze gradually thinned out, giving way to fields, but she did not care. More than anything in the world, she wanted to run away and never return. She stopped at the edge of the forest, but then, sighing, boldly stepped into the forest thicket. Let the volkolaks tear her apart, she did not want to live the life she had lived until now. The girl ran, ran and ran, until she tripped over a root and fell. Alina tried to get up, but her weak, sick body refused to obey. Exhausted, she finally gave in and let the tears flow. A burden. He called her a burden. That's who she really was, wasn't it? The locals believed that her parents were killed by werewolves, but perhaps they simply abandoned her because she was weak, useless and pathetic Alina. Why couldn't she just die?
The girl didn't know how long she lay on the grass, damp from the recent rain, shaking with sobs, when she heard the crack of a breaking branch. She was not alone. Alina raised her head and looked around. The trees swayed gently in the wind, nothing was visible behind the lush bushes, but Alina noticed a gap ahead. Without thinking, she moved towards it, making her way through the dense undergrowth until she found herself in a clearing, in the center of which stood a huge, ivy- and moss-covered statue of a humanoid wolf. The beast was on all fours, its head was raised to the sky, and its sharp fangs were bared in a snarl. Alina was amazed. Who erected this statue in the middle of the forest? Why is it here and what is this place?
A rustling sound came from the forest again, and someone's shadow flickered between the trees.
"Who's here?" she asked, looking around.
"What are you doing here?" someone's voice rang out behind her.
Alina squealed and jumped away from the statue. She turned around and saw the most handsome young man she had ever seen. He was tall, with a lean body, wrapped in unfamiliar black robes, his pale skin and black hair glistened in the rays of the autumn sun, his gray eyes stared at her.
"W-who are you?" Alina asked hesitantly. She had never met this young man before, and the locals had never ventured into the forest.
"You don't know?" he cocked his head to the side, looking puzzled.
She shook her head in confusion.
“You came to my forest, but you don’t even know who I am? Hmm, interesting,” the young man grinned. “What is your name, child?”
“Alina,” the girl answered, wondering why this man, who looked hardly much older, called her “child”. “And you?”
“I have many names, you can’t remember them all,” the young man shrugged.
“I’m only interested in your real name, good fellow.”
To her surprise, he laughed, after which he replied “In that case, you can call me Aleksander.”
“What are you doing in this forest, Aleksander?”
“I live here. And you, Alina? You’re from Keramzin, aren’t you aware of the law that forbids people from entering these places?”
“I... I wanted the volkolaks to eat me,” she lowered her head.
“The volkolaks don’t eat people, these are tales that the locals made up,” Aleksander frowned.
“Well, then I wanted them to kill me,” Alina crossed her arms over her chest and turned away, unable to look at her interlocutor, to see pity in his eyes.
“Such a young girl, who has not even known her true self, and she wants to die? May I ask why?” He closed the distance between them by a few steps.
“I am of no use and I have nothing to lose, I don’t even have hope now. Why should I live?” She shrugged.
“The people from the village told you this? Short-sighted fools! Any life is valuable, and yours, in particular, is much more valuable than any fool living in Keramzin!” Aleksander was indignant.
“Don't console me, I'm sick of all these sweet-tongued lies! I’m sick and therefore worthless - that’s a fact. That’s why my parents abandoned me, that’s why my guardian constantly beats me, that’s why Mal left me behind and forgot about me!” She exclaimed in a breaking voice, her eyes filled with fresh tears.
“I’m telling the truth,” He took her hands.
The girl looked into his eyes and was stunned. There was no pity or mockery in them, he truly believed in what he was saying. “Where did you get such faith in me?”
“Listen, if it were true that you were worthless, you would never have been able to find this place, Alina,” he answered, wiping her tears from his cheeks.
“And what is this place?” she asked in confusion.
“The sanctuary of our people,” Aleksander answered, releasing her and moving closer to the statue.
“The sanctuary?”
“Yes.” He nodded. “Do you know the story of the Black Heretic?”
“Yes,” everyone in Keramzin knew this legend, it was passed down from mouth to mouth for centuries. “Long ago, before the arrival of the church, pagans ruled the lands of Ravka. They glorified the Evil One and offered him bloody sacrifices. In return, some of them, those who were called Volkhvs , received magical gifts. This continued until the Knyaz’ Anastas brought the teaching of the one Lord God to the wild lands and united the disparate lands under the auspices of a single faith, becoming the first Tsar of Ravka. But the supreme Volkhv , who was nicknamed the Black Heretic by the people because of his dark powers and black heart, did not like this. He, along with other Volkhvs and the remaining pagans, raised a rebellion and tried to overthrow the newly-minted Tsar . But God was on the side of the Royal family and the rebellion failed. The Heretic with the remnants of his army fled into these forests, where he was driven into a corner. The pagans began to ask for help from the Evil One, and he turned them into bloodthirsty monsters - half-humans, half-wolves. Since then, these lands have been terrorized by volkolaks , imposing their laws.”
“So this is how the church and the royal family distorted this story,” Aleksander smiled sadly.
“What are you talking about?” the girl frowned in confusion. What did he mean by saying that history was distorted? Was there some other version that she had not heard of?
“The Black Heretic predicted the fall of Anastas's family if he became the Knyaz’ , but the boy was overconfident. He opposed the will of our Gods and brought the teachings of the one God to the lands of Ravka with one single goal - to eradicate the Volkhvs and all who supported them. Unfortunately, the Volkhvs had many enemies - many commoners envied the power granted by the Gods. When Anastas finally managed to become the Knyaz’, he began a merciless hunt for the Volkhvs and all who supported them. The Black Heretic was only trying to protect his people. It was hardly a fair fight, the Volkhvs in all of Ravka could be counted on the fingers of one hand. In the end, he was cornered right here. The Black Heretic prayed to the Gods to protect his people. One of the Gods, Veles, heard his prayer and turned the Volkhvs into volkolaks , and the forest into a fortress that no man could enter without experiencing his wrath. Since then, the remnants of the Volkhvs and pagans scattered throughout the world have sought refuge in this forest.
“How can you be so sure that your version is true?” Alina found it hard to believe that the story she had known since childhood had been so brazenly twisted.
Aleksander looked at her for a long, long time, and then answered, “Child, I saw this story with my own eyes.”
The girl gasped, unable to believe what she heard. “This is impossible! Anastas' reign ended more than four hundred years ago!” Her interlocutor must be crazy to believe in such nonsense. God could not grant such a long life to anyone.
“You did not listen to the end of the story,” the young man shook his head, looking disappointed by her disbelief. “The Gods awarded the Black Heretic immortality so that he would protect his people until the time of our rise comes.”
“It turns out y-you...” Alina turned pale, stepping back from her interlocutor a few steps. No, this cannot be true! It is impossible!
“I said that I have many names - the Black Heretic is one of them,” Aleksander confirmed her worst assumptions, his eyes flashed scarlet for a moment.
The girl rushed away from the forest, not paying attention to where she was going, but before she could even cross the clearing, Aleksander stood in her way.
“Where are you going in such a hurry, Alinochka?” He bowed his head, scolding her like a naughty child.
Her body was covered with an icy shudder. This was it, her end. She would die at the hands of the Heretic, who had terrorized these lands for four hundred years.
“P-please, let me go,” Alina said, shaking like an aspen leaf in the wind.
To her surprise, he stepped aside, opening a passage for her. “Of course, I would not keep you in my shelter against your will. You can return to Keramzin if that is your wish.”
“T-thank you,” Alina thanked him and, without taking her frightened gaze off him, moved along the opened path.
“However, before you go, let me give you a gift,” he grinned ominously, his eyes flashing scarlet again. The next second, his body bent in half and began to transform. The perfect alabaster skin was covered with black fur, the human face was distorted, replaced by a fanged wolf muzzle, and sharp claws grew on the fingers. The creature, once a man, got up on all fours and raised his muzzle to the sky and let out a thunderous howl.
Alina backed away in horror and, not noticing the tree root, fell to the ground. At that moment, the creature rushed at her, baring sharp fangs. The last thing Alina remembered was a flash of pain piercing her shoulder, and then her entire world went black.