[intense music plays]
[solemn music plays]
[horse snorts]
[Baghra] I know that look.
You plan on killing him.
Genya thinks he's dying already.
Yes, polluted with merzost.
The price of creating those monsters.
I'd like to speed his end, but he is your son.
I'd like to be clear about my intentions.
You're taking to power well, I see.
I won't deny it.
I want the Firebird.
The power of all three.
Tearing down the Fold won't kill Kirigan,
but I can't get to him unless I can destroy his nichevo'ya.
Nikolai's commissioned a hunt for a blade so sharp it can cut shadow.
The Neshyenyer Blade.
Yes? Good.
If I made an army similar to his only of light, then...
To create such a thing, you'd have to use merzost.
Foolish. Swear to me you'll never use it.
- I swear. - Mean it, girl.
Merzost creates matter where there was none before.
It is magic, it's not the Small Science.
You will not know what price it demands until it is too late.
I need a weapon.
If not merzost then the Cut, but I tried before, and...
You mean to kill him in your tethered space.
Only this time I can strike harder.
He won't trust me if I go to him, but if he comes to me...
He'll kill you first and the chance to save Ravka will die with you.
There's nothing to teach with the Cut. It's already there when you want it.
It does require practice though.
After we find the Firebird.
Besides, it seems you can do damage enough without it.
[solemn music plays]
[man] Arrival of King Nikolai!
[Nikolai] Dominik Vertov, it has been too long.
[chuckles]
[Dominik] My heart can beat once again.
I was worried I'd never get that 100 coin you owe me.
[Nikolai laughs]
We will avenge the deaths of your brother and the King.
The King who paid your parents to have you take my lashings as a child?
I mean the King who shoved me into a room with a quiet wisp of a thing
who turned out to be the greatest friend of my life.
We have a lead on Kirigan's base.
Two of the Grisha who escaped there are with us now.
I told them you brought Grisha. I've assured them that...
[Nikolai] I'll do the same.
[solemn music plays]
We unite as equals to face Kirigan and his shadow army in the days to come.
I am not demanding this as your king.
I'm asking as a soldier, who is honored to call you comrades-in-arms.
David Kostyk. Durast.
Igor Tarkovski. Sniper.
Tracer bullets to use as a marking tool for your line of fire.
[Igor] Thank you.
Genya Safin.
Please, allow me.
The pain is gone.
[Jordie] You thought pain was your weakness?
You thought you could fix everything broken inside you?
You thought vengeance was the answer and still you drown.
[gasping]
[gentle music plays]
[Kaz] For once, don't disappear. Just stay.
- [Tolya breathing deeply] - [heart beating steadily]
Wylan.
- [insects chirping] - [wings fluttering]
[wind chime tinkling]
Hello.
[exhales]
Look at you.
It's the most stunning example of a cyan morpho.
And pollinating a Datura Meloxia.
[exhales in awe]
I cannot believe that I get to see this in my lifetime.
And there is no one to bear witness.
[chuckles softly]
Like he'd care. [scoffs]
Oh, you know, it's only the most perfect example of symbiosis.
The butterflies process the deadly, poisonous nectar of the flower
and pollinate the plants in return.
They need each other to survive.
It's like a...
Well, it's like a little love story... of sorts.
[mellow music plays]
[breathing softly]
[birds chirping]
Jesper.
Mama.
[Jesper's mother laughs]
Oh, my little rabbit.
How I've missed you.
Lucky rabbit was just a rabbit. No power in that bone.
Ridiculous.
This notion of amplifiers.
If it wasn't for Morozova and his rapacious notion,
I might still have my little finger.
You were very fast at catching that rabbit.
Mal can make rabbits out of rocks.
You're very good at tracking things.
Rabbits... and more miraculous creatures.
The Stag, the Sea Whip.
Yeah. I'm not having much luck with the Firebird though, am I?
We'll find it once we reach Morozova's workshop.
I don't know where his amplifier is,
but it's strange to think he was a real person, not just a myth.
I'm going to tell you a story
I used to tell a little boy filled with shadow.
Morozova was the greatest Fabrikator who ever lived.
Obsessed with the boundaries of Grisha power.
He used merzost and his finger bones to resurrect the Stag and the Sea Whip
to act as amplifiers for the Grisha, who would find them,
kill them, and take their power as their own.
Then he completed the triumvirate by creating the Firebird.
No.
And then... his wife became pregnant.
While he made plans for the Firebird,
the girl who was born started to show a power like nothing ever known.
She could summon darkness.
Morozova was your father?
The Bonesmith?
[Baghra] In the Istorii Sankt'ya,
he's known as Sankt Ilya,
bound in chains and drowned in the river for his sins
after he resurrected a village boy cut in half by a plow blade.
That's the version everyone's been taught.
Only some of it is true.
All families have secrets.
Some more than others.
[Mal sniffs]
[Baghra sighs]
Should get back on it while we have light.
[Baghra] What of your family, boy?
What do you know?
My family are all gone. I was orphaned by the war in Dva Stolba.
You'd have passed through Caryeva and its three orphanages on your way.
I just kept on going until I...
Until I found one that felt like home.
Home.
So much about it defines who you become.
Yes, it does.
I had a sister there, ten years younger.
An otkazat'sya girl
who should have lived a boring otkazat'sya life.
My father had made this little clay swan for me,
in a moment when he still thought of me, before she was born.
I cherished it the way he cherished her.
One day when she was six, she broke its neck.
I lashed out with the Cut.
Tore her small body in two.
Surely it was an accident.
What did it matter?
The damage was done and I was banished.
This isn't a return home.
It's a return to the scene of the crime.
[somber music plays]
[ominous music plays]
[Kirigan grunts]
[people screaming]
[Vatra] It's like the earth ate them up.
The Keramzin orphanage is north of here.
We stay here tonight.
Here?
Before we take the orphanage?
But, sir, we were hoping...
Hope is a lie.
An illusion.
All in good time.
[grim music plays]
Eliminate hope.
You gain clarity.
[heart beating steadily]
[strained] Wylan! Wylan!
Tolya?
[grunts]
Tolya!
[Tolya] The air is poisoned! It's killing us!
Tolya! [grunts]
Jesper!
Anyone?
Hello?
[coughs]
[heartbeat slowing down]
"Long may the night..."
[groaning]
[creaking]
[eerie music plays]
Tamar?
[gasps]
[speaking Shu]
[crying]
Who did this?
You did.
[groans softly]
[gripping music plays]
[grunts]
[clattering]
[in English] Tolya?
Jesper?
Anyone? Hello!
Jesper!
Let's see what you got.
[chuckles]
I had an excellent teacher.
You were such a natural at everything I was teaching you.
- [chuckles] - Spoons into rings.
Coins into keys.
And then you stopped.
You were gone.
After that, Dad made me promise to hide it away.
So that no one would ask me to risk my life to save someone.
You risk your life for your friends all the time.
But they didn't ask me to do it.
And it's not because I'm a Durast.
I happen to look fantastic while being an excellent shot.
[coughing]
Is this how you felt when the poison killed you?
If you weren't Grisha, you'd be alive.
And if I hadn't drawn the poison from her small body into my own,
she would have died.
[somber music plays]
I was just a kid.
I needed you, too.
You were angry with me.
Maybe you still are.
And it's okay to feel that way.
I am sorry I left you, little rabbit.
But you must understand.
What we do while we're alive,
who we are, our truth,
that is all we can control.
That is all we have.
Hiding who you are won't save you.
[Alina] This was abandoned after Morozova's death.
[Baghra] Do you think steel chains could've held him in the river?
- You think he survived? - I moved on from this place.
Other journals have surfaced.
Merzost teachings Aleksander used to create the Fold.
A legacy of wrongdoing never made right.
Boy, clear us a way in.
[ominous music plays]
- Do I push it or... - Help me up.
Give me your blade.
Only a Morozova can open it.
Give me the lantern.
[rumbling]
Light the torches, boy.
Your sister?
And my mother.
Died of the pox before I was banished.
How my mother feared me.
She always told me I was one of my father's abominations.
She was wrong.
She was right.
Have you not been paying attention?
Morozova was corrupted with merzost.
Seeped into everything he created.
[Mal] Are you sure the Firebird was made here?
With the Stag and the Sea Whip, there was a frequency I could hear.
I don't hear anything in this place.
Follow me. You, stay.
Start sorting through his journals for any mention of the Firebird.
[Alina] Mal, wait. [sighs]
I can't.
[softly] Please.
If I let myself feel a thing,
I may never claw back focus to find the Firebird.
The one thing you need.
I need you.
I want you.
And I want the power of the Firebird, yes.
I want to use it to tear everything down and rebuild it for the better.
That will take 100 years.
It will.
But I can't lose you.
From the first time I saw you when you arrived at Keramzin.
And I knew we were meant to find each other.
[mellow music plays]
I knew it too.
From the beginning.
Right now, it's just us.
Let's stack up a thousand todays.
Together.
- [Alina exhales] - [breathes deeply]
Sankta Alina.
Ravka better know how lucky it is
to have you as the person to stitch it back together again.
Two sides of a broken heart.
[sighs]
[mellow music continues]
May I?
Yes.
This isn't real.
We're here, Inej.
I want you.
This isn't...
This isn't real, this is...
This isn't real.
This is...
This is the poison.
[breathing heavily]
This isn't...
[Wylan] Tolya, I'm here.
- Kaz? - [Wylan] Jesper?
Anyone?
- Wylan. - Hello?
[Inej groans]
You're alive.
We're dying. We've been poisoned.
[Inej groans]
[gripping music plays]
Uh...
Throwing up? Or hallucinations?
Hallucinations.
[groans] Some kind of orange vapor.
[Wylan] Uh, the Datura Meloxia.
Okay!
[grunts]
[Inej groaning]
Wylan.
Sorry.
Take this. Eat it.
[spluttering] That might sound strange,
but the poison doesn't kill them, so they might be the antidote.
[Inej coughs]
[coughs, gasps]
[Inej groans]
Wylan. [groans]
- We need three more. - Okay.
[Inej] Okay.
Tolya.
Eat this. Wake up.
[gagging]
Come quickly!
[Tolya gasps]
Wylan?
[Inej panting]
[Tolya groans]
- Tolya? Jesper? - Yeah.
Put it in his mouth.
[Tolya groans, coughs]
[breathing heavily]
- [grunts] - [Jesper gags]
Jesper.
[shudders]
You contain so much goodness, my son.
The world deserves to see all of it.
Be brave now, little rabbit.
Jesper!
[gasps] Mama!
- [breathing heavily] - [laughs]
If you say so.
Welcome back from your nightmare.
[groans] Is this the nightmare part?
[Jesper coughs]
[Inej] Here.
[groans]
Who are you without your vengeance?
Wake up.
[gagging]
What is the worth of life
if you have no one left to fight for?
Wake up. Wake up. Wake up.
Kaz!
Forgive me.
Sorry.
Is everyone alive?
- We're alive. - [Wylan] Okay.
I owe you my life.
It was Wylan.
He saved us.
Wylan did?
You're welcome.
We almost died, didn't we?
Same time... I had the most incredible hallucination.
Did anyone else get lulled into a comforting sense of joy?
I didn't see anything.
[Kaz breathing heavily]
Neither did I.
All right, what's the plan?
[gripping music plays]
You said there was another heartbeat in the house.
Southeast corner. The heartbeat's weak.
I suspect she built all of this to protect that heart.
Along with a different way in to get to it.
Open it.
Let me make peace with whatever's in here.
[Mal grunts]
He made me watch him while he built this coffin.
His tears, his cruelty,
and he knew he'd never use it.
Did he take her body with him?
The bones aren't here because my sister was never buried.
For hundreds of years I suspected as much.
There was no "village boy" saved by Sankt Ilya.
There was only my sister.
And there was no Firebird.
At least not the version you're trying to find.
[ominous music plays]
- You think he brought her back to life? - More than that.
He'd done it twice before.
Resurrected a creature with merzost and one of his finger bones.
Why wouldn't it work for her
the way it had worked for the Stag and the Sea Whip?
She was the third amplifier.
An otkazat'sya girl who'd passed on what she was through generations.
Don't you see, boy?
That's why you're here.
I've been tracking all wrong. We're looking for a person.
Not looking, not anymore.
How is it that you found the Stag and the Sea Whip,
but can't find the Firebird?
How is it that you walked past other orphanages
until you found the one that felt like home?
The one where the Sun Summoner lived?
The one person who is your destiny?
Come.
Close the door.
How do you find yourself unless you admit what you are, boy?
Give me your blade.
Do it.
[rumbling]
You can't hear the frequency because it's you.
You're lying.
You're lying. I'm not a Morozova.
It's the truth.
We are the cursed progeny of a madman
and you, Malyen Oretsev,
are the Firebird.
You have to accept what you are.
You must sacrifice yourself upon her blade or the Fold remains.
And the girl dies trying to save everyone.
It didn't work.
Your cunning little plan.
[Alina gasps]
You think you know me well enough to fool me.
You don't know me at all.
[muffled screaming]
- [wind chimes tinkling] - [water trickling]
[somber music plays]
[suspenseful music plays]
[Ohval grunts]
[thrilling music plays]
[guns cocking]
- [grunts] - [gun clatters]
Foul play.
[Tolya grunts]
Seriously offside.
[gasping]
[Tolya grunting]
[groans]
[Jesper choking]
[Tolya and Inej grunting]
You refuse to accept that you and I are the future.
And now I'm going to have to force the issue.
I've destroyed the First Army camp at Keramzin.
[muffled screaming]
That's right.
Your first home.
I'll test the orphans, take the Grisha, and the rest...
The rest will bleed for your stubbornness.
If you wish to make amends, you're going to have to prove it to me.
I shall give you one chance to save them.
[Kirigan groans]
[both grunting]
[Kirigan yells]
[both breathing heavily]
Threatening innocent children.
Look at what you've become. What you've always been.
The Black Heretic poisoned by merzost.
- [Kirigan grunts] - [groans]
- I, too, was a child once. - [chokes]
A boy named Aleksander,
who was betrayed and almost died because of it.
Innocent no more.
I've had a hundred reigns.
Lived a hundred lives.
This will be the last one, I swear...
Fight me as long as you're able.
You'll find I have more practice with eternity.
[dramatic music plays]
[both grunting]
[Jesper groans]
[Tolya groaning]
[Tolya] Ohval!
[in Shu] Not her, take me.
I'll take all of you.
[in English] Come on now, little rabbit.
[grunts]
[in Shu] Please, Ohval, this is only about the Neshyenyer.
[in English] This is only about Neyar's blade, not you.
[in Shu] Your actions say otherwise.
[strained grunting]
[straining]
[grunts]
[heartbeat slowing down]
[Zoya gasps]
[both grunt]
[in English] This is taking longer than I'd like.
So perhaps we end it.
[all groaning]
Fascinating, isn't it?
The amount of trace metal there is in the body.
Iron, for instance, in the blood.
[Alina] No! Stop!
Alina! Alina!
- Don't break the connection. - You said she's not strong enough.
Exactly.
I will strip away all that you know, all that you love.
Till you have no shelter
but me.
I will end this once and for all.
Once I've killed my son, my time here is done.
All this goes with me.
You know what you have to do.
And close the door on your way out.
[Alina gasps]
[Kirigan grunts]
How? How?!
[Baghra] Have you forgotten who taught you all your tricks?
Amplifier or blood, it's all connection.
- No, wait. - Run.
Alina, come on.
[Alina coughs]
- Can't leave her. - She's not coming...
- She's not sacrificing herself for me! - There's nothing you can do!
The Firebird!
I know where the Firebird is! We have to go.
[coughs]
[somber music plays]
[rumbling]
Alina, we have to go. Now!
[panting]
We have lived through an eternity together.
There is no need for this.
Have some faith in me!
It can't go on, boy.
Then let me end it.
Tell me where to find the Firebird.
It's too late for the Firebird and for bargains.
Please don't threaten me.
It will be worse for you.
Know that I loved you, Aleksander.
Know that it wasn't enough.
Stop. No!
Stop! No!
No! Don't! No!
[moans]
I... I never meant for this, I swear.
Shush, child. Shush now.
It's already happened.
[Kirigan screams]
[weakly] Stupid boy.
[crying]
[crying] Sorry.
[all groaning]
Here she is!
Sweetheart, we have visitors.
Art collectors from Kerch.
I know, dear.
I was just about to offer them tea.
[in Shu] He's not part of this.
[Kaz in English] These are the collectors I was telling you about.
They'll be pleasantly surprised to meet you,
the great thief of the art world.
The Disciple.
This is The Disciple?
[The Disciple] Have we met before?
Yes, in your room just now.
And I've met your wife.
In Bhez Ju. We had tea there.
[The Disciple] Bhez Ju Museum.
The support beams are under every second section of the floor.
The others creak.
Important to know the secrets of a place.
Truly.
[in Shu] If anything happens to him, I will kill you all.
All we want is the Neshyenyer.
[in English] The Neshyenyer?
I stole it for her.
Please, dear.
It was the last piece I stole before we decided I should retire.
Anyway, you couldn't really call it stealing.
It was hers to begin with. She made it.
I'm sorry. Did you say she made it?
[solemn music plays]
Hours of work.
Prayers.
And tears.
To fight the unkillable army created by the clock worker Kho.
[chuckles softly]
Three days and nights she fought the unstoppable soldiers.
And when the last soldier fell,
she laid down the weapon.
[chuckles]
And it was named Neshyenyer. "Relentless."
We are honored to be in your presence, Sankta Neyar.
Sankta Neyar?
[Ohval] Come, my love. Let's get you to bed.
[The Disciple exhales]
This is our sanctuary. Where we can sleep peacefully.
Not have to worry about thieves and bandits like you.
We're not bandits.
No one gets past the poison.
You're just a child, really.
A child who understood your weakness.
"Weakness."
Four hundred years I've been alive.
I've seen them all die.
My family.
All my loved ones.
Taken away from me by time.
Hundreds of years I closed my heart,
as if that was the solution to ending all pain.
What a safe way to live.
What a small way, as well.
You guard against pain.
You guard against joy.
But when you allow yourself to be blindsided by love...
two worlds make a universe.
He's not my weakness.
He's my universe.
And I will see him through his days.
Sharing every moment...
until he is part of the night sky.
What do I care about a blade?
[Ohval kisses]
What do you care about a blade?
The Darkling has created an unkillable army made of shadow.
Your sword is the only one sharp enough to cut them down.
That sounds like Ravka's problem.
You think he would be stopped by a line on a map?
I think I can still kill you where you stand before you can blink.
Sankta Neyar, I have met the Sun Summoner
who will take leadership in Ravka if the Darkling is gone.
She is benevolent, and she is also Shu.
She could be the living bridge between our two countries,
but that can only happen if you grant us use of the blade.
Use of it?
All this just to borrow the blade?
All this just to protect your husband in his sleep?
We each fight for what matters most.
And on my life, I will make sure that it is returned to its rightful home.
With you, Sankta Neyar.
Ohval.
The last thing I need are... pilgrims crowding my gate.
[The Disciple] Is it time for bed now, darling?
All of you, out.
Except for you, in the hat.
I'll give the blade to you.
Alone.
Come.
We'll wait for you outside before we head back to the Hummingbird.
[Jesper gasps]
Is that... a person?
[Ohval] My first husband.
Terrible marriage.
Adequate table.
You are a Durast.
I, uh...
[Ohval] You're a terrible Durast.
You could've come at me in any number of ways.
Buttons on your waistcoat, the metal in the boot of your shoe.
You are too old to be a terrible Durast.
[soft enthralling music plays]
[blade rings]
I have a lot of catching up to do.
I can see that now.
About the poison...
I know you were trying to kill us, but, um...
thank you.
Life doesn't often give second chances.
And it would be a shame to waste the talent of any Durast.
So do catch up.
Wylan?
Wylan! Wait a sec.
- [Wylan] Did you get it? - Uh, I did. Yeah, I got it.
And I got it. You know, with, like, kruge's dropped finally and all that.
And one day I'll tell you about everything, but right now, you were right.
I need...
I don't want to hide who I am anymore.
For a million reasons.
Including you.
You know what? I actually had a moment too in that garden.
Yeah, I... I saw a Datura Meloxia.
They are, like, extremely rare.
And you know, [clears throat] when I saw it,
all I wanted in the world was just to tell you about it
and squeeze your hand.
I want to stand with you in front of all the Daturma Ox things to come.
Actually, it's a Daturma... Datura...
Never mind.
[mellow music plays]
Well... [sighs] Tamar is going to kill me for eating all the dried squid.
She'll make me do laundry for a month.
Can't even tell her about the Sankta part, or...
Neyar is setting herself up for a heartbreak. She knows it.
Why bother?
- We fight for what matters most to us. - Right. Ravka.
Someday, someone is going to sweep you off your feet so hard,
you won't know what hit you. And don't look for me
to explain it all to you, because me and my "slab of fur" will be far away,
off the map, deep in love.
But okay.
[sighs] "Ravka."
Everyone's lost their mind.
We all did in there.
Maybe I did see something, through the haze of the poison.
There are those who drown us,
and those who pull us out.
Maybe I saw something too.
What did your toxin trip reveal to you?
Hope is dangerous.
Clouds your judgement.
[indistinct chatter]
We lost Baghra.
[Mal] It's true. She's gone.
- She saved my life. - Mine too.
Before she died, she broke the connection between me and Kirigan.
- I no longer feel him. - Does that mean he's dead?
Safest to proceed as though he's alive until we hear otherwise.
And the Firebird?
- Mal knows where it is. - Alina, I...
Tell us what you need to find it. Everything we have is at your disposal.
It appears Kirigan's on the move. He...
He destroyed the First Army camp at Keramzin.
- Our scouts say there are no survivors. - He knows my weaknesses.
- Two teams, then. One go with, uh... - Oretsev, sir.
Dominik.
One team go with Oretsev to get the Firebird,
another goes straight at the Darkling to stop him advancing.
Tomorrow, then, we move.
[Mal] Alina.
I knew that if you focused, you'd find the Firebird.
And you did.
The Firebird was never a creature.
It was a person.
[sighs]
Baghra's sister. She was the third amplifier.
Morozova used merzost to bring her back to life after Baghra killed her.
[sighs]
And their power passed down through generations all the way down to...
No.
You saw me close the door. Only a Morozova can do that.
How was I able to find the Stag and Sea Whip,
but never get a bead on the Firebird?
How was I always able to find you?
We were always meant to find each other... because of this.
[somber music plays]
No.
No, this... This is Kirigan.
- This is some trick of his. - I wish it wasn't true, but it is.
I'm it.
I'm the final piece of the puzzle.
[sobs]
When I bonded with the Sea Whip, I saw its last memory.
I saw you and no one else.
It knew you were a part in all this.
We leave, we take our lives back.
No. This is how I die. I'm not afraid.
For I get to save you.
And you get to save Ravka.
And you will live on for years and years, hundreds...
[Alina sniffles]
But I'll never know a love more than this.
You're a part of me, Mal.
I can't lose you.
I wanted more for you.
A white veil in your hair.
Vows we could keep.
Just tell me we'll find another way.
That's the only vow I need.
You are all I ever wanted.
You're the whole of my heart.
[mellow music plays]
Have you felt any change?
[Vladim] To be honest, sir, nothing.
- I thought maybe when she died... - You will.
After this.
I set aside the remaining bone dust to select Grisha.
Where would you like me to fuse this portion to you, sir?
She used to pull me around by my wrist as a child.
Now, she can do it for an eternity.
[ominous music plays]
[Vladim] Once you bond with her as an amplifier...
[sniffs] ...her last memories may give you some peace.
How?!
[Baghra] We are the cursed progeny of a madman,
and you, Malyen Oretsev, are the Firebird.
[sinister music plays]