Nika regretfully buys two more plane tickets- the fastest way to Volgograd. Mikhail forgets to mention that he’s afraid flying until they’re about to board. He’s kind of a dork. An awkward, sweet dork. Despite her aggravation, she can see why the other Nika chose him over the egotistical maniac.

If only I had time to shower. It had been almost a week since the campground incident, and she hadn’t been near a full-sized bathroom since she left her house. She would look disheveled, if she weren’t sitting next to a boy who lived in a tent. I think, when this is over, I’m going to use Joseph’s credit card to buy a five-star hotel room. She looks over at Mikhail, fidgeting nervously while the plane is still on the ground. I think I’ll get him one too.

She tries to distract him, “So, were you really in the United States looking for me, or was that something else Joseph made up?”

“I was. I knew he had found something, and had been tracking him for months. I was hoping to intervene at the last second.” He speaks guiltily as they both think of the campground, because that had certainly ended well.

“Did you lose someone?” A remarkably similar question to what Joseph had asked her, but with much more genuine care and sympathy.

“My mother. She was all I had left.” Should she be more traumatized about what happened? It feels like there simply hasn’t been time. She says a silent prayer to her grandmother, thanking her for some familiarity with all the strange magical things that have been happening.

“A difficult loss, particularly when so young.” That’s right. Both brothers were terrible at acting their age, until they said dramatic things like this. “Nika I, I think we broke him.” Not her. The white mouse peeps out from his coat pocket.

“You can’t break what was never whole to start.” She disappears back inside before anyone can see her. Ring of wisdom indeed.

The plane lands in Volgograd while Mikhail grits his teeth and looks anywhere but out the window. Nika stares down at the modern city. It had to be almost completely rebuilt after all of the shelling. Or at least, that’s what the internet had told her while she passed the time on the plane. It certainly looked metallic and shiny. Good luck finding trenches here. She smirks a little, glad what she told Joseph had proven so useless.

On the ground, skyscrapers tower over the landmarks she vaguely remembered from her research. Nika makes a face at the map she took from the airport, finding a route to the museum they wanted in the maze of gridded streets. She picks a direction, hoping its not as far as it looks on the to-scale map.

Upon request, the other Nika sits inside her jacket sleeve to provide advice along the journey. Yet she stays relatively silent, taking in every detail from the surrounding people and places, giving the human girl the sense that she sees much more than the surface stories.

“I don’t like going into the cities. I can sense so much misery.” The mousy girl’s message almost doesn’t reach Nika, who catches it as she looks back from a street sign.

“Is that what your ring does? You can see emotions?” Nika can understand that as a part of wisdom, as a large part of knowing what to say comes from how the other person feels.

“I can see through lies, tell when secrets are being kept, and yes, reading others comes easily.” She gives her odd implied smile, “Not that Mikhail can hide much.” It does seem that way, from the short time Nika has known him, and she smiles back.

“What were you like, before the curse?” The brothers have been so focused on telling their stories, that Nika still doesn’t know much about the girl who was apparently worth all this trouble.

“The boys exaggerate,” the other Nika seems to blush. “I didn’t like following the rules of nobility, and being an intelligent girl was of course astounding in the 20th century.” Despite the humor, she grows somber. “I should have stopped them, before everything went so far. Oh, I wish this magical mess had never happened. I’m sorry, that you’ve become involved.”

“It’s fine, I think. I wasn’t going to use a wish I didn’t know about, and it’s not right for you two to be continually terrorized for something long ago.” After that, Nika has to resume concentrating on the map before she leads them straight into the river.

The distance is as far as she feared. Nika’s travel bag becomes leaden and her feet are sore by the time the museum is in view. Then they have to backtrack to an ATM for cash, as the card swiper at the ticket booth is out of order. The magic card’s few weaknesses- farmer’s markets and broken card readers! I’ll have to remember that.

Inside the museum, case after case of recovered items from the battle for Stalingrad line the walls. Paintings depicting brave soldiers in one room, actual photographs of the ruined buildings in another. Some of the stories of valor and desperate creativity are actually rather interesting, and the two pause at various plaques during their search. Finally, they find the room with the exhibit they came for. But in front of the first case, holding rubble from the building where everything in the exhibit was found, is a familiar smug face.

“Hello, brother.”