...It's getting dark. We have to leave. But before we go, take a look at the white vapor of our breath. That's proof that we're alive. And take a look at our friends, buried beneath the damp dirt. The air is filled with the smell of iron and saltpeter. This is no lecture hall in Grypherburg. Look to your left, at the empty spot where Pencil Stub once sat. He always carried his pen and paper, mulling over the flowery prose of his dramatic scripts. But he was the first to answer my call to raise his fist and resist. Nika and Yeremey used to sit side-by-side in that empty spot in the middle. I can still see Nika patting Yeremey's back, blushing slightly, singing their school song out of tune after they'd had a few drinks. And Faddey, too. Whatever his mistakes, he never forgot his duty, and in his last moments, he gave the chance to live to another. ...... There are so many more names. I could go on and on, until we've etched every one of them into our hearts. Our sorrow is not weakness. It is not cowardice. It is a scar that marks our struggle, and our rebirth, over these ten days. It tells us that there's something that can never be taken away. We will remember that we each held someone else's hand in ours on that cold winter day, in that all-consuming inferno. The clouds of dust, the songs that never end, the tears in the snow, the battlefield on which we fought... As long as any of us still remembers— They will continue to live. We will continue to live. Ursus cannot kill us, just as life can persist and grow beneath even the frozen earth. We must remember their faces, remember their fights, and remember that we will meet again, in the future that they died for. Come and speak their names with me, for those who fell and for those who live, for yesterday and for tomorrow. Some time later, Sonya found a few battered school uniforms as she was organizing her things. They were wrapped up tightly, not a speck of dust on them. She touched her burning cheeks, her fingertips numb and trembling as she recalled her speech before the graves in Katorga that day, the words rushing back like snow upon the window. 'What are you doing here, General Zima? Everyone's waiting for you.' 'Don't rush her, Leto. Sonya needs to prepare for the victory banquet.' They will meet again, in a better place... It wasn't perfect, but they achieved a lot, didn't they? Sonya gave a subtle smile, and complained to the others about the Ursine winter as she rubbed her hands together.