Darya Kolova

Darya, Lada's grandmother, died two winters ago. She passed her hut, yard, as well as her talents for healing and baking to her granddaughter. Around Aleksandrovka she had the reputation of a kind woman who was good at her craft, but the nuns at the convent encouraged the others to shun her because of her questionable piety. For this reason, her hut stood at the edge of the village. In the caves of the volkhvy where Lada and her companions were undergoing a series of trials, an image of Darya appeared to her granddaughter. It seemed real and solid, though no one else saw her at all. She told Lada to hone her skills and to try to reconnect with her ancestors, who, she claimed, still lived in a glade somewhere to the north of the encampment. Before she disappeared, she told her granddaughter she would always be with her.