Daughter of the Heavenly Spirit

Metro 2033: Daughter of the Heavenly Spirit is the third novel by Russian science fiction writer Andrey Butorin, written as part of the Metro 2033 universe and his Peninsula of Hope trilogy. It went on sale in January 2013.

In this story, the main characters in the previous novels of the trilogy - Nanas and Nadia - together with the expedition, equipped by Polyarnye Zori, go to Vidyayevo (where Nadia grew up) to fulfill her cherished wish - on the way back to visit the place of death of her father, located in the neighborhood of the Sami village (in which Nanas was born and raised). The heroes, together with Seid who joins them, become separated from the Polyarnye Zori caravan, overcome a road full of dangers or obstacles towards the Sámi village, and experience at the end of the road not at all what they could have imagined.

The beginning of the journey
The novel is set in the summer of 2033 - four months after the end of the events of Siege of Paradise. The authorities of Polyarnye Zori outfit an expedition to Vidyayevo, which, after reaching the abandoned town, takes the weapons and other supplies stored there.

The action of the novel begins on the way back, the narrative is told from Nadia's perspective. Nanas, Nadezhda, and Gore, who are on the expedition, hope to leave the caravan and travel to the Sami village where Nanas used to live: Nadezhda to visit the site of her father's death, Gore to stay in the village. But the head of the garrison of Polyarnye Zori, Oleg Yarchuk, who is in love with Nadezhda and also participates in the expedition, doesn't want to let her go and repeatedly offers her to return to Polyarnye Zori  together with him. Nadezhda takes his love and reacts very negatively. On the way, the travelers are joined by Seid, who, learning of Nanas, Nadezhda and Gores intentions, decides to escort them to the site.

When the motorcycle offered to the travelers for the trip to the site breaks down, Nadezhda manages to beg Yarchuk for his car. To do this, the girl has to fulfill Yarchuk's request - to kiss him - and this kiss is remembered for a long time as a very good one, although her attitude to the garrison commander remains bad. Yarchuk gives the travelers a car, his driver Selivanov, and a firearm. Before the caravan and the main characters disperse, Yarchuk instructs Selivanov about something in secret.

The Chase
The travelers on their way to the village hear the sounds of gunfire from the direction of the caravan that left them. Seid goes out to investigate, and when he returns he reports that the caravan was attacked by bandits from Olenegorsk, but, to all appearances, they suffered heavy losses, and their pursuit is more of a symbolic nature. The travelers reach the abandoned Lovozero. Nanas remembers the type of terrain ahead of them and realizes that the travelers won't be able to cross even in an off-road car. Gore suggests moving along the lake in a boat, which might have remained in Lovozero. Seid smells the armed men pursuing the travelers. The comrades get to the boat garages, find a preserved boat there, Gore assembles the motor. After sailing some distance, the travelers see bandits on the shore, who shoot at them. However, the heroes manage to escape, delaying the meeting with the bandits for some time. They see a mutant in the lake, which the tribesmen of Nanas call the Great Fish, and decide to continue their journey on land rather than on water.

At night Nanas is awakened by the Giant, an old acquaintance of the protagonists. The giant foretells Nanas something alarming, but the latter conceals it from all but Seid, and Seid promises not to tell anyone about it.

The travelers visit the site of the plane crash and the winter conversation between Nanas and Semyon Budin. They do not find a body, and Nadezhda decides to go to the site to speak with his node Sziladan. She assumes that the node may know what has become of Nadia's father's body. In the meantime, the comrades are overtaken by bandits. Nanas saves Selivanov from a bullet. Big-headed helps the travelers escape from the bandits by detaining them.

During a halt, Selivanov talks to Nadezhda secretly from the others. Since Selivanov sees no other way to get to any civilization, he suggests that Nadezhda surrender to the bandits as a group and then come up with a further plan to get to Polyarnye Zori. The girl refuses and offers Selivanov to go with them to the village. Abandoning attempts to persuade Nadezhda to go to Polyarnye Zori, he tells her the truth about the purpose of his presence in their company: it turns out that Yarchuk gave him an order to return Nadezhda to Polyarnye Zori  at any cost, otherwise he threatened Nanas with death. Meeting Nadia's next refusal, Selivanov, also following Yarchuk's orders, shoots Nanas and wounds him in the head. The bullet lodges in his skull, but Nanas remains alive, though he slips into a coma. Gore shoots Selivanov, tormented by Seid, with a machine gun.

Nadia decides to go to Sziladan asking him to help Nanas. Gore and Nadia decide to hide Nanas temporarily in a cave in the Lovozero Tundras. Such a cave is found; Gore, Nadia, and Seid take Nanas there. Seid finds out that the big man nevertheless apprehended the bandits, but he himself died because of it, and the bandits returned later. The travelers decide to go deeper into the cave so that the bandits won't notice them at once. The cave turns out to be long with many branches. In one of the branches, Gore is attacked by mutant worms. While Seid chases the mutants dragging Gore away, Hope falls out of reality and talks to her mother. When Seid, with Hope's help, defeats the worms and frees Gore, the travelers continue through the cave.

The Sziladan Plan
Although the travelers seem to have walked a short distance, it suddenly turns out that they have found themselves at the very same Sámi vilage, and the cave has access to it. Seid and Nadezhda head for Sziladan. The pair first encounter a group of people who turn out to be from the Karelian barbarians who attacked Polyarnye Zori during the winter. Seid goes into hiding, and Nadezhda appears as the daughter of a celestial spirit and demands to be taken to the chief.

As it turns out, Sziladan is absent in the village, and Kostya Parsykin, who has seized power, takes the place of the leader. Nadezhda, having met him, tells him that she got here alone, and Kostya decides to make the girl his wife, despite her objections. He sends her to one of the Lappish buildings for the night, and without guards.

Nadezhda decides to find Sziladan to help cure Nanas after all. Knowing that Sziladan's associate Arodan is still in the village, the girl meets him and offers to help overthrow Parsykyn (using the travelers' firearms) and bring Sziladan back to power in exchange for curing Nanas. Arodan agrees to take Nadia to the former Noyd.

As it turns out, Sziladan is hiding in the same cave where Nadia and Seid were left by Nanas and Gore. Sziladan takes them prisoner, taking their weapons. Sziladan, who has come out to the call of the elder, is killed by Arodan, and then takes Nadia and Seid in the crosshairs of the machine gun Sziladan brought, ordering them to lead him to the promised weapons. Seid finds the trail of Nanas and Gore and discovers them. Arodan tries to shoot the travelers, but Nadia, with what she believes to be her mother's help, knocks the machine gun out of his hands by throwing a torch at the elder. The friends then capture Arodan.

Next, Nadezhda learns from the travelers that her father, Semyon Budin, is alive and has been in this cave. Though he cannot walk, he has crawled away somewhere. Seid goes in search of him. With the help of the bound Arodan, the heroes conclude that Sziladan somehow hypnotized Semyon so that after the Noyd's death he would blow up the natural gas deposits available in the Lovozero Tundras, which rose close to the Earth's surface after the nuclear war. Thus, they are all now in danger. The friends free Arodan to flee to the Sami village to warn the inhabitants of the threat to the entire region, Gore stays to guard the entrance from uninvited guests, and Nanas and Nadezhda go looking for Semyon and Seid.

At a fork between two passages, Nadezhda and Nanas decide to take separate passages and return at about the same time. Nadia's passage turns out to be mottled with forks, and she gets lost in them, not even knowing how to get back. Nadia sees her mother again, who somehow tells her the way, as a result of which the girl already knows where to go. And it turns out to be so close that getting lost seems impossible. Nadia reaches Semyon and Seid, who have inhaled natural gas and lost consciousness. Eventually, she too loses consciousness. Nadia and Seid are brought to "their" cave by Nanas, and then Nanas and Gore bring Semyon.

Semyon is relieved of the effects of hypnosis by Seid. The pilot's long-cherished dream comes true: he meets Nadezhda. Boudin and his daughter tell each other their stories. Nanas also touches a stone into which he believes the power of the dead Sziladan has gone.

Confrontation
Seid notices a large group of people heading for the cave and informs his comrades. The group of Lapps and barbarians is led by Kostya Parsykin. Arodan tries to detain them, speaking of the threatening danger of natural gas, but Kostya does not believe him, and on his orders Arodan is killed. Nanas and Kostya exchange verbal harshness, eventually agreeing to a fair one-on-one fight. The fight happens, and when Kostya gains an undeniable advantage over Nanas, Parsykin is killed by Semyon Budin with a pistol. Wearing a flight helmet, he pretends to be an unknown being, a heavenly spirit, in front of the Sami, introduces his daughter Nadezhda to the people, and at her request appoints Nanas as the noyd. Nanas considers Parsykin's murder dishonest and quarrels with Semyon. Nadezhda also quarrels with Nanas and he eventually leaves for the cave. The barbarians take the remaining travelers at gunpoint with their bows, but a sudden thunderstorm saves Nadezhda, Semyon and Horus - they manage to take refuge in the cave. Semyon tells Nadezhda that while all his comrades were at the cave entrance, he had a vision of Svetlana Budina, who told him of the danger, and then Semyon somehow made it to the exit on his own feet, despite the fact that they were paralyzed.

Nanas returns, leading the mutants who previously attacked Gore. The mutants obey Nanas and submit to his will. Nanas reveals that he, too, had a vision of Hope's mother, from whom he learned that his comrades were in danger. Nanas decides to prove, through mutant worms, that he is Noah. The boy thus succeeds in subjugating the barbarians to himself. He decides to let them go without the right to stay in the village, giving them Sami edged weapons, but, for safety reasons, in disassembled form.

Subversion
Gore, and then Nanas and Nadia, see bandits approaching along the lake, among whom Nadia believes Yarchuk is present. Nanas, using the self-defense he learned in Polyarnye Zori, repels an attempt on his life by his former tribesmen. He then declares Nadia the chief. He instructs the Sami to go as far away as possible with his comrades. The barbarians express their desire to participate in the battle. Nanas intends to blow up the natural gas of the Lovozero Tundras, ridding the Sámi of the threat of bandits and sacrificing himself.

Nadezhda does not like this decision very much, and she decides to try to spare Nanas from sacrificing himself by talking to Yarchuk and the bandits out of going further into the the cave. Nadezhda asks Seid, who wants to accompany Nanas until the last minute, to prevent Nanas from completing his plan until the last moment, leaving the Sami to the care of Goru and Semyon, and herself meeting with the leader of the barbarian group Buzz. The girl asks the barbarian to back her up when she heads for Yarchuk and, at her signal, sends a messenger to Seid, who will inform him that the gas can be blown up. The barbarians, to whom the travelers had previously given two machine guns, agree to her plan.

Nadya meets Yarchuk, who turns out to have been captured by the Olenegorsk bandits. Yarchuk tries to escape with Nadia, but she prevents it. The girl learns that Yarchuk has promised the bandits to let them live in Polyarnye Zori if they help him find Nadezhda and, as Budina later finds out, kill Nanas. Yarchuk's attempts to escape are noticed by the bandits. Nadezhda, now disgusted with Yarchuk, tells him everything she thinks of him and punches him in the face. The bandits, eager to fulfill their promise to the prisoner, set out to kill Nanas. Hope gives the signal to the barbarians, and the barbarians begin the battle, but they do not send a messenger to Nanas and Seid.

During the fight, Nadia bumps into the wounded Buzz, who, realizing he will die with his fellow barbarians, asks the girl to kiss him. Nadia agrees to the last word of a man willingly going to his death. The girl then runs to Nanas, intending to signal Seid and die with her husband in an explosion.

It turns out that Seid himself wants to blow up the gas, keeping Nanas alive. By tricking him, Seid forces Nanas to remove the pin from the grenade in his teeth. Seid demands that Nadezhda and Nanas flee from the cave entrance as quickly as possible. He will not listen to his friends' objections. Seid flees into the cave, and Nadezhda and Nanas have no choice but to flee the dangerous territory.

An explosion occurs. The couple is saved by a miracle with relatively minor wounds. After being bandaged, they go to make sure that the bandits are dead. Hope explains to Nanas the reasons for her return, mentioning that she wanted to leave to save his life. This infuriates Nanas, and the couple quarrel, but continue on their journey. They become convinced that the bandits are dead. The couple find Yarchuk crushed by a boulder, but still alive, and Nanas understands who Nadia wanted to leave with. He is about to leave Nadia and Yarchuk, but Nadia stops him and the couple make peace. The freed Yarchuk tries to sail away in a boat, but is eaten by the Great Fish.

The spouses return to the Sami village, which has almost survived the explosion. Nanas fixes the roof, and Nadya gathers from under the rubble the food prepared for her and Nanas wedding. The friends have lunch, and in the meantime the happy Lapps return to the village, as well as Gore and Semyon Budin.

Epilogue
The Sámi recognize Nanas as a noida, Nada as a chief, and Gora as an elder. In order to tell the tribe about the outside world, a school is opened in the village. The friends try to cure Semyon Budin's legs with a mineral from the Lovozero Tundras, a piece of which was left in Sziladan's vezha, but it has no significant result. Semyon is burning with the idea of returning to the Polyarnye Zori to see Svetlana Smirnova again, and the friends find such a way. Semyon sets off in December and the whole community sees him leave. Nanas does not give up trying to find Seid in the Lovozero tundras; he hopes that his best friend survived the explosion.

Interesting Facts
Дочь_небесного_духа
 * The final part of the Peninsula of Hope trilogy.
 * Features the Lovozero Tundra - or rather, a complex of caves in their depths.
 * Unlike the first two books, this one takes place during the brief polar summer of 2033.
 * The fate of the characters in the final part of the book is offered to the reader.