Tidal --- Nikolai Lantsov

2

"How come you wear a black kefta like the Darkling?" Alina asks me in the middle of our dinner together. Genya eyed me curious wondering if I'm going to tell her the truth or not. 

"He's my brother" I said shortly letting it sink in. She immediately wore a shocked look on her face as her mouth gaped open. 

"You're his sister? Are you super old like him?"  Way to be blunt Alina.

"Sort of. Grisha generally live longer that the average human but because of his power he will live even longer. I am more like a normal Grisha" I said hoping to clear it up that I was certainly not ancient  like my brother. 

We spent the rest of dinner bonding and joking about our stories and I learned that Alina had a best friend called Mal who she left behind to come here. 

Once dinner was done I left so that Genya could fit Alina into her new blue kefta. I was surprised she didn't want to wear the black one like me and my brother. Almost any Grisha would die to be of the highest ranks and wear the black kefta. 

I walked down alone to my room in the Little palace. On my way there, I passed the war room where the Darkling was hunched over a table looking intently at a map. I knocked on the doorframe and he turned his head to see me. 

"Alina is getting fitted for her kefta now" I told him and he just nodded. He almost looked upset. "The whole night I was a complete bully and made her feel as unwelcome as possible" he chuckled at sat down. "She doesn't seem like she can do much, without your help that is"

"That's what I'm trying to solve." he pointed down at a book that was laid down on the table. it was open to a page with a drawing of a beautiful stag. I recognized the book as one of Morozova's journals. 

"Morozova's herd? I thought that was just a myth?" I asked him confused.

"It's worth a shot. All these books seem to believe that it is real. If we could just find the stag, we can use it as an Amplifier for Alina and for her to" he pauses in thought, "Get rid of the fold"

"how do we find it?"

"that's the problem. No one except for in these books, has even come close to seeing the thing. I'm about to send out hunting parties to find it and capture it. We just need one good tracker and we'll be able to find it. I know it is out there."

"you should get some rest, you look exhausted." He rubs his eyes and relaxes more into the chair.

"I will soon. I just have to finish this one thing. You go on ahead" I wave him goodnight and head off to my room to bed. 

----

The next few weeks we're uneventful. Alina started her training and was horrible. Every lesson she was in, she failed. She still couldn't use her magic without help and my mother was disgusted by her. 

I continue to train myself and research Grisha theory, spending careful time to look into Morozova's heard and the amplifier to help my brother. 

Winter comes and Alina still cannot use her magic. She is beginning to show her frustration more and more as she fails. She has been writing letters to her old friend from the orphanage with no response. I can see that it is really weighing on her and she is worried that she is receiving no response. I feel her pain and remember the first few months after Nikolai up and left me here. I felt so alone and abandoned. At least I had my brother. She really had no one except me and Genya. She wasn't getting along well with the other Grisha. 

Finally midway through winter things began looking up for everyone at the little palace. Only a week before the feast for Sankta Nikolai, Alina was able to summon her powers again. Once she did I could see a complete change in her mannerisms around the Little Palace. She was more talkative with me and the other Grisha, she was eating more, and looked as though she had finally gotten some sleep. She also was a lot more successful in Botkin's lessons and finally was able to start winning a few spars.