𝒅𝒆𝒋𝒂 𝒗𝒖

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝟏- 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆

Like calls to like.

She was like the sun. She had been referred to as a cat, always finding a warm spot in the sun to lay down in and absorb the rays in. Finding Aurora Popov adjusting her bed in order to wake up facing the sun was nothing out of the ordinary for anyone in the Cartography unit.

Sunshine was rare in Kribisk. But Aurora Popov was here, and that was enough.

Alina Starkov, was another Assistant Cartographer for the first army. Aurora and Alina, had made quick friends in training, both seemingly young, alone women. Girls thrown into the army. But only one was older than the fold.

Being alive for centuries had certain perks, learning to read people, being one of them. Another was perfecting the life story of every name she had ever picked.

Aurora Popov was an orphan. A orphan who decided to enlist in the army. She was nineteen, not four hundred years old. Aurora Popov had never met him, only Eldora had.

Aurora and Alina had just returned to Kirbisk. Alina, was bursting to see Mal. Aurora was just bursting for a toilet, but Mal was ok as well.

Alina had introduced the two as her best friends, but it was clear that she wanted Mal and her to be more. Stupid man, never appreciating what was in front of him.

Aurora, Alina and Mal had quickly become friends, and now after a few months apart the reunion was much anticipated, and Alina wouldn't shut up about it the entire way here.

After arriving at the army camp, Alina was literally bouncing on her toes with anticipation, while Aurora surveyed the camp. There were changes to Kribisk, when she first arrived, many years ago it was a small fishing town.

Now the fold dominated the land, like a gaping hole. A wall of shadows.

"Alina, Aurora!" Aurora heard that familiar voice yell as she and Alina crossed the bridge, turning to see Mal putting on a jacket armed with that familiar smile. "When did you get in?"

"Yesterday, everyone's getting their assignments."

Assignments. Who gets the pleasure to cross the fold? In the centuries since its creation she had never crossed it. Aurora had the time that others don't have to cross the permafrost.

"Suppose cartography is heading back south" Alina says with a chuckle. The entire unit had only ever been south and to Kribisk in the first army.

Mal tells off the units that are back together again.  Which means watching Alina love Mal, and Mal love every girl, but Alina.

"They can't keep best friends apart from too long" Mal chucked as he throws his arms around Aurora and Alina.

They can keep soulmates apart though. That bitter voice in her head states. But Aurora Popov has not loved, and she won't.

Mal continues to tease Alina, "don't crush my dreams".  

The conversation gets halted by a loud noise, a giant flame lights up a test dummy. The group narrow on the grisha training. Aurora  was never tested, and no one bothered to test a girl who looks twenty. After all, what person in their right mind would choose to not be a grisha and have the luxuries that they get.

"They are always picking on us when their General is not around" Mal states. Everyone knows it's true, General Kirigan made grisha who they are, he gives them the luxuries. Yet Aurora remembers a time not long ago at all when grisha were hunted like pigs.

General Kirigan, The Darkling. A shadow summoner. In the supposed hundred and twenty years of his existence, Aurora had never seen him. But she had seen the power his name held over everyone. Some people viewed him as a god for grisha, others as the devil.

Sometimes the shadow, his ancestor the Black Heretic created reminded her of him.

But she had never seen the shadows General Kirigan created, nor any of Morozova's line.

Aurora, Alina and Mal were looking at the new skiff, when some of Mal's funny but annoying friends interrupted us. They constantly picked on Alina, anyone but Mal could see the love she had in her eyes for him.

Mal walked off with his friends, leaving Alina to sulk and Aurora to counting glazing over the view of Kribisk, well what wasn't covered by the fold.

The fold, the reason for this war. It is a shame, because while Aurora loved the sun she felt safe in the shadows.

The constant look of the shadows, bursting out with lightning in terrific but memorising show of light in darkness. The screeches of the volcra drown out his artwork.

After living for centuries one learns to appreciate little things that stay the same. Lightning being one of them. Eldora was scared of lighting, bad memories, but Aurora was fascinated by it. People, towns, landscapes all change over time, but sunrises are always unique, every storm is different. The shadows reminded her of him, he was always the moon to her sun.

So when both Mal and Aurora were called for the 'nightmare lottery' as Mal joked, Aurora wasn't scared, it was time she faced the fold, even if she wasn't scared of the dark that doesn't mean she wasn't terrified of the volca. She did have a brain and she had help treat volca scratches in another life.

Alina was rightly distraught, both of her best friends were crossing the fold, or attempting to. Aurora and Mal were both trying to comfort her, making jokes.

Aurora was getting sympathetic looks from her fellow cartographers, everyone knew the risks of crossing the fold, so she skipped on dinner. She was older than everyone there, she could handle the dark. She was older than the dark.

Laying down in a patch of grass staring up at the sky seems to calm her down immensely. The dark always did, she loved the sun but felt safe in the dark.

She felt so calm that she didn't even notice anything happening down at the camp, including the setting up of a black tent, belonging to the shadows.