The Pomegranate Society

Sixteen: Professor Aleksander Morozova

TW: THIS CHAPTER DISCUSSES GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF WAR AND VIOLENCE. 

Sixteen:

Professor

Aleksander Morozova

He didn't know what to do. He watched her walk away, back into her apartment, determined to forget about him and move on with her life. If he had a shred of decency, he would have let her marry The Fox Prince and live off in their happily ever after. But decency was not something he knew much of, he told himself. When she slipped inside her home, he turned and left.

He wandered the streets aimlessly. It was early morning. He needed to go home, to get showered, and return to the University for classes. He couldn't think about that right now. The streets he walked had parts that were fine, and parts that were ruble. In Ravka, there was almost no way of knowing if it was from 40 years ago, or the violence from the night before.

There was a bar not far from the college, called The Saints Tavern. He often frequented it sometimes after work. They served breakfast in the mornings. All he wanted was to sit there, drinking kvas, and forget about the young woman that was making his head spin. Someone would have seen him outside of her apartment.

The paparazzi, the guards, The Apparat.... nosy neighbors. He shouldn't have been there. But the morning sun had led him there, he'd laid his heart out like a fool, only to be told in no. It should have been enough to make him walk away but he couldn't. He could only walk towards her, until she burned him, or he burned her. One way or another.

He needed to be going to and get absolutely smashed. To never think about her, ever again. She was lost. He would be an absolute monster to continue pursuing her, to try to rip her from the fairytale before she even got there. But that was what he wanted to do. To have her sit in hell with him, because at least he wouldn't be alone with his sins, and he could look at her beautiful face while he was damned.

He reached the bar and pushed his way inside. He found a seat at the counter.

"Good morning, Morozova," a familiar voice made him pause. He turned to see the last person he expected there.

"Rollins," he said, "what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

"I know you like to have a pint here after work every now and then. I suspected you might show up." The man sitting next to him had a long face, and a long nose. His hair was dark brown, and his eyes were a watery blue. "That's a lie, of course. Been waiting on you, Morozova. You haven't answered any of my calls."

Aleksander winced. "Yes, well, I do have this thing called a job----"

"Yes, and in one of them, you work under me." Pekka Rollins was someone he had known during his university days. Back when Aleksander had first been recruited to the society, he had been the original leader of the group. Aleksander saw the University operations, and Pekka Rollins looked at everything else. "Now, are you going to explain to me why you've got the future King's little fiancé all hot and bothered after you and you haven't bothered to recruit her yet?"

He scowled. "How do you know----"

"I know everything, Morozova," he said, "I know who your fucking daddy dearest is. I know secrets about you that could ruin your entire existence. You think you're a monster, well I am the thing monsters fear. They call on me to clean their shit up. Now, it has been requested, specifically, that you initiate this girl. Why hasn't it been done yet?"

Aleksander rolled his eyes. "Do you think I haven't tried? I've been trying since I heard the news. I gave her the necklace, she shoved it back at me."

"You just haven't worked the right angle," Rollins told him, "that's alright, I found one for you."

He pulled out a letter from his pocket. It had the official wax seal of The First Army. It was from the war office. Pekka handed it to him. "That is everything you need to get that little girl under our thumb. Into your bed too, if you prefer. Which I know you do since you keep lurking outside her apartment."

"What is this?" Aleksander said.

"A telegram about her little orphan friend," said Rollins, "it seems that he was caught in a roadside bomb explosion the other day. He's been unconscious in the Os Alta hospital for about a day now, and they're not even sure if he'll be able to move again....he'll be honorably discharged, of course, but he we know how hard it can be for soldiers out there once something like that happens.....of course, they both consider each other home. It'd be a shame if he asked her for help, and even the Prince couldn't do anything about it...."

"What, you want me to deliver this to her?"

"No, it's already been delivered. This is just your copy, for when she comes around again."

"How are you so sure?"

He shrugged. "I know how sentimental people get about first loves. I expect she's not that different."