𝑫𝑹𝑰𝑭𝑻 [currently being edited]

𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝟑 - 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒍𝒂𝒅𝒚

Aruna was ecstatic, she had been working with the fabricators to come up with toys for the new Grisha children. She always envied the young kids that were picked up from the street at young ages and showed the luxuries that being a Grisha had to offer.

Nonetheless, the kids that were taken from their families were going through a tough time. And Aruna was known for her kindness, she couldn't wait to show the kids the new toys.

And this project helped the training Grisha fabricators have little independent projects to help hone their skills, an all-around win-win situation.

Aruna was a firm believer in helping others, she herself did not have anyone to help her. So she helped everyone else. The new scared Grisha saw her as a motherly figure.

She helped the tidemakers train.

All around life was good for the moon summoner, she no longer lived there with her. There was food awaiting every meal and bruises came from hard work, not her.

Aruna always liked the consistency, she had a routine and it worked for her. Maybe it had something to do with the rock in the sky that she was connected to, every day was a new day in its cycle.

The one thing that Aruna did not mind breaking her routine was for him.

She first met the Darkling the night she arrived at the Little Palace.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

It was the night after a full moon, a kind lady had seen her in the river's water and told her about Grisha. She said that all the Grisha went and lived in a Palace.

A Palace, the idea bloomed hope in Aruna, one that had died too young for a child.

The kind lady even gave Aruna some food and let her sleep on some flour sacks. The next day they spent walking to Os Alta and arrived at night. The kind lady would tell her stories of her sons and their wives and her little granddaughter.

The kind lady talked with the guards stationed by the Little Palace gates. Aruna was barely thirteen and couldn't contain her excitement at the possibility of living in a Palace, just like a princess.

Even if she was denied, the girl could fend for herself on the streets, and these streets were cleaner than the ones she was used to.

Any street was better than living with her.

The guards finished their conversation with the kind lady. The kind lady said her goodbyes and walked into a guard house.

Years later Aruna would realize that the kind lady was also receiving money for delivering her 'niece' to the Grisha. Still, Aruna's heart was always too pure to hate anyone other than her, so she remained the kind lady in her memories.

One of the guards accused the young Aruna before giving her a kind smile, not a smile with lingering intentions behind it like others before him. He guided her into the Little Palace, silent, no questions were asked.

They arrived at an office. It was early morning at this point, yet the person on the other side of the door must have been awake because the door opened as soon as the guard knocked.

A man opened the door, he was wearing some form of black sleepwear.

"What is happening"

The man sounded tired

The guard that gave her a smile talked A lady claims her niece is a Grisha and saw her playing with water"

At that statement, all eyes turned to Aruna. The tired man looked at Aruna, she was pale and thin, too thin to be healthy, little bruises were tainting her skin. "Are you a tidemaker?"

"What's a tidemaker?" Aruna had only heard whispers of Grisha, but they never came to her town, too small and too far away in the mountains.

"It is a Grisha that can manipulate water, is that what you can do?"

Aruna felt that she could trust this man, she could control water but she could also do more.

"Yes, but I glow in the moonlight and I can heal scratches"

The tired man looked at her and extended out a hand as if asking for her arm. She tried to hide her flinch, but she knew his eyes saw it. Once he had her arm he took off a ring and made a small cut on her arm.

In the early hours of the morning, moonlight left Aruna's body, glowing like the moon. The moon summoner was found.

The tired man looked down at the glowing girl in shock and one of the guards stated something to do with saints.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Aruna only ever saw the Darkling or General Kirigian in passing over the years. But as she rose throughout the ranks, she started seeing the Darkling more and more. When she was in her third year in the army and twenty she became part of the Darkling's 'inner circle'.

It required extra meetings, scout missions and lots of work.

But Aruna loved it, she loved being useful, especially to her country, and definitely not the man in black that made her blush.

Her favourite memory in particular was her first assignment with Aleksander. Despite him being her superior Aurna had approached the General first about details for the mission. When she had made the observation about the amount of surveillance, joining that the General simply wanted her alone he had surprised her by not reprimanding her but by blushing up his ears and stumbling over his words in reply. 

She had been so embarrassed for weeks that when it was time for the mission she almost blurted her worries onto him, luckily she had not but it had been an awkward mission nonetheless. And secretly Aurna always rejoiced in the fact that she had made the stoic General blush, even if it was a result of her poor attempt at a joke. 

But she couldn't let feelings cloud her judgement, she was a soldier, a moon summoner but still a Second Army soldier. Besides, the Darkling could never feel anything for Aruna.

How wrong she was.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Side not- Just wanted to state that I am saying that they didn't see each other or interact until she was 18 and really until she was 20. In the books, it is pretty clear that the Darkling groomed Zoya, and I obliviously don't support that. But this is not cannon and it's fluffy Darkling, and there is no grooming involved.