𝑫𝑹𝑰𝑭𝑻 [currently being edited]

chapter 9 - salt

Aruna grew up in a small village, a village so small that it was not deserving of a name, or maybe it was the people in it that did not deserve a name.

Stationed on the mountains close to Shu Han, travelers were a rare thing. You didn't leave the village. No one visits the village without a reason, including grisha testers.

It's not like they would've tested Aruna anyway, for she was not at home playing with dolls and baking cupcakes. Instead she was crawling up the caves, the caves that were keeping this small pathetic village here.

Salt

Aruna hated the mere thought of it, or maybe it was the beating that would occur if she could not find enough.

The other village kids were too big to fit in the caves, too fidgety. But Aruna was small, too small. Aruna was still, too still.

The village needed a small, still child to go collect the fallen salt. When Aruna's mother heard of this, well it was the solution for all her problems. Do not feed the child and the child will not grow, punish the child for moving and the child will not move, make the child carry everything so the shield will be strong enough to carry the salt.

Unfortunately this is all Aruna knew, all she would, but the greed of men is infinite.

They do not care if there is still a child in the mine collecting salt, they needed a new tunnel blown up, they needed more money.

So when little Aruna was dragging salt down the caves and heard an explosion and the salt around her started the crumble, well she certainly didn't believe it to be her ticket out of here.

One rock and Aruna was out, she woke up later, she did not know if she had been out minutes, hours or days. What she did know was that she was hidden under a pile of salt that was moving, she was moving.

Slowly removing the salt from her bruised body she recognized the cart was taking her out of the village, she was on the cart that took the salt into the bustling towns of Ravka.

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When Aruna arrived at the Little Palace all the teachers marveled at how still the girl was. When the class was too rowdy and the teachers yelled 'still' the girl became a statue.

Aruna didn't often think of her childhood, it wasn't a good one and there was no point in reminiscing on bad memories.

But the feeling of being expendable did never leave her, when she arrived at the Little Palace she was new, different, rare, a saint even.

But she could summon stars, little balls of light, not light itself.

She might be a saint but she was not a sun summoner.

And Aleksander needed a sun summoner, his light, not someone that only lit up in the dark.

Aleksander was powerful, he might be the romantic lover who gave his shoulder for her to lean on, but he was also General Kirigan.

General Kirigan needed a sun summoner, someone to destroy the fold, someone who could light up, not just in his darknesses.

The sun was built to contrast the night, while the moon was built to thrive in the darkness.

How could the night want the moon when it could have the sun to shine in?