Beautiful and Broken

Epilogue I.

It took months for the official delegation of the King of Atlantis and the Council of Magic to arrive to Ravka, following my account of all my time spent there being sent to them, along with a letter signed by King Nikolai, requesting the institution of diplomatic relations between the two countries. There has been an attempt made by Nikolai to reinstate his father on the throne, met by a room filled with shadows and even the threat of nichevoya from Aleksander, to which Alina strangely formed no objection of any kind. So there was no other choice for him than to take the throne – not as if he seemed to mind.

I've spent part of the time in between helping Nikolai work out the new form of government of Ravka, following the example of Atlantis, where the King ruled together with a Council of Magic, each party equal and in full autonomy. Another part was spent working with the Grisha to find ways in which they could help the people of their country: irrigation systems powered by magic for areas affected by drought, modified seeds which produced harvest multiple times a year, even in the coldest areas of Ravka, medical instruments meant to correct various physical conditions like a limp or a hare-lip. 

There was the problem of people rejecting our help due to their general mistrust of Grisha, but King Nikolai was lending his support in creating some state propaganda for our devices. The end goal was of course to change the people's general attitude towards Grisha, to make them realise that the magic was there for them and not against them, and that they were only making their own lives easier by welcoming it. I was in the process of convincing Aleksander to unite the two armies, letting Grisha work closely together with regular soldiers. It was a slow advancement, as he usually threw his shadows at me and stormed out of the room any time I brought up the subject. But I wasn't gonna give up any time soon.

When we weren't fighting about armies, I've discovered the joy of small everyday moments by his side. The early mornings spent admiring the messy strands of black hair falling in front of his puffy eyes, marvelling how he managed to stay handsome in spite of all the circumstances, while I resembled a volcra before I drank my coffee. Having him wake up to a nightmare in the small hours and wrapping his body around mine, until his heartbeat slowed and he fell back to sleep. Sometimes we didn't fall back to sleep, and that was a different kind of pleasure.

Spending an afternoon leaning on the oversized couch in our chambers, each of us reading a book, with his head in my lap or one my legs draped around his hips. Him walking in on one of the rare occasions when I was making myself presentable for a ball or a state dinner, his eyes wandering on my body with the gaze of a predator, talking me out of wearing one dress or accessory and choosing another instead.

It was such an occasion before the delegation arrived. I was so tense that I was fumbling with every little thing: I needed his help to clasp my necklace, place a hairpin, button my dress, even uncork my bottle of perfume, to which he happily obliged. "Don't worry. If they want to punish you, we steal a ship and become privateers," he mused. "I wouldn't mind being stranded on a ship with you, I just feel sorry for our future crew mates," I answered. 

"I'm serious," he said, stepping close to me and cupping my face with his fingers. "I decimate them if they try to do anything to you." I rolled my eyes. "Aleks, decimating the Council members wouldn't aid the diplomatic relations in any way." He frowned. "Fine, then I just steal you and run away with you to the end of the world. No damn member of any damn council can stand against the two of us."