Saints and Sinners

Eighteen:

Eighteen:

The last time Aleksander had taken her somewhere, it had been to his mother's shelter. He had said that he wanted to take her to see more of his 'holdings' and she couldn't fathom that his soulmate was rich enough that he had 'holdings'. She had barely had enough money to afford her apartments rent. When they left the apartment, Aleksander helped her into the car and closed the door behind him.

"Will you at least tell me where we're going?" she asked.

Aleksander shook his head. "It's a surprise." He took her hand in his. "Mal said you liked to draw, yeah?"

Alina frowned. "When did you have time to talk to Mal about what I liked?"

He grinned. "I have my ways. But he was right?"

Alina nodded. "I originally thought about being an art major, but the only real way you can make money is by doing projects for other people. That's not why I like drawing. When I was at the orphanage, they made us all go to a therapist because we'd all come from some hard situations. And one of the things that she would have me do was art therapy, and it cleared my head."

"Mal said your parents...well, that they passed when you were young and that their passing wasn't easy."

"They met because my dad was stationed on the border of Ravka and Shu Han, and my mom's family had a farm. They would meet and pass notes to each other, and both of them barely spoke the others language but they knew enough of both to get along and get to know each other. Dad.... dad died in a missile strike, and then the next winter, mom got so sick from cold and grief she died. My grandparents were too old to take care of me which is how I wound up at the orphanage, and then they died they next year. And Dad was an orphan too, which is why he went into the military in the first place, because he didn't have anything and it was steady pay."

He squeezed her hand gently. "I'm sorry, that's hard."

Alina shrugged. "It is what it is. Ravka's always at war with someone. Or someone's always at war with us. It's all about who you ask. Until that stops, there's going to be plenty of orphan children like me. This place...the long winters, the government...all of the saints and sinners...it makes people go mad or lose themselves. You either live honestly, and smally, or you live largely, and someone else pays the price for it. I want...I want to make things better for people, and that's why I want to be a lawyer. Even when there's snow, there should still be some sun."

Aleksander smiled at her. "The kind of work that I do...defense work...sometimes, it comes with a price. Sometimes, you defend the wrong person. Sometimes, it's the right person. But if we live in a society where people can't defend themselves, that's worse. Being a defense lawyer is like watching the shadows consume your soul. You know every person's bad deed, but you've got to hope that you're fucking wrong about them or...if you're right about them...that their darkness will lead to some good in the world, somehow. There's a young man I know who was involved in helping screw over his father's company and kidnapping his pregnant stepmother to do it. The court wanted to fucking convict him. They want him strung up a tree and left to rot. Now, I managed to set the kid free, and you know why I did it?"

"The money?"

"Cute, Alinochka. No. Because the father was selling war secrets, and the kids boyfriend had found out about it but no one believed him because the kid was dyslexic and they couldn't imagine how he would find that out. Then, the kid found his dad had locked his mom up so that he could get her inheritance without her interference. Kid wanted to free his mom, and he couldn't do that with that bastard around."

Alina stared at him. "That story sounds familiar."

"It should," said Aleksander, "It was Wylan's, Jesper's soulmate. How they met in the first place. Jesper was doing private detective work for him trying to find out what the Senior Van Eck was up to."

She raised an eyebrow. "Exactly how many of my friends are you keeping safe or have helped?"

Aleksander smirked at her. "That's a whole other conversation, malyshka. But now, we're here."

The two of them got out, and Alina was surprised to find that they were at The Little Palace, a former Ravkaan place of power, that had been turned into a museum. "I shut it down for the day although I did ask one of our best tour guides to stay," he said, "we have the whole place to ourselves. You can look and admire Ravka's greatest artists to your hearts content, and maybe get some inspiration, hmm? I've got an art room set up for you at the apartment."

Alina looked at him with surprise. "You have a whole art room set up for me in your apartment?"

Aleksander nodded.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT SOONER?" she swatted him. "Do you know how much more compliant I would have been if I knew that?"

Aleksander chuckled. "Well, I was a little too bit concerned with trying to make sure you didn't have me arrested or kill me in my sleep, Alinochka."

"Beis," she hissed at him again, and he only managed to grin wider.

"Come on, Sunshine." He took her hand and led her into the museum, where they had the whole, entire place and day alone together.

When they stepped inside, Alina let out a gasp. "Magic."

"No," he said, "but you are, my dear." He reached out and stroked her cheek, then they went to go look at the paintings.