Blood and Water - The Darkling

Chapter 27: Vasilka

*Unedited

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𝕾𝖛𝖊𝖙𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖆, you're oddly quiet.

There's not much to say. Everything has been the same.

Meetings. Training with Botkin. Long hours by the lake trying to help Alina hone her use of the cut. Even helping Nikolai build his ship in the lake has become monotone.

What of new defenses?

I sigh, Just reinforcing the domed hall with Grisha steel and other materials to seal cracks and gaps.

And Alina's search for the firebird?

Dead end. My twin herself has lost something within. Her power brings her no comfort. She told me she even feels a bareness on her right wrist like a brand! At least she has accepted that she's obsessed but it's still just as worrying.

How are you fairing?

My spine straightens. In all this time I don't think anyone has actually asked me. Not Alina. Not Mal. Not Nikolai. Only the man beside me has.

For the most part, surprisingly well. I feel amazing, using my powers so much has definitely made a big difference. And unlike my twin, I have no hunger for the firebird... it's the opposite in fact. My only need right now is to break this cycle of repetition. It's boring without you by my side.

His arm around my shoulder tightens, Soon.

Tell me a story, oh immortal one.

The man has the audacity to laugh at me.

Really, Lana?

Just do as I say, or by the Saints, I will not sleep for five days or however long I can stay awake.

You wouldn't.

Don't lie to yourself.

I turn to look at Aleksander to see he was already looking at me, eyebrow raised. But then he opens his mouth and obliges me.

His story stays with me longer than I was expecting.

Long ago, before the rise of Ravka, Fjerda, and even the Shu Han, there was a modest and gentle girl named Vasilka. She lived in a high tower at the center of a small village. People would come from all over to buy her embroidery, and many merchants asked her to come away and work for them. She told them all that she would sell to any who found her work beautiful, but she would never leave her father or the village of her birth.

Alina is growing more distant, seems to be staring at nothing more and more frequently. I can only assume it's the Darkling, but I've learned that I can't see him unless I'm touching my sister when she's having a vision.

David finished the dishes today and my twin and I are standing on the Little Palace roof, with the Grisha gathered around us to watch. Alina did not sleep at all, so I'm worried that this may be a disaster. This would be horrible considering Nikolai invited the captain of the palace guard to observe, along with two generals and several of the king's advisors. My sister and I get into position. Then the whistle blows. I summon the light and silvery blue bursts from both my hands in two steady beams. Alina does the same and her gold combines with mine. Blinding white hits the two mirrored dishes. The light bounces off their surface, multiplying upon itself and focusing into two blazing white shafts. Then David blows another whistle, and the beams fuse into a single molten blade, larger than any that I have ever created. It worked. We amplified the cut.