𝕬𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞 - [𝗞𝗮𝘇 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗿]

𝐱𝐱𝐯𝐢. 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐒𝐈𝐗 — big brother

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 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐈𝐃 a word since Aleksa had stumbled backwards and perched upon a stack of unsteady boxes. Her eyes had glazed over, an unfocused stare settled on a single chip in the wooden floor. Aleksa's fingers were interwoven, knuckles as white as the sunlight Alina had summoned around the skiff.

 Inej had tried to provoke a response, a nudge to her arm, a light kick to her leg; she'd even reached her hand out to smooth over Aleksa's knuckles, yet no response had come. Jesper had cracked a joke here and there, yet no reaction was elicited... From any of them.

 Aleksa was too consumed with the truth. She was drowning. The Fold swirled around them, cracks of harsh thunder rattled the skiff, and the sound of shrieking Volcra grated at their ears; everything she was afraid of was in one place, made by one man. A man she had trusted.

 She had thought the world of Aleksander, looked up to him with stars in her glorious eyes even despite his harsh punishments. Aleksa had seen him exactly as he'd wanted her to; a hero. He had saved her from a life of loneliness and bullying, and he vowed to save the world from the scar dividing it... only, he had been the villain to create it.

 She could feel his power; she always had been closer in tune with the darkness than he. It was a strange thing to know that now. Aleksander was centuries old, and yet he wielded his power like a sword while Aleksa used it as an extension of herself, like it was just another limb attached to her own flesh and bone.

 Aleksa and the darkness around her were old friends, Aleksander saw the shadows as soldiers to do his bidding. She could feel every smattering of darkness that clung to the skiff, the call of the Fold. She could feel it as Aleksander summoned for a certain power that shouldn't have existed.

 "He's expanding the Fold." Those were the first words she spoke and the sound of her voice made Jesper jump almost a foot into the air.

 They all stared at her. None of the Crows questioned her, they never doubted her abilities to call out for the shadows and receive their whispers in turn, but Mal was sceptical. His eyes hadn't moved from her.

 He considered Aleksa after the reveal of her blood ties, or perhaps lack thereof. Brother, she had said; he had wanted to ask if she bent the shadows too, but now he hadn't the need.

 "Expanding the Fold?" Their newcomer repeated, standing to his feet in a flurry of dirtied fabric, "How do you know?"

 "I can feel it. That kind of power can only be used for one thing," A shiver scuttled across her spine as the sensation of billowing shadows multiplied above, "I think he's going to drown Novokribirsk."