Broken beyond healing | the darkling x oc

chapter one

Luda Stanislav loved her mother to pieces and thus she did exactly what the woman told her to do. She helped those in need. After she discovered her powers she quickly learned to control and use them to heal others. She was a grisha healer that was her purpose at least according to her late mother. At first she only had the skills to mend simple cuts, bruises and broken bone and cure colds and light fevers. But with time and practice she achieved to heal sicknesses and injuries ordinary medics and doctors deemed beyond repair. She never came into contact with other grisha like her. She had to learn it all by herself. Everyday she visited military hospitals and hospices seeing after those where ordinary medicine had failed. Luda would stay hidden and use her powers from afar. That way the people could only wonder when their relatives were suddenly completely healthy within seconds rising from their deathbeds. She knew she risked her life by helping them and using her powers. She knew she risked being caught and killed. But she saw it as her purpose in life. Some hinted at the use of grisha magic but who complains when loved ones receive the chance to continue their live even through 'unnatural' ways.

That day she visited a hospital in an especially poor part of Os Alta. She spend her whole day in an overflowing hall filled with sick and injured children posing as a waiting mother. When she concentrated enough Luda could her all of their tiny fragile hearts beating decreasingly slower. She could cry every time out of frustration of the unfairness in the world. "Pull yourself together" she thought. She straightened up in her seat taking a couple of calming breaths before concentrating on one child after another, feeling for their source of pain and mending it within seconds from afar. After healing the very last one, she felt exhausted, her power slowly declining. So she, carefully not to draw any attention to herself, stood up from her seat and quickly made her way out of the hospital, leaving tears of happiness and cries of relief behind. 

The wind that swept though the narrow streets of the outer boroughs of Ravka's capital was harsh and cold. It made its way into Luda's collar and through the thin and worn-out material of her coat, sending a shiver down her spine. She quickly pulled her collar up and fastened her pace, longing for the welcoming warmth of the small tavern nearing in front of her. Luda never really liked the winter. It became too cold here in Ravka. She entered the plain house with a big strive through the creaking wooden door and smiled at the bored-looking bartender who couldn't even muster the effort to lift his gaze from the glass he was polishing with a yellow stained cloth, something that some day might have been very neat white table cloth. It wasn't the only thing in here that had seen better days. The tables were all scratched and slightly uneven, the floor was sticky and it somehow was always dusty. Nevertheless, the tavern was always well attended, maybe because it was the only one within miles. Most of the customers were regulars who came here everyday after work to have a beverage and drink away their sorrows for a better life. Some stayed till lunch the next day. It was rare to see a new-faced stranger in the tavern but as Luda closed the door shutting the cold air out and made her way towards the bar, the girl unconsciously noticed a large, dark figure in the very back of the room that she had never seen in here before. She didn't think much of it. She would probably get to know him later that day when her shift started. Without further acknowledgement from the barman, she made her way over to the door leading to a barely noticeable backroom that she rented with a part of the little money she made as a servant in the tavern.

Entering the room, Luda brushed off her coat, placing it on the little wooden stool right beside the door. The girl closed the door behind her and sighed exhausted. The windowless room was small, gloomy and spartanically furnished. Its decor simply consisted out of a mattress on the floor in the corner farest away from the door, a kitchen counter, a cabinet and a stove to the left and a trunk with her few clothes and sentimental items to the right. It certainly wasn't much, but for Luda it was enough while being discreet enough to keep any suspicion or curious citizens away from her. A twenty year old girl renting a room in one of Os Alta's big apartment buildings would simply draw too much attention to her. Not that she could afford it. Luda lifted the dirty hem of her skirt to untied the laces of her boots and carefully placed them next to the stool. Her feet ached and she longed for a hot cup of tea and a restoring nap. Therefore, she made her way further into the room towards her call it kitchen and retrieve a rusty and old pot with its countless dents and some herbs for her tea from the cabinet. Placing the pot onto the counter, Luda searched for the lighter to lit the wood stacks in the stove, finding it in the very back of the drawer, cursing when it burned her finger lighting it up. Not that it did much harm. Nothing she couldn't take care of later, after she got some rest. She had used her powers enough already that day and she still and to make it through the whole afternoon. 

Luda lit the lighter up again, this time more carefully, and crouched down to enflame the wood. The stacks engulfed into flames filling the room with long awaited warmth. Just as she was about to fill her pot with fresh water that she kept in a bucket next to the stove, the grisha heard loud footsteps and shouts coming from the tavern. As she hastingly walked towards her door to check if everything was alright in the tavern and if the bartender needed help, her door suddenly busted open right in front of her revealing three tall men blocking her way. They were clothed in brownish green uniforms and carried large guns in their hands, the tips directed at her head. The king's soldiers. "Don't move a muscle witch or I swear I will blow your brains out right this second!" shouted the one closest to her. "Fuck", she thought, "after all these years they have found me. This is my last day. I will die!"   

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Here it is, the first chapter of my book! Just a quick introduction into Luda's life. Don't worry the decade between this chapter and the prologue will be mentioned and explained later on in the book. It's all planned. 

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all my love