Long Live the Soverenyis

VII - CLOSER THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE

Hope was nervous. It's been nearly 3 hours the Darkling left and she got a tour of the Little Palace, a chamber and a blue kefta with red embroideries. She spent the whole tour with a watchfulness glance, paying attention to every odd noise in hopes to see Agatha. Levi's letter scared her; she wasn't ready to see her cousin just to not be remembered.

The redhead went through this once and doesn't want to experience again. The loneliness of being forgotten still haunts her in her nightmares. Although it happened on her teenage years, the pain never entirely goes away.

However, she's the only one that can pretend to be a Grisha. Nick is too similar to Agatha; it'll raise suspects about the two of them. Michelle can easily distract herself by Ravka's beauty. Levi is more used to cast spells than summon his own element — earth —; the possibilities of him getting caught by using magic is high. And Katherine... a Shadow Singer would make a fuss as big as the discovery of the Sun Summoner.

The clock's 8 chimes awaken Hope from her reveries. It's time for the first class.

She takes a deep breath with closed eyes before exiting her chambers. It's weird to wear a kefta, to use something that don't belong to you. It feels wrong, as if she was taking advantage of a people culture...

To be fair, she is, but that's not what she means. Besides, the minute her family get Agatha, Hope will give it back to the Grishas. This is a uniform to Infernis, not to Fire Singers.

The Little Palace's training area is huge, with flags of each Grisha orders. She studied enough to know each one: purple to Materialki, blue to Etheralki and red to Corporalki. It's good to see that this people are proud of their powers, and even if they reprimand themselves the entire life, they'll not die by the lack of use it. When witches do this, their magic overwhelms them so much that corrodes their insides until they die, or worse: makes them have a power explosion. There're no records of someone — or anyone near the wizard — who have survived to the latter. It's pure chaos.

"You seem out of place", a well known voice takes all the air off Hope's lungs. She turns around quickly, desperate to see if her cousin is really behind her right now. The redhead wants to cry the minute Agatha comes to her sight. She's with a blue kefta with silver embroideries, her black curly hair tied up in a bun. Good thing to know she's still sociable, though her dark brown eyes haven't got the usual malicious glint.

That sanks Hope's heart.

"I'm Agatha."

"Veronika." The ginger has to control every cell in her body to not give her cousin a big hug.

"New here?" She nods. "I'm here for a month. It's weird, but I'm taking little steps to get used to it. Maybe we can work on this together, don't you think?"

Hope opens her mouth to reply, but is interrupted by Agatha's chuckle. "I'm sorry. I don't even know you and am already acting as a maniac. Is just that... you caught my attention."

"No! No! It's okay."

Her dark brown eyes sparkle. "Oh, thank the Ancestors!"

Agatha puts her hands on her mouth immediately after realizing what she's just said. That's never happened, the thought of Ancestors hasn't even crossed her mind. It was spontaneous, and didn't feel weird at all. To be honest, it's like she had said this expression for her entire life! Maybe this is something from her past?

Hope smiles at the scene. For what it seems, her cousin's haven't said something like that since she lost her memories. It's a witch expression, which shows that the faith in the Ancestors is still strong as ever in Agatha's mind. It's a good sign.