Long Live the Soverenyis

VIII - A BIRD AND A PROMISE

It's been 5 days after Katherine's last dream. She tried to forget it, but every time her mind didn't worry about Agatha's memory, the mysterious man invaded her thoughts. He's real. He really exists, and she needs to meet him, to know who is that shadowed figure that visits her on her dreams.

The witch, then, began to focus more on her mission to forget the man. She takes advantage of her job as a handmaiden to search around people stuff, aiming to find something useful about Ravka, and orders her shadows to see if there's anything interesting about the country — war strategies, confidential files, soldier's reports, rumors, anything. Knowledge is never little, after all. Is better to be prepared for an unusual situation than to be thrown at one with zero knowledge of what's going on.

Katherine also studied at night, devouring every grimoire till dawn. She needs to find a the perfect spell, one that doesn't mess with Agatha's others memories. According to Levi, their cousin suspects — and "discovered" — she's not a Grisha, but an Air Singer witch. Hope said she remembers a few vocabularies too, and thinks they're from her past. Moreover, Agatha asked a few days ago if the ginger knew what was Halloween.

'I told her the basic', Hope said to her cousins that night. 'That is the day of All Hallows' Eve, created by the ancient Celtic, when the living and dead worlds collide.'

'What'd she say?' Nick questioned.

'She asked me about the Supernatural. If it was the time of the year where they could be themselves without fear.'

He took a deep breath, which Katherine interpreted as an attempt to hold a cry. 'Mom used to tell us that.'

She slowly nodded. 'I know.'

'So what do we do now?' Levi looked up from his lap. 'How can we find that spell?'

'The magic levels', everyone turned to Michelle, who spoke for the first time in minutes. 'Aunt Freya always taught us: the smaller the magic—'

'—the more secrets there are', they all completed in unison.

She nodded. 'We need to find Ravka's secrets to know where to search the spell. Maybe there're Supernaturals here.'

This makes Katherine stop walking on the Little Palace's hallway. When her cousin said that, she honestly thought they needed to search around Os Alta and other cities to find this country's secrets. But now an idea is on her mind.

The Darkling's office. What a better place to seek for magical information than the Grisha's Leader chambers?

"Keep an eye the Darkling's office and warn me the best hour to enter." The witch whispers to her shadows, who obey in an instant, flying through the palace and fitting in the General's chambers without being seen.

Katherine knew immediately who've followed her orders: Ikatris and Umbra. She felt their aura leaving her own shadow and making her shiver a little with their absence. Although she loves and trusts all of her shadows, she's glad it was them. They are the quietest, never getting mistaken or distracted by anything. That's what make them good at spying.

She takes a deep breath to continue with her day, dreading to have to take care of the Sun Summoner. She should be getting tons of money for not having hurt her yet. It's difficult for the Shadow Singer to be close to lightscums, and all of this due to her terrible personal experiences. Some tried to kill and torture her, others got acquainted for power just to then — try to — betray her. But the worst of all is obviously the first experience, where everything began.

The house she shared with her "parents", Tissaia and Andrew, and her twin sisters, Katarina and Katrina. Oh, if she only knew how much she'd suffer, the little girl would've ran away from that house before completing 7 years.