The twins - A grishaverse Darklina fanfic

Chapter 12

As soon as the three soldiers  walked into the tent, The Darkling's mask was backup, he switched from father to general in a matter of seconds, quickly shifting back into the mindset of giving out orders expecting them to be followed with no hesitation.

"You two," The Darkling turned towards the Oprichniki, "bring me two of the smallest cots and set them up at the back of the tent." The two men swiftly made their way out, following orders immediately. "Alexi," The Darkling moved his gaze to the heartrender. "I trust you have information for me on the soldiers that should be arriving shortly yes?"

The heartrender looked puzzled for a moment, before realization dawned on him. "Yes sir." He replied with a curt nod.

"Kyra, Aelia, stay here, I am leaving the tent for a moment, there will be someone outside guarding you, making sure you don't leave or get into trouble, do not think about disobeying me and leaving the tent again, if you do, I assure you I will not be as nice as I was a little while ago. Am I understood?" The Darkling turned around, bringing his attention back to his daughters.

They replied with a simultaneous 'yes papa', and with that, The Darkling left the tent, the heartrender not far behind.

The twins did as told, and did not leave the tent, too frightened of getting in trouble again. Instead they played hand games amongst themselves, clapping and high-fiving their hands alternating between them, before they decided to have fun and experiment with their powers together.

Outside the tent, the Darkling was talking to Alexi, his new second in command after Ivan's death, about locating and calling all of the Grisha still loyal to him, to form an army to defeat Alina.

"Once we have called upon everyone who is willing to fight by me to this camp, we will begin our march to Os Alta. I want you to send the best spies we have to the South, to Shu Han, make them plant the idea we are there. We want them to believe we did not cross the fold, that we are going around it, through Shu Han. It means they will assume we will take months to reach, giving them the impression they have much time to prepare for a battle. This way we will have an advantage due to the element of surprise. 

We should be able to pass undetected as, even with the other grisha loyal to me by our side, we still appear to small to be a proper threat. Once we are in the capital, I will summon the Nichevo'ya"  The Darkling finished.

"Yes moi soverenyi, I will go find the spies, would you like me to tell you who they are before I send them off sir?"

"No.  I do not have time for that, but ensure the job is done well, if it is not, you will be to blame and you will regret it."

The Darkling finished his sentence and left, not saying another word to the Heartrender, heading back towards the tent to get back to his work. Although the plan seemed simple and straightforward, there was much preparation to be done, and many other factors that he needed to think through. The larges thing troubling him however, was what to do with the twins. He knew he needed to bring them with him, because there was no where he could leave them and guarantee their safety.

Upon entering, his daughters greeted him with excitement, he had only been gone a couple of minutes, yet they acted as if they have not seen him for years.

"PAPA! PAPA LOOK!" The youngest daughter squealed in delight whilst running towards her father. 

The older daughter was faster and already tugging on the bottom of the general's Kefta when she exclaimed, "WE PLAY WITH POWER PAPA! LOOK WHAT WE DO!"

Kyra stepped away from her father and pulled her sister towards her, she cupped the young sun summoner's hands in her own, and a beam of light emerged, followed by a black ribbon of shadow. Slowly more beams were released out of their hands, which slowly weaved themselves into a single flower. Then, they started forming more flowers, a small bouquet, the petals starting small inwards, before blooming outwards.

Irises

He realised. Irises, their mothers favorite flower. Then the twins looked at him, and he was flooded with thoughts of Alina.

The way their eyes shone with pride, identical to Alina's eyes the day of the winter fete when she displayed her powers. The way their smiles beamed brighter than any amount of light anyone could summon. Identical smiles to those of his escaped sun summoner.

He was looking at the bouquet made oh off the swirling of the darkness and light, when he noticed something that puzzled him. Ribbons of light were flowing freely out of Kyra's palms, and upon closer inspection, he noticed slivers of shadow swirling out of Aelia's hands, both of the tendrils, contributing to the bouquet in front of him.

At first, the Darkling played it off as an illusion, that Kyra was summoning the shadows around Aelia's palms and vice versa, but as he looked closer, he saw that Kyra seemed to be slightly glowing underneath her skin. The Darkling's eyes widened in realization and shock. 

He could not believe it.

He would not believe it.

No grisha has ever possessed more than one power, and although him and Alina were rare, it should be impossible for someone to possess 2 different forms of grisha power, let alone 2 people.

As quick as it came, The Darkling replaced his look of astonishment to a fadce that showed nothing of what he was truly feeling.

Confused

He would not let anyone see him confused, not even his daughters. 

Instead he focused on the part of him that felt pride for his two daughters, and plastered that expression onto his face before beginning to speak.

"Well done girls, that is very impressive, to be able to focus the light and shadow to create the illusion of a bouquet. I want to try something very quickly, Kyra come here." The young shadow summoner walked over to her father. "Give me your arm please." Once again, she did as she was told. "I am going to amplify you, but do not summon."

Kyra looked questioningly at her father. "Okay Papa."

Before taking his daughters arm, The Darkling removed the ring he had on his pinkie finger, and transferred it to  his thumb. Upon seeing the large pointed spike on the ring, Kyra began to back away, attempting to move back into her old position next to her sister. 

"It's alright Kyra, it wont hurt, come back here."

Reluctantly the older twin stepped forward once more, but not as close as she had previously been. Seeing her hesitation, The Darkling gently took his daughters arm in his own, and stepped forward. His grip was firm but not painful, not allowing his daughter to back away when he moved closer to her.

Gently, he lifted the sleeve of his daughters black Kefta with the hand that was not holding her arm in place. Then he placed the tip of the ring at Kyra's arm, a little below her shoulder, and dragged is down wards. From the wound, a pillar of shadow emerged, stretching towards the top of the tent, but upon closer inspection, he noticed the shadows did not seem as dark as the ones he himself summoned. Using his power, The Darkling manipulated the shadows Kyra was summoning, and moved them outwards, allowing him to see the inside of the dark pillar. There he saw it, almost invisible, but there, a very thin line of light, stretching up withing the shadows, almost as thin as thread. 

The Darkling did not remove his ring, instead he called Aelia over, and instructed her to take her sisters hand, upon doing so, the light thickened, it was not as much as the shadows, but it was much more present. 

The Darkling removed the ring from Kyra's skin and released her arm. The Darkling was looking at his daughter the shock and confusion, whilst Kyra just looked in awe. He did not bother repeating the procedure with Aelia, he new what he would find, the reverse.

The twins could summon both shadow and light, although they each had their more dominant power, but that did not change the fact that they could both summon both shadow and light. Without knowing what else to do, and needing time to pricess and think, the Darkling sent his daughters off to bed without another word,  absorbing the information he had just come across.