oppositum [a (maybe) Nikolai Lantsov story] (currently being reviewed)

XXIII

glade

He disengaged himself from Nix's grip and with difficulty put distance between them.

"You're a grisha."
"What? Nonsense."

He wasn't listening to her and pointed an accusing finger at her.

"How? How did I never realize that!"

Before she could answer, he cut her off by feeling her torso where her wound was.

"My wound! I don't have anything left! What did you do to me witch!"

He stood up and Nix saw that his torso was as good as new.

'a healing fire...'

She then looked up at Lýkos.

"Do you really think I wanted this shit?!"
"You're a liar and a murderer! You killed your father!"
"I know! Why do you think I joined the drüskelle?"

Lýkos didn't even take the time to think about it and answered in a heartbeat.

"To spy on us. Bastard."

The sorrow could be seen in Nix's eyes.

"I'm doing this to exterminate the mistakes of nature like me Lýkos! I plan to kill myself."

He cut her off by throwing a rock at her head, knocking her right out.

"You'll go tell your lies in front of a judge. Then I will take great pleasure in cutting your head off, you monster."

Nix woke up in the dark. Once again. Her eyes took longer to detect where she was than her sense of smell. She was lying on the floor, a rotten smell invading her nostrils. A prison. That's where she was. Nix got up at the sound of footsteps approaching her cell. She squinted, blinded by the light her visitor held. Even if she didn't vote for him, Nix would have recognized that voice in a thousand.

"Awake?"
"Lýkos? Are you okay?"
"Take care of your own case witch. Your sentence has been decided."
"But... I didn't see anyone. You did it without me?!"

He chuckled.

"You who were spying on us, I thought you would know."

A wicked smile appeared on his face, but if you looked closely, it seemed forced and in Lýkos' eyes you could read sorrow.

"Trial or not, you would still have been sentenced to death my dear."
"Why are you doing this... I thought we were friends... I'm terribly sorry for lying to you all this time, but I beg you, Lýkos. Believe me."

As she spoke, Nix had approached him, almost glued to the bars of her cell. She put her arm behind the bars and gently placed her hand on his cheek. Lýkos relaxed slightly at this contact, closing his eyes for a few seconds while taking a deep breath.

"Sorry. Really... But... I can't anymore."

He broke away from Nix then turned his back on her and began to walk away.

"Wait! Don't leave me here!"

He stopped in front of the steps to the surface and without looking back, addressed Nix.

"Lux survived. Well... not anymore."
"What?"
"He was tried as your accomplice and was executed about ten minutes ago."

He gave Nix a few seconds to digest the information.

"I tried to convince them to just exile him. But it didn't work. I feel you have a right to know."

Nix brought her hands to her mouth then fell to her knees on the floor before bursting into tears as Lýkos left. Nix cried over Lux's death and all her unhappiness until her eyes went dry.

After that, nothing exciting happens. Either Nix was asleep or she was counting the number of strokes a former inmate had carved into the wall in front of her. She had mourned her fate a lot, but now Nix had accepted it. She was going to die one way or another the next morning and had no problem with that. At number 145, she was wondering what time it was when two people burst into her cell. Both wearing large black capes, Nix wondered what they wanted with her. Was it time for her to die already? But all doubts were dispelled when they lowered their hoods. Before her stood her mother, the Queen and Koira.

"What are you doing here?"

Koira lowered herself to her level and took one of her hands in his.

"My dear Nix, you need to get out of here as soon as possible. You have a boat leaving in thirty minutes for Ravka."

She watched him puzzled and then turned her gaze to her mother.

"I thought you'd be happy about my impending death... You've been dreaming of putting a noose around my neck for so long!"

The Queen shrugged and spoke without looking Nix in the eye.

"It would be a shame to let the people execute a member of the royal family. Even if I don't like you, it is my duty to save the monarchy in place. If we kill you tomorrow, the people will see it as an opportunity to rise up and try to overthrow our family. I don't want to take any chances."

She paused for a moment to change her position.

"You must leave my daughter, join your species or we will be removed from the throne and charged with treason"
"Mother, you cannot drive me out of my own kingdom! And anyway I accept my fate. Just let me die here. With my people. My kin."

Koira took Nix's face in her hands and forced her to look him straight in the eye.

"I would never let you die Nix. You are like my daughter, and no father worth his salt would send his own daughter to the slaughterhouse. You don't have a choice. You are leaving for Ravka today."

Just as Nix thought there would be no more tears on her cheeks, her eyes misted over and soon the tears were on her cheeks. She opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out. Koira, also on the verge of tears, put his forehead against Nix's and stroked her hair to reassure and calm her.

"I am here, you can count on me... Come on, get up, we have to go."

He wiped Nix's cheeks and made her stand up with him, still holding her in his arms. She sniffed, took a deep breath and then slowly pulled herself away from Koira's embrace.

"But... Ravka... They will kill me or imprison me as soon as I step on their land. I have sworn to destroy them in front of a large crowd..."

He shook his head.

"You are like a legend to them. A saint. They won't kill you. At least not yet."

Nix was about to retort but Koira cut her off again.

"You'll have to go around the Fold to get to where the royal family and the grishas are. Go through the south because our borders will be on maximum vigilance as soon as we know you've escaped."
"But you'll be suspect number one!"
"I'm going with you. Someone has to keep an eye on you!"

A slight smile played on her lips. Suddenly the room became cloudy and she fainted from exhaustion, and especially after enduring all that stress without flinching.

~~
Well. Here we are at the end of Prelude. I would like to thank you all for voting, commenting or just reading my story! This is just the beginning of a great adventure that awaits us! I hope you enjoyed this first arc and if you have any question or anything else to tell me, I'm open to all! As you probably know (or you're just finding out, but that's okay), my second arc is based on the book Shadow and Bone. So I'm just going to take a kind of break for a couple of weeks to get everything ready and not to rush it all at the last moment. I think that's it. Thanks again for following my story!