The Summoners' Heir

Chapter 4: The Golden Thread

Malyshka.

How could he have possibly known? I didn't understand. Was it possible that he was just being... compassionate? That seemed more far-fetched than him knowing my identity. I've heard him being described as a father to his Grisha, but even when he knew I was his daughter, he had never shown me such affection.

This was a kind of sleep deprivation that was painful. 

I was sleeping for short periods and then awake as if I was breathing for the first time - as if I was deprived of oxygen so desperately needed. There was no point fighting it. I embraced my anxious thoughts with open arms.

Well, I suppose there were only two shadow summoners... and now, from his perspective, there were three. He knew we had to be related. Did he just assume I was his daughter? I remembered that Alina had a best friend, a tracker who was one of the Morozova amplifiers - from the Darkling's aunt's line. I don't know if he knew about Mal yet, but maybe he was thinking about the amplifier lineage. That could very well be a possibility.

Now thinking of ancestry, not much of Mother's was known. Hardly anything was recorded, and apparently, she didn't know much herself. All I knew was that her Mother was Shu and her Father was Ravkan. I just found it bizarre that out of nowhere, no lineage; a sun summoner just came to be. Especially since being a shadow summoner was hereditary.

Almost as if in response to my newfound thoughts, I found the sun in me reaching out. It was pulling on something. I could see it, a piece of light morphing into something that resembled a line... a thread. I followed the cord within my mind. I allowed it to guide me until I found my surroundings were dissipating. It was like the vortex, only not so violent. It felt familiar, like home.

I was no longer in my quarters. I found myself in a camp. Of course. Ravka was in the middle of a Civil War. I took comfort in my new environment. As a general myself, no place made me feel so at ease.

I realised this was the otkazat'sya' army. No one wore keftas here.

That's when I saw her.

The great Sol Koroleva. The Saint sent to liberate Ravka.

Mother.

The child in me yearned for her. Desired her comforting touch. I needed her gentle reassurances, telling me that I would be home safely.

Seeing her now made me realise she hadn't aged at all. However, she lacked our warm glow - a defining feature that came with being a child of the sun. While her face was just as youthful, she was malnourished and weak. She wasn't summoning. She didn't know who she was yet. Who she would be. Unlike the Sun Queen I knew, her features held a sweet innocence. Lacking the burdens that came with being... well, us.

With her was whom I assumed to be the tracker.

Malyen Oretsev.

Mother had spoken of him fondly. But not very often, as any mention of him was met with the Darkling's disapproval. He was the past. The tsar had made that very clear.