The Sun Blade

The Second Summoner

"Focus, Cresana!" A man's voice pierced through the darkness, but it sounded distant and far away, as if reaching her from the other side of a cave.

There was something familiar about the voice, and she regarded it with an emotionless curiosity as she let the feel of her powers course through her veins, drowning out the voice.

*****

Ivan hadn't seen anything like this before.

Granted, he had only ever seen one other Sun Summoner – the only other Sun Summoner – but there was no comparison between the two.

Alina's light had been enthralling in a way. It looked like real sunlight, with richness and warmth. It poured out of Alina like a prism. Colors and textures came alive under it. It felt safe albeit powerful.

Cresana's light was something else entirely. It was sinister and terrifying to look at. There was no warmth to it at all. It was a harsh, cold-looking light, like a too-bright moonlight on snow. It burst out of Cresana with an otherworldly intensity; at times, Ivan marveled that she wasn't torn to shreds by the sheer force of it. And it was completely uncontrollable.

Kirigan hadn't anticipated that. Most Grisha struggled to express their powers, if they had difficulty with the Small Science. But Cresana had the opposite problem. Her power was all-consuming, and once it took over her there was almost nothing that could rein it back in.

And then there was the problem of her sight.

Ivan had no idea how Kirigan knew that it would happen, but he obviously did. That was why Kirigan had demanded Cresana's Trial include her facing an opponent sightless. Even though Kirigan had accurately predicted that Cresana would be unable to see when using her powers, he had underestimated the difficulty this posed in honing Cresana's power into something useful.

Ivan and Kirigan had been putting Cresana through drills for weeks, but it had proven almost entirely fruitless. Without her sight, Cresana had great difficulty siphoning her light into anything resembling a targeted beam. Instead, it burst out of every inch of her body, saturating everything around her with a blinding intensity. Without being able to concentrate the light, Cresana would never be able to master the Cut, or even perform mildly useful tasks with her power. At present, her power had all the finesse of a cudgel when what Kirigan had hoped for was a scalpel.

*****

Kirigan slammed the door to his chambers, storming inside looking for something to break. The frustration and disappointment he had been trying to keep at bay for weeks could no longer be contained. His jaw was so clenched he was beginning to develop a headache. With a roar, he let his anger coarse through him. He felt his powers burst forth from his palms and wrists, hurtling towards a bookcase at the back of his study. With a guttural yell, he let the Small Science act as a catharsis. In a moment, the bookcase had been sliced in two, and with a satisfying crash the stacks of tomes, maps, and oddities he had collected in his travels crashed onto the hard stone floor.

Cresana had proven to be an immense disappointment. After years and years of failed attempts, Kirigan had felt so certain that he had created something truly important, something he needed. When she had survived the change – albeit barely – he had felt hopeful for the first time since first meeting Alina Starkov, all those years ago just outside The Fold. Now, all he felt was rage and bitterness.

Cresana's power was strong enough to rival Alina's, that much was indisputable. But he had not been prepared for how completely unruly her powers were. Partially because of the sheer force of her powers, but also because of her lost sight when using them, Cresana hadn't shown any improvements in being able to harness and hone her light. Instead, it radiated off of her in a spectacular display of force, but unlike Alina she wasn't able to control the light. He had long since given up on teaching her the Cut, and now he was beginning to doubt that she would have any use to him at all, other than perhaps the element of surprise. Once his enemies learned that not only were her powers completely uncontrolled, but she was also intensely vulnerable and sightless when using them, it would only be a matter of time before she'd be killed.

Kirigan had anticipated that Cresana's eyesight would be compromised when summoning light. He had inklings of this from several of his trial subjects many years ago. In the early stages of refining the tincture, Kirigan had been successful in seeing a few servants – two stable hands and a kitchen maid - through the transition process. Their power hadn't been nearly as powerful as Cresana's, but all of them reported losing their sight when summoning light. They hadn't lived long enough to be much use to Kirigan beyond this revelation. It had taken him months to realize that, to give the Otkazat'sya their best chance of survival, he would have to slow the transition process down considerably. The stable hands and kitchen maid had lived only a few days after the transition before their bodies had shut down under the sheer stress of trying to control light, even as weak as their powers had been.

Kirigan had been assured by The Evaluators at The Institute that Cresana would be ready to adapt to fighting without her eyesight. He had demanded that her preparedness be tested by him personally during her Trial. At first, The Evaluators had balked at this demand, as their sacred Trial was a closely kept secret and they were loath to allow an outsider – even one as powerful as Kirigan – to bear witness. But after much persuasion (and a fair amount of blackmail), they had relented.

Kirigan had been immensely impressed by Cresana's ability to adapt to warfare sightless. Despite being weakened by hunger and psychological stress during her Trial, she had bested her opponent handily. He had felt confident that he had selected the correct Otkazat'sya to manifest the powers of Sun Summoner, even with the handicap of blindness. But reality had proven significantly different from even Kirigan's worst fears. For weeks, he had tried and failed to teach Cresana something – anything - about harnessing her light. Nothing had worked.

He sat down wearily in a chair, allowing his exhausted mind to wander aimlessly, although it always inevitably returned to the question of Cresana. She had proven to be a liability. Was there anything to salvage from this endeavor?

As much as he hated to consider the idea of wasting such an investment of time and energy, Kirigan began to mull over the possibility that, if Cresana was no use to him alive, perhaps she could be of more use to him dead. As the minutes wore on into hours and the night grew late, Kirigan's restlessness slowly subsided and he began to formulate a plan. It was almost sunrise before he retired to his chambers for some much needed rest, but he felt a grim sense of resignation. Although he wasn't sure he was ready to throw away her life needlessly yet, he felt some sense of reassurance that, if she continued to be wasteful, there was probably something to be gained from her death. It would have to be a public one, and tragic, but Kirigan felt confident that could be arranged. When he finally fell asleep, he slept deeply.

At the other end of the Little Palace, also lying awake troubled by the situation at hand, Cresana didn't find sleep until the sky was tinged pink with sunrise. Unlike the Black General, Cresana's sleep was not restful. It was riddled with dark dreams and a sense of impending doom.