Swan Song ~ Shadow & Bone

3

The next day, I was rested and well again and on my way to meet General Kirigan when Genya stopped me in the hallway.

"Katya," she said, starting to reach out to grab my arm before stopping herself. She looked back at her team and waved them along, leaving us alone. When she looked back at me, she held her hands to her chest and nodded, my version of a gentle hug. I smiled and returned the gesture, and she smiled softly up at me. "I'm glad you made it back safely. Jeliah told me you were exhausted yesterday." I chuckled and nodded.

"Are you on your way to Alina?" I asked. She nodded, and I smiled. "I won't keep you waiting. I have to see the General anyway." She nodded, and we went our separate ways. I reached the dining hall and made my way through, seeing a few Grisha just eating breakfast, and headed into Kirigan's meeting room. He was standing over a table with Ivan.

"General," I said, getting his attention. He looked up at me and sighed.

"How many times, Katya?" he asked. I rolled my eyes.

"You sent for me." He sighed and nodded, motioning for Ivan to leave. Once it was just the two of us, he glared at me playfully.

"You just love annoying me in front of people, don't you?" I shrugged.

"I've no idea what you're talking about, General." He smirked and ran at me, tickling my sides. I shrieked. "Alright, alright! I'm sorry! Aleksander!" He laughed and walked away.

"That's better." I rolled my eyes.

"Ass." He grinned a bit, and I sighed. "What do you want?" He nodded.

"Alina is to meet the king today." I nodded. "After we arrive back here, I want you to go to her and tell her you'll be training her." I furrowed my brow.

"Why isn't Baghra training her?" He rolled his eyes.

"She is. But what can you truly learn from someone who doesn't have the same power as you?"

"I don't understand. No one has the same power as her."

"Yes but you are the closest." He sighed. "Katya, you are the most powerful Inferni in the Second Army. That's why you're my second." I nodded. "You are the only person that can even come close to having the same power as her. Pure Fire is as close as we're going to get to having someone else like her." I sighed and nodded.

"Okay. I'll help her." He smiled.

"Thank you, Katya. Sincerely." He sighed. "Now, I'd imagine you need to get ready to see the king. I won't keep you any longer." I nodded.

"Thank you...Aleksander."

🜂

After the meeting with the king, Genya told me that Alina had immediately headed back to her room, most likely not wanting to be around other Grisha that had been training for years when she had no idea what she was doing. I made my way there as quickly as I could and knocked on her door lightly.

"Come in," she called from inside. I quietly stepped inside the room, and she looked up at me, quickly straightening up as she had been writing a letter.

"Lieutenant." I smiled.

"That won't be necessary," I told her. "My name is Katya. Katya Markov." She nodded. "Do you know what I am?" She furrowed her brow.

"I know you're the Black General's second in command." I chuckled.

"That's not what I meant. I meant what do you think my power is." She nodded.

"I don't know," she said honestly. "No one I know does. They say you never show people what you can do." I smiled and nodded.

"That's right. I don't display my power very often."

"Why?" I smiled sadly and walked over to the couch, sitting down and motioning for her to do the same.

"I've always been an outcast," I told her. "When we were children, my brothers and I would steal the other children's belongings. Just to see if we could." I chuckled. "If you can imagine, we weren't very liked." She laughed quietly. "When I got here, I thought it would be different. It wasn't. They had already heard about what I could do, and they hated me. Very few Grisha ever gave me a chance." She frowned.

"Why?" I sighed and sat up straighter, looking her in the eye.

"There's no technical name for what I do. The General and I call it 'Pure Fire.' In that way, I am officially an Inferni." I paused. "Officially. But I'm different."

"How?" I smiled.

"You ask a lot of questions." Her face turned red, and I shook my head. "Don't be embarrassed. That's a good thing." She nodded.

"How are you different from the other Inferni?" I smirked, and one of the empty sheets of paper on the table caught fire. Alina jumped and started fanning the flame, then froze, staring at it.

"It's...It's white," she said. I chuckled, nodding.

"Yes, it is." I didn't move but made the flame disappear. "Notice anything else?" She looked down at my hand, resting on my knee, then up at me.

"No spark?" I nodded.

"Very good, Alina. I need no spark because unlike most Inferni, I don't summon flame. I summon heat, and from that comes flame. That's one way that I am different. People think of me as using merzost, that I'm creating fire instead of summoning. The other thing that is different is the color and heat." She furrowed her brow. "In school, you learned about the classifications of fire, correct?" She nodded.

"You can tell the heat of a flame by the color it appears." I nodded.

"Red is the coolest of flames, though far from cold. Then orange, yellow, blue, and the hottest flame is white. Most Inferni can summon flames with temperatures that would match anything below blue, but I can only summon white flames." She nodded.

"The hottest fire." I smiled.

"That's right. And because of this, the General has said that I am the only Grisha that can come anywhere close to having the same power as you. Compared to the power of the sun, Pure Fire is nothing, but it's closer than anything else." She nodded.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"I'm telling you this because while Baghra, the woman that trains most Grisha, is very good at what she does, you need to be taught by someone who can at least partially understand your power." She looked up at me.

"You're going to teach me?" I smiled softly and nodded.

"You will still be trained by Baghra as well, but I will help you as much as I can." She looked down at her lap, then back up at me.

"Thank you, Katya." I nodded.

"Of course."