Call me : Darkness

A touch of light

Five days have passed and the destination isn't nearby, or so it seems. The sailors sang and drank together at nights, sharing their own stories which may or may not have been made up at the spot. The Otkazat'syas would stay in one group and the grisha in another.
One squaller would always be standing elegantly on the crow's nest, mostly that grisha was Tara.

Alina spent most of these days in her own room, not talking to anyone, not eating, not drinking. The Darkling had tried to persuade her into eating but that had caused the ship to be submerged in burning light and a piercing scream. He didn't try again but managed to sent and retrieve many of his grishas.
Often, the onmious sound of the sun summoner speaking to someone in the dark would terrify the crew. It was already considered a bad omen to have a woman on board. Many claim that the crew would've liked an energetic  woman, a woman who would run around joking and laughing, a woman who would sing in a melodious voice to no one in particular.

Alina wasn't that woman.

Aurora was still burning with fever. A shade of scarlet had taken over her face and her cheeks were hollowing out. The darkling visited her at least once a day - because Alina didn't.
Everyone on board was losing hope at saving the child. All Healers were terrified at knowing what would happen if a grisha like this, much less the daughter of the general, died overboard.
The darkling had already threatened to throw all Healers off the ship if Aurora didn't wake up in at least a week. The healers were trying everything they could. But there was shortage of many medicines, herbs and teas. Aurora just couldn't recover until they were on the ship - or this is at least what most people told themselves.

Even the darkling had stopped whisking around on the ship throughout the day. Most of the hours were spent in his Room and the leftovers were spent in the infirmary.
Neither the sun summoner, nor the shadow summoner made any move to talk to each other.

That day, this unspoken line was broken.

It happened to be exceptionally sunny during the morning, and humid in mid evening. Alina was on the starboard side, slouching over the railing and glancing sideways to nothingness.
The darkling had lurked out of the shadows, enclosed in layers of dark like night. Alina hadn't budged.

"I can save her," He stated while his eyes scanned the sea.
Alina had turned her head, the tiniest of hope sparkling in her eyes. "How?" Her voice was raspy, she hadn't spoken a word in days.
The darkling turned his head to face Alina, "Merzost."
Alina scoffed, "and you're sure about this?"
The darkling ducked his head in surrender, "I've....sensed something." He admitted.
Alina whipped her head again, raising her brow questioningly.
"She....already has merzost inside her," The darkling didn't look up, afraid of the look Alina would give him. When Alina didn't speak, he finally gave in and tilted his head ever so lightly, eyes scanning the sun summoner's face for any signs of anger.
"She is dying, Alina," He stated without any hint of emotion.

"You're lying," Alina breathed, her voice shaking miserably, "Stop."
"Alina, this is the truth and you need to face it."

"No - No," Alina swallowed. A painful lump was forming in her throat. She stammered for words but faltered as the process of speaking was stolen from her, leaving her gasping for air.
The sustained emotions which were somehow at bay till now trembled violently. The persistent feeling of being someone who would have no one, ever, devoured her whole like the shadows had once, a long while ago.

"NO!"

There was a bright arc, racing towards a cloud in the sky. A cloud which seemingly looked like the hull of a ship.
The arc tore through right in the middle and vanished somewhere in the never ending blue.

"no," Alina cried out again and a dull aura of light diminished from about the ship. Thick and unspoken darkness crawling upon people like shadows - except that this dark wasn't the work of the shadow summoner.
This was the work of a mother mourning her child and trapping away the very existence of light from the atmosphere. There was no light in her life, all that she ever knew was gone - would be gone. Why should the world be happy? Why should the sailors be allowed to drink and sing at nights when Alina would never be able to sing again? Why should the world be allowed any ecstacy when Alina wouldn't smile again? Why should there be any light when the light of Alina's life was taken from her?

The darkness kept growing, making a thick blanket of light draping across the sun summoners shoulder. Light bending on and about across the ship.
The sun was by now mostly invisible.

Even the darkling looked petrified.

"Alina stop this!" He desperately tried to capture her attention.

Surprisingly, Alina stopped and stilled. Tears were streaking her cheeks and her hair was gathered around her head, weaving together like wool.

And then hell broke loose. The light around Alina burst throughout the atmosphere just as she threw her hands outwards. The searing hot wave of light engulfed the ship and people on it alike, burning blisters on their skins, the rotting smell of blazing hair swaying on and about the hull of the ship.

Alina more felt that heard the slapping of waves on the sea, every move of every class of fish, of every creature. The burning hotness of the water up above and the glacial waters below. She felt everything and everyone. The breathing of each crew member, the moving of the Darkling's hands, the lashing of hair of anyone's scalp.
It felt as though everything had momentarily stopped, or at least, slowed to match the rhythm of Alina's thinking.
The sun summoner saw a blister bubbling to the surface of someone's forearm, she heard the swift whistling of someone on the crow's nest, she felt the soft breathing of Aurora, she heard the hushed whisker of shadows dancing around the Darkling's fingers.

And when time started moving again, Alina toppled to the ground and the seering light vanished. The darkling rushed to her aid, hair clinging to his sweat-dreaded forehead and blisters marking several spots on his cheeks.

In the bustling crowd of people howling in pain and healers rushing in aid, Aleksander whispered two hushed words to no one in particular while holding the sole light of his life in his hands,

"Oh Alina."