Long Live the Soverenyis

XIV - EQUALS

A/N: Baghra's quote "There is no safe place. There is no haven. Not for us." was written by Leigh Bardugo, in The Demon of the Wood. So ALL RIGHTS ARE HERS! I only picked up because to develop the narrative more.

❗️TW: grisha/witch hunt, blood, mentions of torture❗️

────────── ★ ★ ★ ──────────

First was the sharped breath he made, showing that the air on his lungs stopped at that exact moment. Then, was the widened eyes on his face, followed by the shotgun being released by his hands. Finally, the drüskelle in front of her was dismembered — literally. His torso slowly slipped from his lower limbs, falling to the ground with a thud.

Katherine looks in astonishment at the red taking over the snow. She did hear the second thud, meaning that the man's lower limbs hit the floor behind his other half, but was too astonished to speak. In her entire life, the witch has never seen something so strong. Of course, she's lost count of how many dismembered bodies she saw, but they were made by weapons, and there isn't a weapon this big and sharp yet.

This... this exhales power.

Behind you. A shadow whispers to her. The woman's so shocked that she doesn't even register which shadow of hers said that.

It's difficult to focus on another thing than the bodies, though Katherine is proved wrong as she sees what's behind her, or better, who. The Darkling's face is indifferent, as if he didn't do anything unusual, his dark brown eyes analyzing every detail on her. The witch looks at his black kefta in search of a magical trait.

Nothing. Everything's impeccable as always. There's not a single trace of what he's done.

"Are you alright?" Kirigan gently asks, trying to find in himself the reason why he was so worried about the woman being hurt.

"How—" She looks at the body again before turning her glance back at the General. "What have you done?"

He arches an eyebrow. That wasn't what he was expecting. "Saved your life."

"To the hunter. What type of magic was that?"

"Magic?"

"Merzost." Katherine says as she finally remembers the name Ravka uses. "What type was it? Spirit? Dark? Connective? Ancestral?" Before he could answer it, she murmurs to herself: "No, it can't be Ancestral. I know everything about that one."

The Darkling suddenly feels like the young man that had just discovered merzost in Morozova's book. He doesn't comprehend the woman's terms, which makes him compare himself to the fool adult that didn't know enough of the world. Those words that she's saying, are they types of merzost? Does that even exist? If so, he has to study more, because he's never heard of such a thing.

That woman must be delirious.

"Are you sure you're not unwell?" The General approaches Katherine and, finally, notices her bleeding arm. For a small second, he wishes to have given the drüskelle a slow painful death instead of a quick one. "Come. We have to heal you."

"How did you do it?"

He blinks. Why on Earth would she want to know that?

"You are bleeding." Kirigan slowly states to make her understand that she's injured. She might have not noticed that, after all.

Katherine looks at her left arm and presses the wound to stop the bleeding, suppressing a pained whimper and cursing herself to not be able to completely dodge the hunter's blade. "I'm alright."