Long Live the Soverenyis

XV - THE HANDLER

Katherine sits on the black couch in The Darkling's office while he pours two glasses of kvas for them. Her heart is threatening to leave her chest at the remembrance of Kirigan suggesting that they are equals, and deep down, she thanks Anastasia for encouraging her to talk to the General. One night, when the shadow singer was going to bed, the old lady visited her to say that the minute Katherine showed her powers to him, The Darkling would immediately forget the idea of Alina Starkov being his equal.

You've never met someone like you, and that might be his case too. She said.

But what if that doesn't happen? I'm a witch!

If he's as clever as everyone paints him to be, then that will be no problem. Verily, I think he'll be rather satisfied to have found such a powerful ally. Or should I say an equal? Katherine rolled her eyes at the hybrid's smug sentence. Don't fret yourself, girl. After all, he may be The Darkling, but you are The Handler.

"I'm The Handler." The witch whispers to herself while feeling the cold metal of the Mikaelson ring on her skin, covering the thin tattoo on her right ring finger.

"What?"

She rapidly shakes her head to let go of her reverie. "Nothing. Just thinking about the past." She adds when Kirigan arches a skeptical eyebrow.

He gives her a glass of kvas. "The past is crucial for future decisions."

"I couldn't agree more."

"Then what were you thinking about?"

She takes a sip of kvas, sighing at the burning sensation passing through her throat. This man won't rest until discovering what was in her mind. Although she cannot risk to tell him that she is The Handler or ask if he ever heard of that name, the witch can simply admit something from her past to change the conversation's focus. He'll be too mesmerized at a confession to analyze if it really is the truth that answers his question.

Furthermore, using a truth to control an argument is safer and more convincing than an outright lie. That's something that she learnt as she got older, along with refining that technique by knowing which kind of truth the person she was talking to would get familiar with. The Darkling's case is about power, being it shadows or leadership.

"When I found out my powers, I thought I was a freak. Had no one by my side, just insults for my existence. But as time went by, I learnt how to control it and, therefore, saw the beauty of darkness." Katherine faces the General, who quietly analyzes her. "The remembrances in my mind, Kirigan, were of how I overcame all life obstacles so far. I came from nothing, yet I gathered strength to survive and become powerful."

For a moment, The Darkling remembers his old life, in which he had to move several times a year so that he and his mother would not die or be chased. Moreover, he reminds the tsar's guards murdering Luda and, a few days after, the Shadow Fold creation.

If he can focus on the memory, Kirigan can still feel the darkness burning his body, eager to get itself free, and, along with his racing heart, there was the thought that death was coming. He remembers hearing his own screams of emotional and physical pain as a huge weight came off his shoulders and, surprisingly, gave him more energy. His decades-long hatred towards the Grishas' oppression created, for many, an aberration, but for him the most liberating moment of his life made a fascinating dark place.

He made history by doing merzost, for Saints sake! A beauty that he was never scared of.

By the time the guards had turned into volcra and the shadows had taken over much of Ravka, the Black Heretic had died. But Aleksander Morozova only got stronger. And he would make Ravka a haven for the Grisha once and for all; the Fold was just the beginning of it.