A child, a mystery, a powerful Etherealnik... and perhaps something more. Even Saoirse has yet to uncover all of her own secrets. But maybe it starts with the ominous black bird that haunts her windowsill and the space between her collarbones.
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S...
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os alta, east ravka
— SAOIRSE'S BOOTS ECHOED IN THE CORRIDOR AS SHE STRODE THROUGH THE LITTLE PALACE, HEAD HELD HIGH. No one bothered her, and anyone she came across – Grisha and otkazat'sya alike – parted around her and her black Kefta like the tide. Six years. She had been back in East Ravka six years now, and somehow she still had a difficult time figuring out which life was real, and which was the fantasy. Three years in Ketterdam had felt more alive and free than her entire childhood in Os Alta. But if anyone knew what she was in Ketterdam, she'd have been shackled and sold to the highest bidder. Here, who and what she was commanded incredible amounts of respect and power.
When the boy finally came to, alive and mostly healthy again, Saoirse learned that his name was Kaz, though he offered no last name until two days later, when they walked the shore in search of a better place to sleep than an old fisher's shop. "Brekker." He said. "My name is Kaz Brekker."
Her eyes moved to the cargo ship in the harbour that bore the same name in big, bold letters, and she smiled. "I like it."
And their partnership in crime began. They very quickly discovered that after the traumatic experience of being piled into the reaper's barge and then being forced to use his brother's dead, rotting body to swim to shore, Kaz was incapable of tolerating skin-on-skin contact. He nicked a golden hair barette the next day, and they used it to buy food and a pair of black leather gloves. The day after that, Kaz replaced her stolen necklace with a new one; a black and silver crow. "They look after one another." He'd said.
Their thefts and crimes only grew more dramatic and more dangerous from there on out. They were unstoppable and hardly separable. With Kaz's incredible sleight of hand and sharp mind, Saoirse's Grisha powers and quickly-developing fighting abilities? Anyone who crossed them quickly discovered it was far better to be on their side than against. They started building their own little empire, fuelled by dreams of freedom and revenge.
Three years passed in the blink of an eye, and the duo's luck suddenly turned upside-down. They decided to try something in a more profitable district, but there was more in town than just rich merchants that day. She was meant to be in and out of the manor, quick and quiet, but she stumbled when she caught sight of red and blue Keftas. And that was enough. It only took a few hours for the life she'd built in Ketterdam to fall apart. She didn't even get to say goodbye to Kaz before they dragged her back to their ship with them and set sail for Ravka.
The slightly-warm metal of the crow pendant bumped against her collarbone with every step until she finally came to the double doors of dark wood, a sun in eclipse symbol etched into them. She was about to reach for the handle when the door opened without her touch, and a chuckling Fedyor emerged, apparently mid-conversation with Ivan, who was not laughing, as usual.
"Ah!" Fedyor's grin widened when he saw Saoirse. "Been letting Zoya throw you in the dirt again, Lady Saoirse?"
She blinked in confusion, and he plucked a piece of straw from her hair. "Damn her." she grumbled. Zoya was a good friend and a better fighter, but perhaps she should be working on her 'I spy' skills. She could have at least mentioned the straw.
The Heartrender chuckled, flicking the straw away. "We''l leave you to it, moya lyeshi." He looped his arm through his husband's, and they started off down the hall, leaving Saoirse to enter alone.
Inside, she found the General with two Grisha summoners she didn't really recognise, David Kostyk, and three oprichniki. He looked up when he heard her come in. "Leave us." The others were quick to obey, and she rounded the war table to approach him with a small smile.
"Father."
He scanned his map. "How do you feel about a trip to Kribirsk?" Ever since Saoirse's return, his protectiveness had grown tenfold. Her room was less than a corridor away. She had two oprichniki with her at all times beyond the Little Palace's grounds. If the General went somewhere, often so did she. Of course he knew she was capable of protecting herself; he had full confidence in her in a firefight. It was people like the King he didn't trust. People like Vasily, and anyone else who could claim to be his superior or hers.
"When?" She asked, poking through his letters and books and whatnot curiously.
"Two days' time. I want to see the new skiff launch."
She nodded. "You gonna let me go in?"
"No. I prefer you in one piece."
She rolled her eyes. "Why are we so afraid of it? One of us made it right? And I don't just mean a Shadow Summoner, I mean a Grisha of our own bloodline. Maybe it wouldn't hurt us."
He heaved a long, thoughtful sigh at that. "I believe the Black Heretic created many things that even he did not expect." Fiddling with the pieces on the war table, she didn't see his eyes on her. "Some of them incredible." He looked to the replica of the fold on the table now. "Some of them, terrible. The fold is unpredictable."
"I've gotten through twice already before."
He put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I will not risk your life, Little Shadow. One day the Fold will threaten us no longer and we will be truly free, but until we find a Sun Summoner-"
"Theoretical Sun Summoner."
He sighed, a sound of mixed amusement and irritation. "This again?"
She raised her hands in surrender. "I'm just saying, it's not impossible that our power doesn't actually have an opposite."
"We will find a Sun Summoner, and there will be safe passage from East Ravka to West." he tapped her pendant lightly. "You could even visit Kerch if you wanted."
Her hand shook slightly on the table as the thought hit her. Of course she wanted to go back. Life in the Little Palace was beautiful and luxurious... but it was never fully happy. When Nikolai had been here – her childhood best friend – it had been easy enough to make her life here, to make it good and happy. But when he'd left, the shadows locked away at the back of her mind had begun to grow. It wasn't homesickness she felt, exactly. But she'd missed Ketterdam and Kaz Brekker dearly. And it had not grown any easier over the years. She was saved from having to respond by a knock on the door.
"Come." the General called. An oprichnik opened the door. "Moi soverenyi." He bowed.
"What is it?"
"The reply from General Zlatan."
"Ah, yes. Thank you." The oprichnik placed the letter on the table, but when the General looked back at Saoirse, she was already slipping out of the opened door and away down the hall. Her shadow shuddered softly behind her as she went.
A/N: First chapterrr. Thoughts? Opinions? And before you get mad, no, I am not a Darkling stan. He gets worse, trust me. <3
