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In the end, Katya was in the bath tub for even longer than she thought she would. In fact, she fell asleep not long after the hot water had surrounded her body, and awoke only when one of the servants had come in to drop off a change of clothes, along with a note, later in the night.
Needless to say, she'd been too tired to pay the woman any mind, as she collapsed and fell asleep on her unmade bed. And now she found herself trying to brush through her hair in time so she wouldn't run late to Court.
They were presenting the Sun Summoner to the King already.
Katya's hair had a mind of its own usually, but when it hadn't been brushed in more than a week, not even last night's bath had helped loosen the knots in her dark mane. She'd at least been provided a brand new kefta, helpfully, this one brandishing the black thread embroidery as well – she thought the Darkling must have had it sewn in the hours since they'd returned, for it to be ready that fast, but she also thought the effort would be useless now if she couldn't be ready in time.
By the time she's finally wrestled her hair into one of the pretentious updos that she'd learnt from Genya, which had half of her hair braided up, the other falling in wild waves down her back, and her kefta was half done up, there were knocks at Katya's door. Three slow ones, at first, then three quicker ones a moment later.
"Just a second!" She yelled, finally pulling her kefta over the white undershirt. She didn't bother with the shoes that had been abandoned on the corner of the room before she strutted over and opened the door.
Her surprise showed in her widened eyes, as she looked up to the face of the man on the other side of it. The Darkling was already watching her, looking both expectant and more relaxed than he had in months.
His eyebrow shot up in mock surprise, "You're almost ready? I'm surprised."
Katya turned away, both to hide her eye roll and to let him in. Still, a smile bloomed on her face, and stayed there. Once upon a time, the Darkling had come to pick her up from her room for every occasion. Once upon a time, she'd only left her room if he was there...but she hadn't expected that the general would uphold their childish tradition now, when he had a Sun Summoner to look after.
"What about Alina?" Once her shoes were on, the two of them started heading to the Palace.
The Darkling led her through the endless halls, even though Katya herself was familiar with every path you could take to get everywhere in and from the Little Palace, "Genya is taking care of Miss Starkov until we arrive," he confessed. "I'm fairly sure she has a better chance of survival than you had of being on time."
This was like a Darkling from the past, one who had come from her childhood, who would sneak her candy while his trusted Grisha pointed to the war maps in front of them and told her jokes and gossip about the nobility of Ravka, not the man he'd become after that fateful winter day when he'd found her, bleeding and half dead in the Permafrost snow.
