SEVENTEEN GOING UNDER || k. brekker || CURRENTLY UPDATING

3.2

     THE PROBLEM WITH time, is that you seem to have so much of it when you don't need it. For instance, Kaz and Victoria were still exploring Novokribirsk's streets, when they could hear someone shouting at a gathering.

"They want you to believe the Sun Summoner has been found to finally tear down the wall that divides us." Well, word spreads quickly. The crowd around him cheered in support, leaving Victoria to roll her eyes.

"Honestly, he seems a little dramatic. Reminds me of someone holding a goat." Victoria commented, a small, crooked smile on her lips.

"How many times have we been fed a story like that?" He asked the crowd, and whilst Kaz was looking at posters, Vi continued to watch the crowd. She could've sworn she saw someone she recognised begin to walk into the crowd.

"And how many times have we in the West been told to send our sons and daughters through the Fold for another year?" The man demanded, more cheers erupting.

The two haphephobics walked closer to the group of seemingly displeased people to see a man on a raised platform talking to a much larger group than the two anticipated.

"For a group of people this large, their cheers are a little underwhelming." Victoria commented again, and Kaz shook his head and a rare smile barely cracked on his lips. Something about the way Victoria looked at everything made Kaz, for a moment, want to unmask an emotion for even a second.

"It is time to accept that we need to break away from the old country. Now is the time to form our own country, to keep what we make and what we earn, instead of sending it to the East!" Zlattan continued on as Kaz pushed his way through the crowd, Victoria trailing behind. As arms brushed and bodies were felt, the two had to push back their haunting as the two felt something off about this.

"For the true Ravka!" He raised his fist and the crowd cheered significantly louder, and Victoria was a little saddened that her comment from earlier had now been demoted. The crowd was cheering as loud as you'd expect now.

Everyone around them shouted and cheered as the two probably looked rather lost, their eyes watching people with assessive looks.

As Zlattan stepped off the stage, he began to greet people who crowded his tent. Both Kaz and Victoria were quick to notice someone who they were currently running errands for. Arken fucking Visser.

"That explains why he couldn't get any of the things himself; he had other plans." Kaz muttered, spinning his weight on his good ankle and leaving the previous riot site, Victoria by his side.

"And why he wanted us late at night." Victoria deduced, figuring Arken wanted all the time he could get.

     The two intended on winding through the streets of Novokribirsk some more, before Kaz spotted someone much more familiar, their Wraith.

     Inej's eyes scanned each name on the large stones engraved with the names of the deceased, cause of death being the Fold. Some sort of closure, that's all Inej wanted. And yet the world kept ripping that away from her.

     Victoria offered to take the goat, and Kaz let her, the two manoeuvring the kid to make sure their gloves never met. The Grisha stroked it gently, a small sense of relief washing over her as her fear dissipated. It wasn't animals, just people. After all, the volcra once were people. Damned to become the creatures that haunt travellers, once simply people who were scared of that which they didn't fully understand. Foolish brother.

     As the two approached Inej, she turned and saw them both accompanied by the small animal now in Victoria's arms as she held it like a mother would hold a baby. If only Victoria could bear that sort of contact, then maybe she'd be happier. Alas, dwelling on ifs and buts would give her century-old face wrinkles.