Skies and Ashes - A Grishaverse/Red Queen Crossover

A Walk in the Garden

Nikolai POV

I almost slipped in the sea of magnolia petals spread on the path. Naturally, it earned me a grin from Prince Maven, a perfectly cold and polite smile he must've trained from birth.

"Are your gardeners lazy, Your Highness?" I asked innocently, pointing to the fallen petals.

His expression only became more artificially sweet. It felt like a challenge. "This tree was the favourite of the former queen," the prince said. He leaned with his arms crossed against the gnarled trunk. Sunlight and shadows fell in patterns over his sharply-angled face, glinting in his obsidian earrings. "My brother's mother. You've heard of her, Your Majesty? The vanished queen."

I did. The fabricator queen Coriane didn't return from a journey to the forests north of Norta more than twenty years ago. While Maven's pose was still slack, I noticed a change of tone, a kind of deference swinging in his voice. He wasn't playful about the – likely – dead queen. "My father still loves her," he went on, "wants to keep everything as she liked it." He shrugged. "Although I doubt she cared that much about petals."

"I can imagine," I said, and Maven's gaze turned askance. I did know what he talked about, having my own experiences with sentimental royal fathers, and rumours about the Nortan succession reached out far. That the king preferred his firstborn Fabrikator son to inherit the throne although he wasn't an Inferni like Maven, their father and all other – that was, three in total – Nortan kings before. Or that Maven obviously liked to play the victimized rightful heir while his own mother had been condemned as traitor. It was funny how many relatable stories royals had to tell each other; I started to wonder whether he desired to bond with me from second-born to second-born.

I swiped several petals off my uniform while Maven seemed unperturbed by those lingering on his black curls. I grimaced. "This is a waste of time," I said.

Maven stared at me.

I didn't move.

His eyes fixed – taxed – me with a spark in his blue irises. "The decoration becomes you," he said.

Finally, I turned away. "If you'd would excuse me? Good afternoon, Your Highness," I said over my shoulder.

"Are you sure you want to go back?" he called after me. "I think – "

"I'm certain my charms will be welcome among the noblewomen," I said.

He touched my shoulder, I spun, grabbed his hand, and turned. He gasped.

So did I, to his amusement. "I doubt that, Your Majesty," he said. "I saw your face when you met the ladies Yelena and Eva."

"Oh, don't worry about me, Your Highness," I retorted. "Ravka has plenty to offer in terms of courtly company as well. I'm accustomed to many kinds of formidable women." Inside, I wasn't so certain. I'd hoped to have concealed my shock over the silver-haired Fabrikator Eva and the Sun Summoner Yelena but Maven's eyebrows raised in doubt told be all about my failure.

"Before I met you," Maven began, "no, once your visit to Norta was announced, there have been bets whether you wanted to forge the alliance of our countries with a marriage, Your Majesty."

"Hmph." That again?

"No? Well, the way people talk about unmarried kings. Lady Yelena was the favourite of the bettors – at least those who don't know too much about her. Though I wondered, would the Ravkan king be that desperate to bring home a foreign Sun Summoner?"

"Shut up."

He flinched but couldn't keep his damned mouth closed. "After all, Yelena Morozova has Ravkan ancestors. Or are you afraid to make Sankta Alina less unique – "

I laughed harshly, and his wince pleased me. "You're talking nonsense, Calore. You and I both know Lady Yelena wouldn't be interested and Sun Summoners now exist in Ravka, too. But that erases nothing from Alina Starkova's importance to my country."

He lowered his head but stopped himself before he could mutter a bland apology. He gaped. "You loved her," he marvelled.

I startled, but only for a second. "She was a political ally – " I began but Maven shook his head, with the last of the petals in his head falling down.

"No, it wasn't like that," he insisted, although not without a hint of feeling.

"Who would love a saint?" I cajoled, forcing a nonchalant smile.

By now, he'd given up the banter and presented a strange compassion on his face. And, I noticed, a whiff of sadness. "As if we aren't all idiots when it comes to love," he said.

I found myself patting his shoulder. "Who ... ?" I asked, and he took my hand and shoved it off his shoulder. But he didn't let go of it, nor did I want him to. He looked up in my eyes and again, I couldn't turn away.

"No need to commiserate me," Maven said. "He left me years ago."

"That doesn't mean we can't still miss them," I murmured, although thoughts of Maven, and not Alina, followed me for the rest of the day.

A/N: So~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have no idea if y'all will like although I hope you will. It was fun for me and I like to expand my ideas for this crossover (I started to think about tectonic plates lol). But to info dump a little:

Maven is 20, Nikolai is 23.

Norta has become kind of a melting pot over time and fought many wars with her neighbouring countries. The Calores kings took over as they played an important role in establishing the current borders and other agreements with the other nations. However, the political climate remains unstable. Norta lies east of Ravka, on the other side of the mountains. It shares a relatively short border with Shu-Han since the smaller country between them on the southeast has become independent about ~150 years ago. Norta has a rich coastal region and rural, less prosperous highlands (an earthquake region). North of Norta lies a halfway independent forest domain (mentioned in the text) and above that lies another country, something of a Lakelands equivalent. (I also thought of a subcontinent south of Shu-Han and volcanic isles east of Norta. And yes, I should draw a map). Note: I would've loved to include something like Beringia and the land bridge between Russia and America but the geography of the continent doesn't really offer that ☹ (I still think the land bridge between Shu-Han and Kerch should get more attention though.)

Eva and Yelena are of course Evangeline and Elane. I hate writing her full name, and instead of calling her Eve, I decided to change her name to Eva. Since Elane would be a Sun Summoner in the Grishaverse, I was tempted to give her a Russian name and make her a Morozova with Ravkan ancestors who migrated to Norta long ago.

Mare x Cal is a thing, but IDK if you'll see more than allusions to them.

After Coriane vanished, Tiberias married Maven's mother because of political necessities and her family connections. As said in the text, Maven's mother was a deemed a traitor and is currently imprisoned (as you might've figured, she's very different from Elara so IDK if she should even share the same name).

And a huge thank you in case you read all my rambling that almost got longer than the story 😉