Nathalya was born and trained from an early childhood as a tidemaker. However, unfortunate events made her push down this power that she possesed, leaving her with two oppurtunities-fall ill, or get over her fear and continue summoning tides. She chose a third option: with a heart willing to bring honor to the order of the grisha and to the tradition of her family being grisha for generations, she decides to teach herself a new grisha power-one that wouldn't destroy, but mend. As her hear fear of water grows stronger, learning how to heal becomes a useful and much more goodwilling skill. Only in the spectacular events that await her she will find out that it's not just the cells of her own skin that she can cure. Refused by her former Etherealki friends, condamned by Baghra for disrespect of the Grisha nature and despised by the King, she finds favour of the Darkling who is passionately curious about her powers. The Civil war soon comes to take place, Nathalya becomes a tool of the Darkling, together with Genya, his personal healer, trying to rid him of the nichevo'ya. They both soon realise how dangerous he is and when Nathaly meets Alina, she and Genya immediately join her army to end the madness of the Black heretic once and for all. Back in the Little Palace after the war, it's hard for her to fit in. After she refuses to join Genya, David and Zoya in the truimvirate because of her unusual powers, her life among the other grisha just isn't what it used to be. Admired by the Corporalki, hated by the Summoners, unknown to the Fabrikators she tries to find a place in the Second Army, while a certain blonde-haired King seems to throw more and more admiring glances at her...
Will Nikolai fall for her?
Will she be able to use both of her Grisha powers in tandem?
What change will the grisha in a double-couloured kefta bring to Ravka and to the long traditioned methods of grisha training?
"Crowns topple easily. Thrones crumble like dust. Hearts cease to beat. Thorns draw blood."
In a country torn into two, there should have been no room for mistakes. Especially not at the very core of the royal family. That was what she was. Yes, a Lantsov but a witch. Bloodletter. Grisha.
In the darkness he longs for the country that had been his home for a great many years. A country that had branded him a heretic, a monster driven by greed, a traitor. Even in hiding, he yearns and yearns. For what, he did not know. But he soon will.
A stain of red in an otherwise pristine white cloth. Either cut it out or cut yourself.
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The events of this book take place generations prior to Shadow and Bone. A few generations after the Fold was created. (Based on the books from the Grishaverse)