the world ender! GRISHAVERSE

𝖝𝖝𝖎𝖎𝖎. 𝖆 𝖘𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖗'𝖘 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖒𝖎𝖘𝖊!

Anya blinked. "Last night you told me I had a job."

Wylan turned to glare at Kaz who shifted uncomfortably and pulled at the ends of his gloves. He looked up at the ceiling for a second before looking back at her with a determined stare. "I was wrong. You're injured and you should be resting."

Wylan sent her a questioning look and even Kuwei had looked back up from his hidden sketches with a bewildered expression. "I'm sorry, did I hear that right?" Jesper asked from where he was leaning on the back of her chair. "Did you just give her the day off?"

Kaz almost looked pained. "I gave her the day off, Jesper," he said sharply. "Get back to work."

Jesper patted her on the shoulder and pushed himself off her chair to hand Nina and Matthias their new papers. "Well I had one for Anya too, but these are yours," he said, giving them to Matthias. "In case you're stopped at the Ravkan quarter."

Anya turned back to Kaz with a glint in her eye. "So that's why I'm on house arrest? You're scared I'll be recognized."

Kaz pinched the bridge of his nose. "The Ravkans will know you're here, Anya," he said. "The King has 50 000 gold coins on your head and news of the World Ender has been sent out from both Djerholm and Ketterdam now. You're a walking target."

"Kaz is right," Nina told her. "The Triumvirate would recognize you in a heartbeat; as would the King's guard."

Anya turned around to make her argument, only to burst into laughter at the sight of her woolen outfit. She clutched at her stitches and breathed heavily. "Saints, Nina."

Nina grumbled with displeasure, but her cheeks were still red from Matthias' keen gaze. "We should go before Matthias has a heart attack. Let's go you big goon - and I'm supposed to be your sister! Stop looking at me like that."

Anya sent Nina a warm smile and a rare prayer to sweeten the deal. Nina was right; she couldn't risk it. Turning back to the table, she sighed heavily and swung on the back legs of her chair. "People thought I was married to my brother back in the day," she said carelessly, nose wrinkled in disgust. "The Black Heretic and the World Ender."

"The Black Heretic is your brother," Inej asked in alarm.

Anya hummed a response. "Yes. They call him the Darkling now; or the Starless Saint. When I was a girl I called him Sasha."

"The Darkling died, didn't he?" Wylan asked curiously. "In the Ravkan Civil War?"

"I slit his throat," she said without the blink of an eye. Seeing everyone but Kaz staring at her in surprise, she waved her hand in the air. "Oh, don't look at me like that. He deserved it; turned into a right cunt after he got his first taste of power."

A dull grumble echoed out from the back of her mind, but she pushed it away with a harsh frown. "So you knew Sankta Alina too then?" Inej asked earnestly, leaning towards her. "Like my blade."

"Oh sure," Anya grinned. "Alina is - was a lovely girl. We were friends, her and I - bonded over our shared rage towards my cunt of a brother."

"You fought for Ravka," Wylan noted. "But the King is after you - what did you do?"

Anya shrugged uncomfortably and reached down to tug the hems of her frock coat, only to realize she wasn't wearing it. Instead, she tucked her hands into the dark pockets. Kaz was only wearing his waistcoat, she realized with a raised eyebrow. "The people saw the World Ender return and got scared, I suppose. I was never told the full story. I woke up back in my human body, and my friends told me they'd let the people presume I was dead, to avoid any unrest against the last surviving Shadow Summoner. It was either a life locked away in the depths of Os Alta, or exile."