CONCUBINE | GENERAL KIRIGAN

━ 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙧

"What kind of event?" Kaz asked, carefully eyeing the boy or Inej as she helped him drink his water, she couldn't tell which one he was more watchful of.

"I know an expedition was swarmed by volcra." Dressen started, taking a sip of his wine. "Should've been a total loss, but something happened. Some device detonated. Obliterated the volcra, lit up the dark like a forest fire."

"You're saying the device caused some sort of fire?" Aleksandra asked, looking at Dressen from the corner of her eye.

"I know it wasn't a fire or else no one would have survived." Dressen clarified, rocking back on forth on his heels as he tapped the string of his robe. "This was some invention no one had seen before."

"He knows." Dressen pointed at the scarred boy as he walked over to where the rest of the group stood. "But he doesn't seem to be able to articulate his account of events. Some form of traumatic lapse."

Aleksandra nudged Milana forward, who sheepishly looked over at Kaz. Kaz nodded, allowing her to make her approach towards the captured boy. Milana gingerly walked over to Alexei, Inej moving out of her way so she could do her job without any hindrance. WThe heartrender got on her knees and grabbed onto Alexsei's hand.

"You're safe now." Milana whispered, admirably stroking her hand alongside Aleksei's face." She softly stroked her fingers along his palm to his wrist. His breathing visibly slowed as he glanced down at her, "Now you can just speak and I will just listen."

"All right," Alexei responded quietly.

"Tell me what happened in the Fold," Milana said, her voice as soft as cotton as she gazed deep into Alexei's eyes. "What saved you?"

"You won't believe me, but... it was a Sun Summoner."

Aleksandra turned to look at Darling, a shocked look on her face. Darling hadn't met her gaze but she knew Aleksandra had been staring at her. Aleksandra turned back to look at Alexei, even more, intrigued than she was before.

The word kept replaying in her head like a broken record, sun summoner, sun summoner, sun summoner. She hadn't believed in saints until as recent as five years, the whole religion was her only source of hope in both her past and present so to hear that another sun summoner existed was like music to her ears.

"Who was it?" Dressen asked as he kneeled beside him.

"If I tell you," He paused, his heart beating out of his chest as he looked at Dressen. "you'll set me free?"

"You have my word. I'll set you free." Dressen said. "You're in Ketterdam now, Alexei. You can go anywhere in the world from here. Just imagine. Come on."

"Her name is..." He trailed off, looking off hopelessly to the side, most likely trying to recall the person name. Darling couldn't blame him for his hesitation, she had been in a similar situation once that left her in a dazed state. "Alina Starkov." He finally said, after a moment's anticipation.

"Alina Starkov?" Dressen repeated for clarification.

Alexei faintly nodded, his head lulling off to the side as he stared off into the abyss.

"Good boy." She heard Dressen whisper before he slowly stood up.

"Show me the manifest." He asked one of his guards who stood behind them. Dressen took a folded piece of paper from his hand and thoroughly scanned his eyes over it. Darling tried to take a peek at the page however, one of the guards got sight and tried to grab onto her shoulder but was briefly stopped by Aleksandra who gave him a warning look, one that had all sorts of danger behind.

"Perfect," Dressen said, content.

"You'll set me free now?"

"Thank you." Dressen nodded, rolling up the page and settling it flat on a table. "Of course." He said swiftly turning around, drawing out a gun from under his robes and shot Aleksei in the forehead, the momentum rocking the boy back onto the floor.

A collective gasp was heard throughout the room but was covered by Milana's shrill scream as she scrambled away from the body. Aleksandra looks down at the body from an angle. She wasn't that disgusted by the pool of blood that encircled his head like a corrupted holy painting, she had been used to seeing such grotesque things. Rather, she was more impressed with the accuracy of the shot and the distance Dressen did it from. She would've asked him how he managed to do such a shot if one, everyone else hadn't been so timid after the shocking death and two if she hadn't posed Dressen as an immediate threat.

Dressed walked over to Aleksei's limp body and hummed, satisfied with himself. He turned around to look at the rest of the group, who were now fully aware of the stakes of the mission. "We are now the only people west of the Fold with this information. My ship sails for West Ravka at dawn. If you can prove that you have a way through the Fold and back, I'll put you on that ship with an advance." Dressen walked past all of them, his guards following shortly after him as he made his way to the stairs. lIf you don't, I'm giving this job to Pekka Rollins."

"Give me a day," Kaz spoke hurriedly, turning around to face Dressen. "I'll have a plan."

"You have until sunrise," Dressen stated clearly, spinning on his heel to look at Kaz and the group "then your ship will have sailed, Mr Brekker. The prize is one million kruge. Now bring me Alina Starkov."

-ˏˋ. 𝖆𝖚𝖋𝖍𝖔𝖗𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙𝖊! ˊˎ-

hey all!

little heads up this isn't an end to my hiatus, I've just
written this to try and calm myself down after a bad
anxiety attack.

I've gotten worse over the last few days
however today a majority of the pain thankfully stopped and I've never felt better honestly it's kind of strange not being
in pain, but i do get the odd ache every now and then for a few
hours

thanks for all the get well soon wishes I appreciated them a
the lot and they made me feel cared for!

doctors just told me I need to cut
back on a lot of work and just get plenty
of rest because my anxiety
caused a lot of my muscles to tense up and ache
so nothing too extreme! I just need to relax

again, thanks so much for your wishes and I'll
see you all later!

also, there's a certain point where i started spelling alexei as aleksei bc i used to know someone who spelt it that way and i subconsciously started spelling it that way so if you see it please don't mind it i've tried my best to fix all the errors