The Act of Duplicity [General Kirigan]

fourteen

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    Nataliya turned her head left and right allowing her neck to crack with the movement. Next were her fingers and her back as it felt like her bones were old and not quite used to so much training. Her muscles ached and she laid awake in her bed in the middle of the night, staring at the dark canopy of her bed above her. Her mind was keeping her awake, while her eyes were just screaming of tiredness. Nataliya had no idea what to do. She listened to the quietness of her room, she could only imagine how late it was, she already counted all the different patterns on her canopy yet there she was, not sleeping. The only solution that was left for her is to ease her mind by actually solving all the problems in her head. Easier said than done.

    She managed to convince her muscles to sit up in the bed when she pulled her knees towards herself and leaned her head on them. A deep frustrated sigh is what followed out of her next. She didn't want to think through what all things have been piling on her mind lately. She didn't want to think about Genya and their fights, she didn't want to think about Nina and only wonder if her friend is still alive, she didn't want to think about Baghra and what she promised the old woman. Most of all she didn't want to think about Kirigan and what has been going on with him.

    Nataliya found herself in a whirlpool of happenings and in a very messy situation. On one hand, she wanted to get out of here, to leave all this political drama behind her, flee and try to make a life for herself but that would be an even more selfish thing of her than wanting to lead the Second Army. Genya was still here and her first priority would be to get her out. Her head was hammering with all the tactics that have been going on, the ones she tried to use on Kirigan, the ones she was sure he was using on her, the ones that Baghra had planned and at the thought of that Nataliya wasn't even sure what Baghra wanted from her. The only thing the redhead was sure of was that when she succeeds in taking the position at the top, she'll have supporters.

    Suddenly Nataliya raised her head off of her knees and stared wide-eyed into the room. How could she be so stupid with this whole plan? She'll never make it if she doesn't have enough supporters. The Darkling has a vast following and they all blindly believe him. No one is going to believe her if she just marches up there and declares herself a new General. Then she'll really die and others will get revenge for what all she has done by now. Nataliya picked herself up from the bed and wrapped her sleeping robes around herself.

    She stopped when her eyes just barely caught on the shape of her nightstand in the darkness. She slowly reached over and turned on the lamp before she sat back down. Her lips were turned down in a frown as her finger reached and pulled on the drawer. Her pin was sitting atop a few letters that she also stored in the safety of that drawer. She took it out and inspected it in her hands carefully. She asked herself why was she acting so childish and yelling at her sister. She didn't want to be in a fight with Genya forever, she needed her little sister. When she carefully laid the pin back into the drawer, keeping in mind she'll put it inside her kefta tomorrow, it made a clink as it collided with something. Nataliya furrowed her eyebrows and looked inside her drawer.