𝑺𝒎𝒐𝒌𝒆 | 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑲𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒙 𝑶𝑪

Thirty-Two

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Brief TW for this chapter

As the winter fete approached General Kirigan devoted much of his time trying to decode Jolana's strange genealogy.

What added to the mysteriousness was gifts are pass gifts were passed genetically most of the time, but you had to go back centuries to find an inferni in the maternal line. Something about the father seemed weird to him. It didn't make sense, sure he was an inferni but if they sired a daughter, it would have been recorded.

Jolana wasn't a common name either, so what was the likelihood of an inferni from centuries and centuries ago having the same name. It was in tribute to the ancestor, Jolana would have known about her namesake even if she didn't know they were Grisha. 

It was difficult to trace back further due to the changing surnames and deterioration of records. So a desperate man turned to what was left, stories. Repeated through generations about heroes and villains and magic. 

In a world with Grisha, many of the nursery rhymes were based on people with spectacular abilities and the feats they achieved through their epic lives. 

He had to look through very fragile books to find stories from the appropriate time. It was interesting for him to look back on, he had lived through it all but he had grown so accustomed to his life as Aleksander Kirigan, a name he had stolen for himself.

Nothing interesting came from the first few he read, there was a story about a Fabricator so powerful he could make his own money, it did have a lesson at the end, which was not to be greedy. There was a story about a Tidemaker doing a good deed and splitting a river to let the land animals cross, which was supposed to help teach kids to be kind.

Then one of the stories caught his eye,

It was a story with a message of expressing your emotions.

An inferni peasant from a not do far away land, met and fell in love with a prince. He was drawn to her, her hair red as the perfect apple, and her powers. She never told him, she thought she was never good enough so she held it all in, as he fell in love with someone else, had a child, and had a whole life without her. He never moved on completely from her, they always sent each other letters to keep up. The inferni made up stories of a great life she could have lived to not let the prince know she lived her life as a hermit raising her daughter who was the result of a farmer forcing himself on her. They corresponded for years until one day, the letters stopped arriving. She had no idea why. She finally left her small comfortable area and ventured out into the city where she saw news that her prince, the love of her life had died. Full and overwhelmed by her grief and regret, she burst. The city square that she was in erupted into flames, incinerating the things closest to her and setting the rest on fire. She was never seen again, leaving her daughter alone.

"Now that's interesting..." he said to himself

-

"Are you okay Jolana?" Jolana rolled over from where she had been laying, "Oh sorry to wake you,"

"It's fine, Maksim," she sat up and patted a spot on her bed in invitation, "It's been weird lately,"

"Tell me about it," he sat beside and turned to her, "With the winter fete coming up, everything's been so different,"

"I know, like even just think about it. Why do we need to parade Alina around even more?"

"Miss Starkov does plenty of parading," he agreed. She smiled at him, appreciating the company.

"You're going to be quite busy on the day of fete right?" Jolana quirked her head to the side, "You have to do guard stuff,"

"Well, it's my job," he chuckled

"I know, it just would be nice to have a friend. Alina will be busy with her Sun Summoner duties,"

"Sorry, Lana," she was caught slightly off guard by someone using that nickname that wasn't Alina but she kept her composure. 

"Don't worry about me," she leaned back a little, bracing herself on her hands

"Well," he mirrored her position, when he moved his hand, he moved it on top of her slightly. Their fingers crossing like the weaving of a basket. She glanced down as he continued to speak, "I'm going to be stationed in the main room, where the presentation will be. If you get too lonely..." he moved his hand further, fully intertwining their hands, "You can maybe look for me,"

"Oh, okay," a small smile crept upon her face, "I'll for sure find you," 

There was a small knock at the door, General Kirigan entered and Maksim quickly got up and moved away from her. 

"Can I speak with you," he said with to Jolana, his eyes full of irritation looking back over at Maksim. Jolana begrudgingly got up.

"See you around, Maksim," she said as the General and her walked away

"Bye Lana," he called as he reassumed his position, Aleksander's posture tightened after he said that.

He brought her to a secret room within the castle that held two black keftas, "This is what Genya has been measuring you for,"

"Me and Alina are going to have matching outfits?"

"You're going to be part of a security measure to protect Alina. You're going to be a double so that any threats will be directed at you. You two are similar in figure and know you can handle it if any threats were to come your way. Genya will tailor you to be identical, face, hair, everything,"

"Okay," she said simply

"No questions?"

"Nope," she fidgeted with hair, "Can I go now?"

"Sure, just one more thing," He pulled out something from a pocket. It was a thick black ring made from an odd material, and a skinnier, more dainty ring made from the same material.

"If you're proposing Alina might be a little hurt," Jolana said awkwardly

"No, it's to replace your gloves. The material created a spark. They work like gloves but they're rings. Hopefully, they'd be more comfortable for you. We have to be sure you can defend yourself even without the gloves, you need to stay safe,"

"Goodbye, General," she slipped the rings on and left.

Even though she knew it was probably for the best, since she didn't want to hurt Alina and Aleksander was never truly hers, she still felt like she just lost something.