𝑺𝒎𝒐𝒌𝒆 | 𝑮𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑲𝒊𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒙 𝑶𝑪

Thirty-Nine

THANK YOU FOR 115K! 

THATS SUCH A BIG NUMBER, IT FEELS SO WEIRD :D

That night as she laid awake in bed, her mind went to many places. She had an awful feeling that something had happened to Maksim. From the sounds of it, it seemed that the General was much more dangerous than she thought. She had thought he was simply a military leader in a stressful time or something along those lines but there was obviously a much more sinister plan below the surface. 

She had thought she knew the General as well as she could, even when they avoided each other she felt that she understood him.

She looked outside at the moon in the sky. It barely illuminated her room.

She remembered a time when the moon seemed almost brighter than a lantern in the absolute darkness. Even when the dark landscape seemed endless she could look up at the moon and know there is some light.

"My dearest moon, do not turn from me," was the end of one of the poems in her book. As she had gotten older the stories became more symbolic than literal. As a child, she could pretend that she could talk to the moon and it would listen but in reality, it simply was just a rock in the sky. 

"Do you miss him?" Genya's word's echoed through her head, it said something that she had not thought of Maksim. Aleksander's dark features even haunted her when her eyes closed. As she fell asleep thinking of the shadow summoner, she was greeted by the same dream of the marketplace, the prince, and the tragic love story she continued to relive.

-

He glanced up at the sky, it was a rare moment of peace these days. 

Over his many years of existence, he knew the constellations he saw by sight. He knew the patterns and which would appear during what part of the year, he knew the names of the fireballs that lit up the sky.

Canis Major, Canis Minor, Eridanus...

He always had a love for the stars. It wasn't something he would mention to anyone ever but he loved how the fireball's brightness disturbed the expanse of blue so dark it is almost black, making it more beautiful than it would be by itself.

"General," the sound of Ivan's voice interrupted Aleksander's thoughts. Hiding his annoyance, he turned around and said,

"What Ivan?"

"We've found evidence that the Sun Summoner and the tracker were here recently. They left maybe six hours ago,"

The General remained calm, "It's fine, we know where they're going to end up eventually,"

"We'll find them soon," Ivan reassured.

"Of course we will," he said as calm as ever but Ivan knowing the General knew there was an unspoken threat in the statement.

"I'll leave you to sleep then," Ivan quickly left the General alone, and Aleksander was glad for it.

Images of Jolana had haunted his dreams, the image of her ashes branded in his head. 

"You were given one task,"

"General, I- I- I didn't know this was going to happen. I thought it would be-"

"I don't care what you thought," he said with rage in his voice.

"She's dead," Maksim said upset

"Because of you. You couldn't protect her,"

"I may have failed in some way but this was not my fault,"

"I allowed your relationship to happen as long as you kept her safe,"

"You don't get a say in my relationships," Kirigan ignored him,

"Oh, I should have killed you the second I caught wind of it. I didn't want to upset Jolana,"

"Kill?" Maksim went stiff, "I was just told that if I failed, I would no longer have a job,"

"You admit you failed," 

"I didn't fail," Maksim tried to say as confidently as he could. He had really cared about her, He couldn't help but blame himself a little for what happened. "I stuck beside her the entire night!

"You said it yourself that you failed and now just as I said, you will no longer have a job," Aleksander said clearly to the fear-filled guard. 

The dead can't keep a job,  he thought to himself.

"So I'm fired?" Maksim asked again, still trying to back away from the taller, dark-haired man.

Kirigan ignored him again, "Have you heard of the saying, an eye for an eye?"

"Yes?" he said unsure if there was a correct answer. Aleksander turned around,

"Well taking an eye is one thing but why just take an eye when you can have the whole head,"

He turned back around and performed the cut. 

Maksim's head laid beside his lifeless body. He didn't even enjoy killing Maksim or her murderer, Arken Visser, or known to others as the Conductor. He didn't so much as smirk as she shed their blood.

All he could think of was the remnants of the fireball that had disrupted his darkness. The dust that was left.

He tried to think of the better parts, how vibrant she was physically and in spirit. Closing his eyes thinking of the orange hair and blue flames. 

But he just couldn't quite fall asleep. So he sat up but his thought remained on his inferni.

-

After the normal dream of being stuck and destroying a marketplace in grief and sorrow. She suddenly was in what seemed to be a forest. She recognized people in this dream. No one acknowledged her like her normal dreams. 

She also seemed to have her normal autonomy, like she was awake even though she was asleep. It felt like a real-life, she even recognized some people. She recognized Fedyor's scary boyfriend, Ivan and as she wandered further she saw a familiar man with dark hair and a black fur cloak. 

She stepped forward to confirm for herself. She did indeed realize it was Aleksander, who she missed much, much more than she would admit. The thing is he seemed to be able to see her. He looked right at her. He seemed to be surprised.

He closed his eyes and shook his head muttering, "The cold must really be getting to me,"

This was her dream so she knew what she did, it didn't really matter because this couldn't be real no matter how it felt. She remembered falling asleep.

He wouldn't open his eyes. So she bent down and reached to touch his cheek. His skin was warm compared to the cold weather, it felt so real it almost hurt her soul. She stayed there and he tried to ignore it but he leaned into her touch.

-

He felt even colder when the heat of her hand left his cheek, he logically concluded he must've fallen asleep for a bit and dreamt of her. That was the only thing that made sense.

-

She suddenly was pulled away when she was awoken by a loud crash as someone entered her bedroom.