ECLIPSE, grishaverse

iv. in between

                    SHE FELL ASLEEP AS SOON as her head touched the comfortable pillow and soft sheets. The night before she inspected the place and change to more comfy clothes that she found in the closet. The sleeveless nightgown was black and long, she almost felt pretty in it if it wasn't for her dirty face and skinny figure. Too thin, I can see your bones from here girl, men don't like that Ana Kuya told her once, along with a whole lot more opinions about her body. She tore her gaze from the mirror besides the bed when she heard someone knocking impatiently on the door.

"I hope this one doesn't give us as much work as the oth..." She was cut short when Yelena opened the door at the first knock. The red-haired woman looked surprised and pleased, she got in her room as she owned the place and started giving orders. "You look better than your sister, I'll give you that. Now, to the bath."

The servants started pushing Yelena around, washing her hair and following the strawberry blonde orders here and there, until Yelena felt cleaner than ever.

"Where's my sister?" the Starkov girl asked, with a black robe caressing her body.

"Changing in her room. In an hour, you two will be presented to the King and General Kirigan has asked that I make you look presentable."

"Great." she said with a sarcastic tone in her voice.

"Indeed." the woman said, smiling sympathetically at her.

Yelena was sitting in a chair while the red-head went through little jars and other stuff in her bag. She took her time to study the girl in front of her; she was built beautifully with porcelain skin, black lashes, shiny hair and blue eyes. Then she noticed her white kefta. Yelena didn't remember reading about white silks for Grisha, so what was she? Red for Corporalki, blue for Etherealki and purple for Materialki. What was she missing then?

"I like your kefta." she started, testing the waters.

The woman smiled, but Yelena could tell she was a little sad. "Thank you."

Then she got close to her with a strange shiny object in her hand, the other one touched her hair gently. She felt her scalp itching a little. When the red-head finished, Yelena looked at her now black shiny and slightly wavy hair in the mirror, her brows furrowed in confusion.

"It would only last a few days."

"I don't want to be rude or intrusive but I seem to lack information here. What kind of Grisha are you?" Yelena asked, carefully. She didn't exactly know how to act around these people, giving they grew up in very different environments.

"I never heard anyone speak so polite around here, not to me at least." she laughed, even tho that sounded very sad to Yelena. "I'm a Tailor, I can fix and modify. I've been working on myself since I was three."

"Since you were three? That's a long time learning.." Yelena felt silent. She had been Grisha for barely a week and they all expected her and her sister to tear down the Fold? She wanted to runaway from this craziness.

"Don't worry, you will learn soon enough and in a few months time you won't even remember what was like living without the Small Science." she said before sitting in-front of her.

The woman started touching her face; first her cheekbone where the nasty bruise the Fjerdan man gave her was, then her bitten broken lips and she painted a pale pink tone in them. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she barely recognized that face looking back at her. Her skin was smooth, with no sign of the blackness under her eyes or her signature cracked lips. She was still as thin as always, her cheekbones and jaw as sharp, but she looked more alive than before. The only thing that reminded the same as always was her gray eyes, now a little shinier, almost like two moons.