"I am flawed But I am cleaning up so well I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself." - Vindicated Dashboard Confessional
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We've been here a while, and the winds are starting to warm. It's a nice change from the cold, actually. We would enter Ravkan waters soon enough.
In the time I'd been unconscious, they'd gotten the sea whip. Now Alina wore it on her wrist, had she no shame? No remorse, that she'd just killed a creature which was never meant to be found?
I'm peering over the deck, having nothing to do, just when I hear Tamar telling Alina about her and Tolya's parents. I'd already heard that story, of course, but it sounded like a fairytale. Not necessarily a happy one, but still.
"Move faster," I hear Tolya grumble after some time. I turn around, and see Tamar and Alina sparring. Why couldn't I have been watching this instead?
I walk over to stand with Tolya, just as Sturmhond— or Nikolai— calls from the deck. "Tamar, please don't damage the cargo."
"Da, kapitan," Tamar says crisply to him.
"I'm not a package you're delivering, Sturmhond." Alina shoots him a sour look.
"More's the pity," he says, sauntering past. "Packages don't talk, and they stay where you put them."
A few days later, we start using sabers and dulled swords. Even Sturmhond joined in with us this time.
I was observing their fight, while Alina asked Tamar some questions.
"Keep your elbows in!" Sturmhond berates Mal. "You look like some kind of a chicken when you flap them like that."
Mal makes a clucking sound, which sounds strangely familiar to that of a real chicken. Was he some sort of chicken in disguise?
They go on like that for a while, and I keep watching them, though I'm faintly aware of someone saying my name.
"Lyra?" Two fingers clicked in front of my face. "Are you alright?" It is Tamar.
"Yes, I'm fine, why?" I ask.
"Alina wanted to ask you a question," she says.
"Oh, of course," I say focusing my attention on Alina.
"Where are you from? Are you a Grisha?" She asks.
What am I supposed to say to that? Oh I'm a shadow summoner and your sworn enemy's daughter. Daughter feels wrong in my mind. "Uhm, I'm Ravkan," I say. "I'm not a Grisha."
I look away from her to see Mal and Sturmhond's fight end, with Sturmhond winning. Sturmhond makes an over acted display of bowing, and waving to invisible, imaginary people.
