Sound Your Name (Oh, My Darling)

16. Interlude - Ivan

Ivan could see the darkness within the man which had nothing to do with the shadows that would seem to writhe in pain when the losses were truly great. The General seemed so ancient in those moments, so bone tired and weary. Ivan could nearly feel in his own bones how the great man ached and in those moments Ivan learned he had to be the rock. He had to remain steadfast, so that the General could get up to face another day. For the General would bring about peace one day, after all he had been working so many centuries already.

It was with these years of observation that Ivan began to give some credence to the whispers he'd heard of older Grisha, still reverent of the General and yet fearful at the same time. Some believed he was older than he seemed, but as Ivan listened he found that others knew it as fact. They had been there for the turn over of the last Generals of the Second Army. They knew their current General was the same. Ivan could not help his thoughts that perhaps they all had been the same man, after all how could a generation of Grisha all be so consistent in their goal. So persistent in their efforts, so exact in their personality, their fervor and their care.

Ivan would shake his head in the end for it did not matter in the end. The General's good deeds for the Grisha far outweighed his mistakes of the past. Everything the General ever did was for the Grisha, even forsaking parts of his own humanity while trying to safeguard the rest of his Grisha's remaining innocence.

Ivan would have remained steadfast despite all of his superior's shortcomings if it hadn't been for the arrival of the ray of starlight.

All his superior's plans seemed to have been forsaken when the Sun Summoner was also his superior's soulmate.

Ivan was not immediately convinced that she was the right thing for Grisha and his General. She seemed a distraction from the way Fedyor spoke about her. The General was enamored; absolutely and completely eclipsed by her at the moment of her arrival.

"It is as it should be, brother. They are each other's compliments."

Ivan stared out the window as the General rode off one day without guard only with his soulmate as company.

However, the next day it was as if nothing had even happened and the old General was back.

So much so it was unnerving even for Ivan after a couple days of monitoring his superior's heartbeat. It was as if the General had purposely suppressed the part of him that reached out to his soulmate, the air around him almost turned colder. Yet in the night his dreams would plague him and he was restless, as the Oprichniki would inform Ivan each morning.

Ivan tried to not look at the Sun Summoner, tried not to see the pain etched across her features. He tried not to listen to how her heart palpitated when nearing the General's war room doors, her eyes looking eager and full of hope that perhaps that would be the day that her soulmate would let her in. Ivan tried to not to but he could feel through his twin-bond his brother's anguish as he saw the girl descend into sadness.

He would hear from his brother how despite her heartache the girl rose above it and trained harder than all her other peers.

He couldn't help the admiration that rose within him.

It was when Zoya and her bond-mate returned from their bonding that Ivan heard something he wished he hadn't.

Fedyor had been on a picnic with Zoya and the Sun Summoner. Ivan was passing by when he heard his brother lean forward asking with a conspiratorial voice that he knew well.

"So what sort of memory dreams did you have of the General that you had to suppress?"

Ivan had stopped in his tracks, and Fedyor had glanced his way before smirking and looking back at the blushing Sun Summoner. The girl smoothed out her skirts nervously and tried to look anywhere but at the two friends who now looked at her mischievously.