THERE WAS FEAR IN THE YOUNG GIRL'S EYES AS SHE STOOD BEFORE GENERAL KIRIGAN AND LUCRETIA.
And who could possibly blame the poor thing for being intimidated? To have been through the Fold, experiencing its horror first hand as a mere otkazat'sya and emerging an alleged Sun Summoner. But Lucretia knew; there was no mistaking the warmth of the sun expanding within the Fold. No denying the familiar feeling in her chest at the sight of the half-Shu girl.
"Bring her closer."
In a disheveled state, with her her black hair a mess, her clothes ripped and dirtied, and her face bloodied with scars and wounds unhealed, the girl stood. The two guards grasping onto her shoulders released their hold on her expecting her to move forward on her own. Once she remained motionless, they harshly nudged her closer to the powerful couple.
"Closer."
Lucretia stood with her hands clasped together in front of her stomach and the General leant his weight on his palm resting on the table behind them. "Well?" He urged in a calm voice.
The former otkazat'sya girl sharply set her wandering eyes back onto Kirigan's dark pools of obsidian. "Well, what?" She snapped, recklessly voicing her irritation before realizing her mistake. "Sir."
But neither took offense to her tone. Instead General Kirigan merely tilted his head and peered at the girl with a scrutinizing gaze. "What are you?"
"Alina Starkov, Assistant Cartographer, Royal Corps of Surveyors." She answered the recited words she'd known to be true. Until this moment. "They're all gone." She mumbled to herself in disbelief, the reality of what'd happened to her and the others on the Skiff now dawning on her. "It's my fault. That's why I'm here, isn't it?" Her warm fearful eyes lifted to lock with Lucretia's emerald ones.
The General held up a hand for the girl to halt her nervous rambling. "Answer the question. What are you?" He questioned once more.
The girl standing in the middle of this darkened tent could only gulp and repeat herself, "A mapmaker, sir."
A wave of laughter erupted in the tent upon hearing the girl's oblivious reply to the General's question. He glanced back at Lucretia to see her raise an unimpressive brow, a sign for him to end the farce quickly and swiftly.
