Baddie Alina and slightly better Darkling?
What if Alina and stayed the night of the winter fete instead of running away? What if she had chosen the Darkling over Mal? What if the Malina ship sank fast and the Darklina ship sailed?
All these charact...
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Pathetic.
I was pacing in my tent. Alina Starkov. I knew she was the Sun Summoner when I first saw her. There was just something different about her: the way she held herself, the look in her eye when she saw me. She had really said, "I'm sorry, what?" I don't think she realized that she said it the way she did - she curled her lip the tiniest little bit, scrunched her nose, and pulled her eyebrows together. She said it like I had just told her to do the stupidest thing ever.
That wasn't the only thing, though. It was an exceptionally rare occurrence, and I had only ever seen it a few times. Sometimes, a Grisha would be missed when the testers went through the outer regions of Ravka. Their powers would build up over time since they weren't being used. This process happened to all missed Grisha or Grisha that didn't use their powers, but the more powerful the Grisha, the more pressure would be built up. Sometimes, the talent wouldn't show itself ever, and the Grisha would die never knowing of the gift. In most cases, however, it took most of their life for the pressure to build to the point of exploding, at which point the explosion almost always killed them. Alina was different, though. She was young - really young - for it to happen. My only assumption was that this was because she was the Sun Summoner. An extremely powerful Sun Summoner. Strong triggers, such as fear, grief, or love, could also make the powers reveal themselves. For now, I was assuming that her trigger had been fear. Afterward, other Grisha would be able to see remnants of the Grisha's powers for about a week. For example, Inferni would appear as if they literally had fire in their eyes when they were angry, the air around Squallers would be colder than anywhere else in the area, and when Tidemakers went near water the water would be drawn to them like a magnet. It hadn't happened to me, so I didn't know what it would be like for a Shadow Summoner. Alina had walked in with strands of light flickering through her hair.
It was great. I had met her once, talked to her for maybe five minutes tops, and already I couldn't stop thinking about her. She was infuriating. I knew the effect I had on women, and she did a good job of hiding it. Not perfect, but close. Since she really was the Sun Summoner, unlike many others that had been brought before me, I could use that somehow.
Lots of people said I was a monster. They were right. But now that I had Alina, maybe not so much anymore. Or I would act like a monster more than ever because of her.
"Ivan! Fedyor!" The two Heartrenders that had escorted Alina into the tent came in quickly. "I want Starkov to get to the Little Palace as quickly as possible. People will have seen that light for miles. The Fjerdans and the Shu probably know that we have the Sun Summoner. There will be assassins already on the way. Go. You two are personally responsible for her safety."
**
I was pacing my tent, trying to decide if I should leave. The skiff had not yet launched again, since they had to wait for the volcra to calm down before trying again, and I had originally come to observe the departure because it was a new model of the sand skiff. It had been only about a half hour since the Summoner had left in my carriage, but I was already worried. I was about to sit down, telling myself that it would be better to look aimlessly through papers than pace when Zoya, a talented Squaller who had been on the skiff with Starkov, burst into the room.
"General, I came to tell you about a report that just came in. I was told to tell you immediately. Assasins from Fjerda have located the carriage the Sun Summoner is in and are moving in. They will arrive at the carriage and attack in about 20 minutes, maybe sooner." Her hips swayed as she walked towards me, a seductive look on her face. She really was a beautiful woman, even for a Grisha, but I had no time or patience for it right now. "Seeing as how there's not much you can do, how about trusting in the fact that they are Grisha and they can take care of themselves?" Her tone changed. "If you're worried, darling, maybe I can help." She leaned forward and lifted a hand to touch my face, but I grabbed her wrist tightly. My voice dropped to a dangerous whisper, and shadows slithered toward us like snakes and started slowly climbing up her legs. Even though she tried to hide it, her face twisted with horror and disgust. It wasn't the first time someone had looked at me like that and it wouldn't be the last. And I was fine with that.
"You have no idea how important this girl is. If you think I am going to stay here instead of going to her myself, you are mistaken. Have my tent and all my things brought back to the Little Palace. I am going to get the Summoner, and then we will travel back to the Little Palace together."
I released her wrist, and she scampered out of the tent. Putting on a warm cape, I swept out of the tent to get my horse, people scattering out of my way with each footstep. Swinging up onto my black horse with a swish of my kefta, I kicked her into a gallop.
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