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STORIES WERE TERRIBLE THINGS. And Ketya, having known so many during her life had always despised them.
In Növesk, the children would gather around each other and tell tales on a night called Melsanktisya. It always occurred two nights before the Tsar's birthday and was meant as a holy day of worship and to honour the saints and martyrs of the Kingdom. While the day was devoted to praying, the children devoted their nights to stealing fresh bread and telling tales cross-legged on the floor,
As a child she'd hated that night, always forced to participate for her share of bread from her peers grubby hands. Part of her had always promised to try not to listen as they told scary tales of beast and monsters but she always listened.
And on her twelfth year, they finally mentioned the Deathless.
'He came from the east, birthed from no mother or father!' Little Maria Tretskaya had whispered that night, smiling with every word as the children gathered nearer and nearer around her. The room was all but silent, only anticipated breaths and the scuff of their feet as they moved closer to listen, could be heard.
'How can he not have a mother? Or a father?' One of the children beside her called out, earning a sharp glare from little Maria. Ketya had sucked in her breath as their storyteller began to speak.
'Beasts don't have anyone but themselves. It is known.' Maria stated, confident as she continued her story. Ketya had sat far from the centre of the room, frowning as she looked around her.
Are we all beasts then? She thought. None of them had parents, perhaps the Deathless was an orphan himself.
Perhaps he'd grown up in walls like her own, listening to a story from another little girl, about another horrible man.
When Növesk had burned, Ketya had realized that none of the orphans could be the beasts that little Maria, the same Maria that had died screaming in flames, had spoken about that night. Beasts don't have anyone but themselves, they had each other.
She thought sadly as she put a palm to her chest, feeling it more empty than it could've ever had been. But you, Ketya, you have no one.
Did that mean, like the Deathless, she was a beast? Did that mean she too, could not die?
But it was all a tale itself after all, and she preferred to think her death was alive and well, sitting in her empty chest.
..
"SHE IS NOT WELL." It was the first thing Ketya when she awoke, not daring to open her eyes. She could feel two people in the room, one of them being Farhani, who was speaking loudly without regard.
