Chapter XLII.
Cursed Stranger
Baghra would like to think that she had lived as fully as she is able.
Being the daughter of Ilya Morozova and the mother of the Black Heretic, she's been surrounded by legends her whole life. She had thought that was the end of everything. Surely, there would be nothing else to add to her story.
She had been wrong. There was more to follow if being bothered in her tent for the second time that week was any indication.
Her eyes were shut closed, listening to the sound of the steady drizzle occurring outside. All of their travel had been postponed until better weather came upon them but that didn't mean that they were to sit still and do nothing.
Training for the Grisha was still being conducted and things went on as they usually did. Apart from a message that she had received days prior. It was a message marked with the Ravkan eagle, the seal of a king.
Baghra had not told anyone of what she had received, only that it was something that she must address on her own. What a plan it had been. If it weren't for her son getting in the way of it all. Due to that unexpected interference, she had to resort to more devious means. If only she had known that it would not be enough.
A metal object fell to the table with a clang and Baghra opened her eyes to be faced with fierce blue orbs. They were strikingly radiant and clear for someone so young as if the young woman they belonged to had lived as many lives as she had.
"What do you want?" Baghra drawled, looking up at the girl with an impatient tone.
Irina Lantsov glared harshly. If it were possible to be pierced by daggers from a simple glare, Baghra was sure to have been impaled by now. "You left this for me, didn't you? Why?"
The old Grisha turned up her nose once her eyes fell upon the locket on the table. Of course, she had left it for her. Who else would have done it? "I don't know what you're talking about."
The young princess rolled her eyes, hissing underneath her breath. "You've been trying to turn me against Aleksander. I'm not a fool."
Irina had lived in the Grand Palace long enough to know when and how a person is manipulated. Baghra had been planting seeds of doubt and now, she was only preparing for its culmination. After being controlled her whole life, she'd like to think that she had already been familiar with such tragedy.
"Aren't you?" Baghra challenged, picking up the locket with nimble fingers and gazing upon the inscription. "Then why are you avoiding the truth that is right in front of you?"
Irina laughed bitterly, a tired chuckle emerging from her lips as if her words didn't mean anything. "You say one thing and he says another. Who am I meant to trust? The man I love or the woman who clearly has it out for me?"
"You love him? Terrible business." Baghra scoffed, shaking her head at the younger woman as if she were talking to a mere child who didn't know any better.
Irina had just about enough of old people thinking they know better than her when she didn't even know the full truth. "What do you know that I don't?"
Baghra deadpanned, keeping her answers curt and short, knowing that it would annoy the princess. "Many things."
"Like how to ruin someone's life?" Irina crossed her arms over her chest defensively.
"Careful girl." Baghra glowered, warning her of the consequences of her next words. She may think of herself as a patient old woman but in reality, her patience was hanging by a thin thread at that moment.
Irina menacingly spoke, informing the old woman that she may listen to what she has to say but at the end of the day, she would only believe the man she loved. "Aleksander is wary of you-"
Baghra tutted, giving her a pitying look. "He doesn't love you."
As if she couldn't help it, Irina threw her head back and laughed. "Sure. And I'm not the princess of Ravka."
"Look at that locket. What do you see?" Baghra's anger and fire seemed to have died out. It was as if the old woman had given up on fighting and had instead opted to show her the truth.
"It doesn't mean anything." Irina assured yet the denial had begun to seep into her form. It was a coincidence that he looked like his ancestor, it was how families were. Even she had been thought to look exactly like her grandmother. It had to be a coincidence.
Baghra explained slowly, opening up the locket to reveal exactly what she said. "It is a painting of Aleksander. Your lover. Sixty years ago."
Irina defended, taking the locket from the old woman and tracing the visage with her own fingers before hurling it to the ground. "It could be his father. You have no proof that what you are saying is true."
"Fine. You don't believe me? Here, read the truth from his own words." Baghra sighed, pulling out a leather journal from underneath her chair's cushion.
She had been reading through his various journals, trying to find the entry that would prove her words to be true. It had been his first set of journals, in his first life. Baghra was surprised that Aleksander had not seen her and figured out her plan when he barged into her tent. Perhaps it had been too long for him that he did not even recognize his own journals.
It was only recently that she found what she was looking for. The entry that would ensure everything to be true. The day before he created the Fold. Before he tampered with merzost and created the worst thing ever to be formed in the history of Ravka.
"What is this?" Irina asked, though her hands reached out to take the almost tattered leather journal. She had been questioning though it was clear that her walls crumbled at the sight of possible evidence. Its pages were brittle, a testament of its time and age.
"Aleksander's journals. From the time of King Anastas." Baghra said, her eyes not leaving the journal. "Entry number twenty-two should suffice."
Irina opened the journal to the page where the black ribbon was marked. Sure enough, it was at the entry that Baghra had pointed out to her. Her eyes scanned the dark ink staining the yellow pages, the familiar handwriting causing her whole body to tense.
The words being written down seemed impossible but the style of writing, the way he portrayed things, even the way that the words were pressed on the page. It was his. It was all Aleksander. Except for the events in the journal. The journal oozed Aleksander's being, but the story, the events, none of it matched up. Especially the date.
Aleksander's near arrest. The murder of a Healer. His grandfather's journals. Merzost. The Creation of the Fold.
Irina's eyes fell upon the signature at the end of the page, an exact copy of Aleksander's. With the flourish of the 'A' and the long curved line of the 'r'. "This can't be real! A forgery, it could be a forge-"
"A forgery? Ha! Do you think I would go through all that trouble? It's the truth." Baghra chortled bitterly, using her cane to point at the journal.
Irina stuttered, causing her resolve to begin to crumble. "H-how is this possible? How do you h-have this?"
Baghra was silent for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, she brought her hands together before waving them around to coat the whole tent in darkness. "A mother always makes sure to clean up her son's mess."
A gasp emerged from Irina's mouth as the realization of the truth started to dawn on her. "You're a Shadow Summoner. Y-you're his mother."
"Power always extends a Grisha's life. As you know. Especially with an amplifier as strong as yours. I wonder how long he would have taken before telling you. A few hundred years maybe." Baghra continued to say as she sat down, almost ignorant of the way that she had just dropped a truth upon the girl.
Irina closed the journal with shaking fingers, unable to read more of the ugly truth she had never expected to find. "I-"
"Or would he have just kept it from you this whole time? I do wonder." Baghra continued to muse, ignoring the way that the princess swung on her feet.
With heavy breaths and her heart pounding furiously, Irina fell to her knees. It was like the panic she had felt at the Grand Palace after being locked in her room, only this time her dark prince wasn't there to save her. He was the cause of her distress.
"How could you be so cruel?" Irina asked, tears falling from her eyes as she pressed a hand to her chest, trying to slow the beats of her heart and failing miserably.
"How could you have been so blind?" Baghra said, using her cane to lift up her chin, her voice without an ounce of sympathy. "You danced to his tune, now it's time to face the music."
"No," Irina continued to breathe deeply, trying to gulp in as much air as she could as she continued to be overtaken by her own emotions. "I need to hear this from him. I-I need to hear the truth from him."
"You fool! You're only welcoming him to lie to you more." Baghra said, trying to get the girl to understand the truth. "You wouldn't be the first he has lied to and you won't be the last. He hasn't survived this long by being a terrible liar."
Irina felt as if she was going to die. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to try to inhale air. It hurt to see Baghra standing above her with only honesty in her eyes. It hurt to think of Aleksander in that manner. It hurt to live.
Irina barely registered the sound of someone entering the tent. Her eyes flashed to the person who entered, recognizing the startled look of the man she loved. The man she thought she loved.
His eyes turned to Baghra with raw unfiltered anger before turning to Irina with worry, his gaze concerned by the sight of her on the floor.
"What have you done?" Aleksander demanded, his eyes glazing with anger.
Irina didn't see the man she learned to care for. She didn't see the man who had taught her everything he knew. She didn't see the man who had brought her a lion cub. She didn't see the man who kissed her in alcoves and saved her from death. She didn't see the man who had been her lover, her friend, her mentor.
She only saw a stranger.
~ 𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓻'𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽𝓮 ~
Hello everyone!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! The truth is revealed and this is just the beginning. We see Baghra giving her the journals but we don't yet see Aleksander revealing the truth. Will we? Maybe. Will it hurt? Definitely.
Next chapter will be painful. Really painful. :,,,,). So stay tuned and sending you all my love <3 and advanced tissue<3!