When I was young, I was afraid of the dark.
When I got older, I learned that darkness is a place - and it's full of monsters.
I live in East Ravka, but I've never been welcome here because I look like my mother, and she looked like the enemy.
Third Person POV
Alina Starkov, a young dark-skinned girl of 17, sat in the bumpy cart full of Ravkan cartographers, headed to a training camp seated on the fringe of the Shadow Fold that currently split the nation of Ravka in half, where a small pocket of the First Army was located. She was drawing a map of the Shadow Fold on a piece of parchment when one of the soldiers leaned over, shivering from the cold, and asked her,
'Alina, how can you do that in here?'
'Bumps help with texture,' she replied, not looking up from her drawing.
'The Fold looks different on mine,' one of the cartographers said. She met his eyes. 'I need to get a better view from your country,' he said in a cruel tone. The young man that was speaking to her earlier shoved him.
'She grew up here. Come on!'
'The Shu Han didn't want her either,' he retorted, but the comment, which the young Starkov must have heard a thousand times ever since she was a child, was utterly lost on her as an older woman opened the raggedy curtain and looked into the back full of young cartographers on their way to what might seem like certain death.
'Cartographers, listen up. We're almost there. Pack up and be ready to leave. And if you lose anything, you will not be getting a replacement.' She turned, dropping the raggedy curtain as the young cartographers packed up their things. But they aren't the monsters; they're just boys, Alina thought as she packed her meagre possessions together frantically in anticipation for their arrival. They heard a loud growling, raspy and evil-sounding, making them look up as dust blew in their faces and throughout the cramped, tight carriage space. A horse whinnied.
I learned about my true enemy when I was a child.
Several years ago. Keramzin, Ravka. Unknown orphanage.
'Is it real?' a younger Alina asked.
'Of course it's real,' the matronly woman snapped from her chair in the corner as she did her needlework. 'The Fold ate your parents. It's the reason for many of the orphans here. People trying to cross. Taunting the Saints.'
'Then why cross it?' Alina asked curiously. 'Why not go around?'
'Read the map,' the older woman snapped again, as if that was the obvious answer. 'The north want our Grisha dead, the south guards its mountains. We have no where else to go. Now work on your shading, girl.' She stared at the shadowy blight on the map, not moving. 'Keep a pencil in your hand. Or else someone will put a rifle in it instead.'
I spent years thinking I'd find a way out. Around the Fold, to go somewhere no one cares where I'm from.
Present. Near the Shadow Fold.
Thunder rumbled as Alina exited the carriage, the careless strands of hair left over from her tight bun blowing around her face in the wind.
But now, I'm old enough to know the only way out is through.
She stood in front of the Shadow Fold. Even larger in life, as the darkness, punctuated by bursts of blue lightning, split the world in half, the growling from the dark monsters inside becoming even more apparent - and louder.
'We are never going to see it go away,' a cartographer said, walking up just behind Alina. 'This abomination is here forever.'
'You don't go to church,' the lead cartographer chided the boy who had spoken. 'A Saint who can summon the sun will destroy it.'
'I'd like to see even one person who isn't scared of that,' another one of the young men said as the blonde cartographer walked ahead of them and Alina, going down to the training camp.
'I bet I know someone. Mal. He isn't afraid of anything,' she replied, giving Alina a jesting look as she turned and walked down. Alina chuckled under her breath.
'You'd be surprised,' she mumbled.
Orphanage in Keramzin. Several years ago.
Alina laid on the floor in front of the doorway, drawing while the other light-skinned children played outdoors with sticks. Malyen Oretsev, the only other dark-skinned child in the orphanage at Keramzin, ran in, carrying something.
'Alina,' he whispered. She got up off the ground and turned, regarding the creature he was holding.
'Mal?'
'Look what I found,' he said with a soft smile. He uncovered his hands to show her a cute rabbit sitting in them, quiet, twitching its nose.
'Where?'
'Little guy's lost,' he replied, stroking its ears. 'But I found some chewed plants in the woods to the east. I bet his warren's there.'
'Why you run from me, half-breed?' a lighter-skinned boy yelled, storming into the front room, where Alina and Mal stood, stroking the rabbit. Mal bolted behind Alina, cradling the rabbit protectively.
'Stay away from him.' She was smaller than Mal, but she gazed up into the bully's face with a fire in her eyes.
'Or what? You going to draw me, rice eater?' he mocked. She pulled a small knife off of the table.
'Or I'll cut you.'
'What's this?' the matron of the orphanage shouted. Alina hid the knife behind her back, and the light skinned boy ran back outside to play with his friends, while Mal bolted out the back of the orphanage, still cradling the rabbit. 'Who's tracked in dirt on my rug? Malyen Oretsev!' she shouted, but it was lost on the little boy, who squeezed his eyes shut, hiding behind a wall, clutching the rabbit. 'Mal? I know you're hiding here. Come out now!'
'No!' he shouted.
'Can't hide forever!'
'Yes, I can.' She sighed.
'All right, maybe you can.' She turned to leave, then turned back to the empty space and shouted at the hiding place. 'But this is what you become! A boy who hides from a fight. Get very good at it, maybe you'll survive to see 20. Bring me a big rabbit before the dinner bell goes.' He unclenched his eyes, looking down to see the rabbit in his hands, and stroked it softly.
Present. Near the Shadow Fold.
Soldiers chatted in the large, packed tent as a high-ranking soldier stepped up to speak.
'All right, listen up. I know some of you have been on the road for a week, so I'll be brief. Most of you will continue north to the Fjerdan frontlines. Or south to the Shu Han border. The Second Army, however, has a shiny new solution to our food shortage, and it sails tomorrow for Novokribirsk. If this model works, it means a full meal for everyone in this tent next week. It means bullets for your guns and sugar for your tea.'
'How about some whiskey?' a soldier piped up in the crowd.
'Yes, that would be nice, but don't hold your breath,' the older soldier said. 'Of course, they need our help bringing those supplies back, so some of you will be assigned.'
'There's nothing to fear,' Mal whispered in a mocking tone, leaning over to Alina. 'I will now be selecting names for what I call the 'nightmare lottery'.' She sniggered.
'... For the supply run across the Fold!' The older soldier pulled out a piece of paper and began to read from it.
'Sergeant Yure Teplov! Tracker Mal Oretsev! Corporal Masyelentov!'
'But he...' Alina said in a strangled voice, '... but you're in our unit.' He looked at her, said nothing.
'Rifleman Valek Tapenyov!'
'It has to be an error,' Mal said, his eyes filling with fear. 'It has to be.'
'Didn't sound like an error, Mal,' Alina replied, her eyes filling with the same fear.
'And finally, Medic Nolech Barenovsky. That's it. Dinner in an hour. Come back and line up by rank. Dismissed.' The soldiers all around chattered loudly, moving to leave the tent.
'Mal,' she whispered. He turned to her.
'Well, if it does work, I'll get to visit Ketterdam,' he snapped, unbidden tears shining in his eyes as his voice cracked. Then he left the tent, leaving Alina stunned, tears shining in her eyes as well.