The light trailed down the antlers, decorating the snow white stag in a golden light, making it look ethereal as it stood among the forest. And indeed it was ethereal. This was no normal stag. It looked straight ahead, and just as it did...
Alina Starkov bolted awake in her soft, lush bed in the Little Palace. She looked at her hands, trying to at least make a small amount of Summoner magic come out, some shred of pure sunlight to filter out of her veins. But it was all for naught. She sighed in frustration. Just then the doors opened and several women filtered through in white frocks, led by another woman wearing a white kefta that was bound at the waist with a fancy belt. The kefta was embroidered with pink-gold accents. The woman in question had fiery red hair and beautiful, piercing green eyes. The woman opened the curtain of the four poster bed to stare at Alina in shock.
'Saints! Have you ever bathed?' she asked. 'And what happened to your face?' Alina touched her face. 'This is going to take more work than I expected.' The woman snapped her fingers. 'Fetch my kit.' One of the ladies took off, out of the room. Then two of the ladies pulled her out of the bed and into the large bathroom, beginning to peel off her clothing and placed her into the bath before working on her hair, scrubbing her arms with no amount of gentleness. The woman with the white kefta lowered herself into the chair at the end of the bathroom, watching Alina bathe.
'Smells like horse,' one of the women commented in Old Ravkan.'
'Horse has a use,' the other woman said in the same language.
'Stop, stop, stop,' Alina said, snatching the sponge from the woman. 'I am perfectly capable of watching myself. And yes, I smell like horse. I was on one for 200 miles. After nearly getting killed. Twice. And I understand Old Ravkan, and that was really quite rude.' Alina began to scrub herself with more gentleness. During the whole time, the woman in the white kefta with the fiery hair had said nothing, but now she spoke up.
'In an hour, you'll be presented to King Pyotr, and General Kirigan has asked that I make you look presentable.'
'I am to meet the King?' Alina asked incredulously.
'In an hour.' Alina looked away.
'Oh.'
'Yes, 'oh". So let's get on with it.' She stood from the bath, getting out, brushing her damp hair away from her shoulders.
'You know, this is all a bit much. I really don't need any of this.' Just then a robe was pulled over her shoulders and her eyes widened in surprise, snuggling further into the robe. 'Saints! Is this velvet?' Just then one of the women remarked to the woman in the white kefta,
'I'd start by making her eyes less Shu, Miss Safin.' The woman clapped twice.
'Everybody out.' The woman scoffed as the maids trailed out one by one. When they left the room, the woman in the white kefta led Alina out into the main bedroom.
'Thank you,' Alina said, finally able to take a breath of relief.
'Happy to get rid of the miserable shrews,' the woman replied. 'I don't pick my staff. The Queen assigns them. Mostly so she can spy on me.' The woman was looking at her kit, when Alina said,
'Don't change my eyes.' The woman put down a mirror and walked over to Alina.
'I don't care that you're part Shu. I care that you look terrible.' The two chuckled. The woman waved her hand over Alina's bloody lip, and it was gone. She felt it in shock, her eyes widening when she felt it was truly gone. Then she touched her forehead, and the wound from the Fjerdan attack was gone too. 'Some of this is surface, but some of it runs deeper.' She rolled up her sleeve and healed the cut made by Kirigan's ring.
'You're a Healer,' Alina remarked.
'I'm a Tailor,' the woman corrected. 'I can fix, but I can also modify.'
'I've never met a Tailor before.'
'I'm almost as rare as you, though I'd hardly say saving the Queen from sagging tits makes me as important as you. Important to the Queen of course, and she does not like to see cracks in her porcelain.' The woman moved around Alina, healing every scratch, bump and scrape. When she got to the scar on her hand, Alina pulled her hand back.
'No - that one's a reminder of home.' The woman smiled.
'Sentimental. I'll work on that, too. But for right now, sit.' She motioned to the chair and Alina sat. The woman passed her a mirror, and she looked into it, noticing her modified features. The woman picked up a green necklace. 'This will do nicely.' The woman made her hair shimmery and dark, with hints of a purple-black colour. Alina felt her hair, her eyes widening and her expression brightening as the woman in the white kefta moved around the room, using certain objects such as shells and other bits, to modify Alina's face and features. 'It only lasts a few days,' the woman noted in response to Alina's awe.
'How old were you when you knew?' Alina asked the woman.
'Testers found me when I was 11. That's when General Kirigan gifted me to the Queen. But I've been working on myself since I was three.'
'Since you were three?' Alina asked, in more shock than ever, but it seemed a good kind of shock. 'Saints! I can't go in front of the King. I need more time. I've only been a Grisha for a day.' The woman held two beads in front of Alina's eyes, looking over her shoulder in the mirror to gauge the colour. She chuckled.
'Maybe you've only been aware for a day. But you've been a Grisha your whole life. And now you're here, to tear down the Fold.'