Chapter 1
When I wake up, everyone is running around and tending to people. I slowly sit up and place a hand to my pounding head. I start looking around, trying to understand where I am and what happened. When I lay my eyes on the unconscious form of Alina, everything comes back to me. Mal having to go through the Fold. Alina burning the maps so we could go with him. The Volcra attacking us. Being hit on the head with something and then passing out. Something must have stopped the Volcra after I passed out, otherwise we would all be dead right now. I shiver at the thought. I crawl over to Alina and a healer who just started tending to her wounds.
"Are you okay?" I ask once her eyes are open.
She tries to sit up, but the healer pusher her back down.
"Hold! Your collarbone is fractured." She orders before using her magic and mending it again.
"Where's Mal?" Alina asks me, after realizing that he's not next to her.
"I don't know, he wasn't there when I woke up."
"Where's Mal? He's a Tracker." Alina asks turning towards the healer.
"First Army goes to medical." She answers immediately.
Suddenly a man walks up to us.
"Bring her to the General's tent." He says to the healer.
"Who?" Me and Alina ask at the same time.
"A certain miss Starkov."
Alina and I share a confused glance. We're both miss Starkov.
"But I'm not done yet." The healer comments.
"You can go with her." He shoots back annoyed, before leaving.
The healer stands up and we follow her example. Alina and I a bit slower than her because of our injuries.
"So, which one of you two is miss Starkov?" She asks, looking between the two of us.
We both look at each other before Alina answers. "We both are."
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The tent she brought us to, is big and black. All around the walls, are people who where with us on the ship, Oprichniki and other Grisha, who I don't know. In the center of the room, close to the back wall, sits a desk. Standing in front of it, is a man with shadow black hair and eyes like the sky after a thunder storm. General Kirigan, or as others call him, the Darkling.
"You requested to see them." The healer says, looking towards the floor.
"I requested to see miss Starkov." He corrects.
He isn't talking loudly, but his voice carries itself across the whole room. You would think he was talking right next to you.
"They say they are both miss Starkov." She says, still looking down.
He turns looking at the two of us. His eyebrows slightly raised.
"We are sisters." Alina responds to his silent question.
She is holding her head high and looking directly at him, while my head is tilted down, but my eyes are looking up. She has always been the confident one between the two of us. I don't like big crowds, they stress me out.
I don't even know why I'm here. I did nothing wrong. Alina did nothing wrong.
"Well, that certainly complicates things." He mutters to himself. "Bring them closer." He orders.
We quickly look at each other and both take an indecisive step forward.
"Closer."
We both take another step.
"What is your name?" He asks, turning slightly towards Alina.
"Alina Starkov."
"And yours?" He asks, shifting his attention to me.
"Anya Starkov, sir."
"What are you?" He suddenly asks, gazing at us intently.
Alina and I share a look, before she speaks up.
"Mapmakers, sir."
Around us, everyone starts laughing. Apparently, what she said was funny. I don't understand why. She said the truth. We are mapmakers.
"Quiet." He orders, making the laughter die down immediately. "So, who actually saw what happened?" He asks, looking around the room. "Zoya? You manned the main sail." He suggest, turning his attention towards a young woman with black hair as dark as a raven's feathers, and blue eyes like the sky during a nice summer evening. The complete opposite of the General's eyes.
"We were attacked barely two markers in." Zoya starts to explain. "Someone lit a lantern." She continues, distaste lacing her voice.
"And?" The General asks, pushing her to continue.
"The Volcra went after the riflemen and our Inferni first. And then there was a searing light."
"Did you see who produced the searing light?" General Kirigan asks, trying to get more information out of her.
"It was one of those two girls, sir." Zoya answers. It couldn't have been Alina, right? It couldn't have been me, because I was unconscious for most of the attack.
"I meant, which one?" He specifies, starting to get aggravated. Should I say something? I shouldn't interrupt them. I'll just stay quiet.
"It all happened so quickly, sir. And I was far away." Zoya rambles, bringing me out of my internal turmoil.
"So, you don't know." He cuts her of, clearly annoyed now.
"Well, they do look oddly alike, sir." She defends in a small voice.
He sighs and turns back towards us.
"Where did you two grow up?" He asks, his voice losing the previous frustration.
I turn my head towards Alina, awaiting her answer.
"Keramzin." She answers for the both of us.
He hums and continues his interrogation. "And when were you tested?"
Alina looks down, ashamed.
"You don't remember?" He asks mockingly.
"I was never tested, sir." I cut in, realizing that Alina isn't going to answer. "I was sick the day the testers came... sir" I say, with maybe a 'sir' too much.
He turns his attention towards me. His eyebrows slightly raised. As if he forgot I was there or he thought I was mute.
"Well, there is no time like the present. Let's take this one at a time, shall we?" He says, looking between the both of us. "So, who wants to go first?"
I hope Alina will give herself up to go first. I would like to know how the testing works before I have to do it. She already did it once when we were in the orphanage so she knows what to expect.
"Miss Anya, perhaps?" He suggest, turning to me.
I turn my head to look at Alina, but she's still looking forwards. She then takes a couple step back, leaving more room for the General and I.
I turn my attention back towards General Kirigan. He is a lot closer to me now than he was before. He must have taken a few steps while I was watching Alina.
Now that he's this close to me, I realize how much taller he is than me. A whole head taller. He needs to lower his head a bit to be able to look at me, which makes him that much more intimidating.
"Lift up your sleeve." He orders.
I just stare at him, confused. Why should I lift up my sleeve? I have no idea what he is going to do to me. And him towering over me like this, isn't helping with my nerves.
He's just looking at me expectantly, which isn't helping either.
"Your sleeve, please." He reminds me, bringing me out of my thoughts.
I lift up my sleeve so that it comes right under my elbow.
He grasps my arm, not as gently as I would have liked, and lift my sleeve even higher, until it reaches the center of my upper-arm.
He brings the hand that isn't holding my arm, up to my biceps. At that moment I realize that the ring he was once wearing on his ring finger, is now on his thumb. The ring is pretty odd. It has a sort of sharp point, that kind of looks like an eagle claw, attached to it. You could very easily hurt someone with that.
He's slowly bringing that point, closer and closer to my arm.
He stops once it's only lightly grazing my arm and turns away from it to look at me. Seeing that he's stopped, I also look up at him. Once our eyes meet, I feel the point of his ring pierce my skin. I silently gasp from the pain, but don't break our eye-contact. I don't think I could have looked away from his eyes even if I wanted to.
Suddenly, all the candles in the tent go out. People are frantically running around lighting the candles again.
Even though the candles all went out, I can still see pretty well, as if there is a small fire close by. Turns out, I'm right. There is a small fire close by, but it's General Kirigan's sleeve that's on fire. I panic and pull away from his grasp.
Water. That's what I need. I need water.
Water, that is coming out of my hands, splashes onto his sleeve and put out the fire.
"I'm so sorry!" I apologizes to him, panicking even more. I don't even take a moment to realize the fact that I just summoned water.
Air. That's what I need. I need air.
Slowly a ring of air creates itself around his wet arm and starts drying it.
I look up at him and he looks down at me, with a shocked and impressed look on his face.
How could he be impressed? I lit him on fire.
When his sleeve is almost dry, I realize that all the candles are burning. They must have done that while I was panicking.
When his sleeve is completely dry, the ring of air slowly fades away and we are just left staring at each other.
Him out of amazement and pure shock, and me out of confusion of how I did all of that, relief that that nightmare is finally over and fear for what's next to come.
He comes out of his daze and clears his throat, bringing me out of mine.
I guess my test is done, now it's time for Alina to get tested.
I pull down my sleeve and take a couple steps back, so I come to stand next to Alina. I turn my head, looking at her. She's looking back at me, mouth slightly open. I guess she's just as surprised as I am.
I give her a small smile back, not really knowing what else to do. She turns her attention back towards the front of the room, composing herself, and steps closer to the General.
They do the same ritual as with me. Alina lifts her sleeve. He takes her arm and pierces her skin with his ring. He doesn't take the time to look at her, like he did with me. Maybe he's in a rush. Well, I guess my whole 'lighting him on fire' stunt took a bit longer than expected.
Once the point of his ring pierced her skin, he slowly dragged it down, forming a small cut on her arm.
But instead of blood coming out of her cut, a beam of light that reaches the sealing comes out.
I place my hand in front of my eyes to shield them from the intense light.
The light slowly starts fading and once it's completely gone the General takes a step back, creating some distance between himself an Alina.
That seems to bring her out of her daze and she pulls down her sleeve.
General Kirigan calls over an Oprichniki with a hand motion and whispers something to him. Alina takes this time to come and stand next to me. I look up at her, but she's just staring forwards.
She must be in shock. Not that I'm not in shock. I am. I guess this just explains moments in my life for which I've never had an explanation.
2 years ago
This is Alina, Mal and I's last year in the orphanage. Next year we can be part of the First Army and finally leave this place. Alina and Mal are off hiding somewhere. Usually I would hide with them, if they remembered to wake me up, but when I woke up this morning, they were both already gone. I am a bit hurt that they didn't wake me up so I could go with them, but I guess they just didn't think about it. So I decided to just sit in the eating area and read. Today I decided to reread Alice in Wonderland for the tenth time. It's not as if I had a lot of other books to choose from, but even if I did, I would still go with Alice in Wonderland'.
I am peacefully reading Alice falling through the rabbit hole, when some boys around my age come up to me. The same group of boys that have been bullying Alina, Mal and I since we've come here.
I glance up from my book to see if they're actually going to talk to me. It's a lot easier to ignore them if they're just talking behind my back.
It seems like they're just talking, glancing over at me and laughing. Nothing I can't handle. At least they're going to leave me alone.
I guess I was wrong. Not even a minute later and they're all walking up to me.
With Viktor in front. The meanest of the group.
"Oi, mute girl." He says, trying to catch my attention.
"Just ignore them" Alina's voice says in my head.
"Oi, mute girl." He says a bit louder and harsher, waving a hand in between my face and my book. I sigh, before lifting my gaze to them.
"Finally. You're a bit slow, aren't you?"
My strategie in these situations: just say nothing and look down.
"What you got there?"
I just continue to stare at him with a blank expression.
"Answer me when I ask you something." He demands, losing his temper.
Oh yeah, I forgot to say something about my strategie: usually it doesn't work.
He grabs my chin violently.
"And look me in the eyes when I talk to you." He ads.
Alarms are going off inside my head. I need him to get away from me. Now.
I suddenly feel a big gush of wind, that knocks Viktor of his feet and my book flies out of my grasp.
He looks around for the source of the wind, with a scared look on his face.
"How did you do that?" He asks.
"I didn't do anything." I defend.
"You're Grisha!" He states, as if he just discovered a big new piece of information.
"What? No I'm not."
"You're Grisha." He repeats with disgust in his voice.
"No, I'm not." I say exasperated.
"You filthy little Grisha!" He yells, before turning around and leaving with his group of friends.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed :)