Prologue
It was not many months before whispers darted through the house, rumors of a child the couple would bear. The staff murmured excitedly despite their doubts about the sanity of the girl and the boy.
More and more often, the strange multicolored kefta'd Grisha would arrive at Keramzin, bearing gifts and words of "wisdom" from the one with flame-colored hair and a red kefta. The strange and handsome man with golden hair and hazel eyes would also make his occasional visits, laughing and talking with the couple late into the hours and offering them gifts of good-fortune and wealth.
The new life that the girl and boy shared was a content one.
The girl was still considered strange, still again telling the children of the flying ships, ivory dragons, and a bird who lifted on wings of flame. Still she painted the walls with the stories she knew, the stories she kept locked in her other identity.
She longed for her powers. Often she would graze her fingers into beams of light, pining for the strength she once knew, and felt the emptiness around her neck and wrists where Morozova's amplifiers would have been.
At night the girl sometimes whispers a name. The name of a boy whose name was lost to time and title. A boy with gray eyes, raven hair, and pale skin. It pained her to think of him, of the dagger she had driven into him, but the anger still lingered.
When the girl would get this way, the boy would come to her and hold her, whispering softly and kissing her, trying so deeply to understand the loss she felt for her powers. It didn't take a lot of strain, for the boy could feel the yawning void where his gift had been as well. Although otkazat'sya, the boy had given up merzost to save the one he loved, and had taken his life. He could no longer feel the making at the heart of the world, could no longer make rabbits out of rocks.
The time was evident when it was obvious that the girl was to bear a child, and the one who was once Malyen would go to her happily. He would kiss her slightly bulged stomach, run his hands along her back and smile, would put flowers in her hair and whisper his fond names to her. They were happy, overjoyed, even. The girl and boy would often spend more and more time together, dreaming about the child they could call their own, a child they could raise in a mansion surrounded by other children that would soon become it's friends.
One night the girl cried out, and after long night hours and the comfort of the boy, their child was born.
A beautiful baby girl with a lovely porcelain face, and eyes the color of glimmering gray quartz.