A/N: Thanks to the two lovely reviews I got. You know who you are ;) I'm uploading this next chapter insanely quickly. Let me know what you think :D

Stepan blindfolded Aleksander, claiming that the accursed Grisha wasn't "worthy enough to witness the royal splendor of Ravka's crown prince and princess." The boy grit his teeth and bitterly accepted that his dream of being seen as Ravkan as well as Grisha was still a long way off.

The stocky brunette forced Aleksander onto his knees when they reached the room in which the family greeted guests. He bowed his head before the boy could do it for him.

"Who is this, Boris?" inquired a silky male voice that Aleksander assumed must belong to Prince Sasha.

Hurrying to answer his prince, Boris replied eagerly, "This is no one, Prince Sasha. Merely a lowly orphan. But he does have some entertaining abilities."

There was a brief silence, during which the boy began to lose feeling in his legs.

"Take his blindfold off," the prince finally declared. Aleksander felt the coarse fabric slip from around his eyes. He blinked away the blurriness of his sight before focusing on the two figures directly in front of him.

Princess Natalie had curly dark golden hair that reached her elbows and pale turquoise blue eyes. Her skin was white from lack of exposure to sunlight. She looked to be about fourteen years old. Velvets and silks surrounded her, almost completely concealing the dress that matched her eyes. Jewels glimmered from her ears and around her neck. Aleksander's slate gray eyes met hers, and she looked away guiltily.

Seated to her right was Prince Sasha. His hair was the same shade as his sister's, though his was slicked back, almost reaching his shoulders. His skin was fair and smooth-the glimmer of wealth. He seemed to be perhaps a year older than his sister. But what really drew Aleksander's attention were his eyes. He had never seen anything like them before and he never would after. The Crown Prince of Ravka had eyes an unnatural bright green. They shone fiercely, and he was certainly right to base his wardrobe off of the assumption that they were his most eye-catching feature.

Princess Natalie made emphatic eye contact with her brother. "You know what I'm going to do. Will you help me?" She looked pointedly towards the bruised boy at their feet.

Sighing resignedly, Prince Sasha glared at Boris and Inna, as if blaming them for some horrible event that had not yet taken place. "Go ahead."

Within a moment, the Ravkan princess was kneeling at eye-level with Aleksander. She tilted his head to better see his cuts and bruises. The Berdichevskis had avoided injuring him too seriously, for they did value his ability to entertain guests and make the estate a popular social scene.

"Did they do this to you?" the blond asked quietly. At his hesitation, she smiled gently and whispered, "I want to help. But I need you to tell me the truth."

Aleksander nodded, hoping he wouldn't regret it. That slight movement of his head was an unforgivable betrayal of the family who held complete power over him.

The princess stood and murmured to her brother. Prince Sasha's green gaze met Aleksander's sleet gray stare, and neither could look away.

The Berdichevski family, meanwhile, was growing uneasy. They wanted nothing more than to just lock Iliya away and punish him later, forget that blasted idea of entertainment, but they would not dare interrupt the royal siblings who were currently fascinated by the Grisha boy.

Prince Sasha was the one to approach Aleksander this time. "Iliya, why do these people hurt you? They told us they were bringing in the entertainment when you were brought to us." His expectant demeanor demanded a response. The black-haired boy found himself desperate to supply one.

"I am the entertainment. When I came to them, looking for a job, I had no idea they were so prejudiced," he whispered to the golden prince on his knees.

Glancing at Boris and his family warily Prince Sasha asked, "What can you do that they bind your hands to prevent? My sister and I will help you, but we need you to answer: Are you a Grisha?"

The most that Aleksander could manage as a response was to nod his head ever so slightly, so that no one but the prince, who was looking for it, would notice.

The green-eyed prince calmly plucked a small, but sharp, knife from his left brown leather boot. In one precise movement, the blond sliced through Aleksander's bindings and returned the knife to its convenient hiding place.

"Moi tsarevich, are you certain that removing that wretch's bindings is wise? He can kill us all and esc-...run... if he is allowed free use of his hands..." Brave Inna trailed off as she witnessed the unthinkable happen: Princess Natalie, darling of Ravka, was offering a hand to the boy kneeling in front of her.

After his sister's cold glare, Prince Sasha hurried to do the same. Aleksander's heart was beating out of his chest as Ravka's (the country that he had once desired nothing more than to be considered a part of) royalty showed respect to him as a person.

Not that it really means anything, he forced himself to remember. They could do and say what they liked now and here, but how they would treat him in front of people who actually mattered would be a completely different thing. If there was one thing he had learned after all his years of existence, it was not to trust anyone completely. He had the art of reading people and their intentions nearly mastered. Using others for his own purposes had become second nature. Setting aside emotions was a technique he had mastered long ago.

"Can you show us what you can do that makes them afraid of you?" the blond prince inquired.

Though it was a darkly bitter one, Aleksander grinned for the first time in weeks. "I'll show you what makes everyone afraid of me."

The Berdichevskis had been slowly backing away, as if they had hoped he would forget about him once he was out of their sight. They were complete fools if they fancied he had the mental strength of an infant.

Standing, he raised a hand and summoned the darkness to him. It was such a relief to be able to use his power freely at long last. The tendrils of pure dark snatched the now running family and dragged them back to Aleksander and his royal audience.

Being the clever genius he always had been, Aleksander knew just which one of them to kill as a warning to the rest. The Cut lashed out at Stepan, and he was dead instantly. Cut right in half at the stomach.

He had his lovely darkness overwhelm the others and knock then out. They would wake up in a few hours perfectly fine.

Prince Sasha and Princess Natalie, however, were different matters. He couldn't kill them. Injuring them, even, was a terrible idea. But what didn't make any sense to him at all, though he was unsure why he was bothering to even wonder at this particular moment in time, was the fact that the royal siblings had been in here alone.

When he voiced his concerns out loud, the two looked at each other. They were clearly having a silent conversation. It ended abruptly when Princess Natalie stepped forward and said, "We do not fear you. Though the Berdichevskis punished you for simply existing, I nor my brother could ever do such a thing. If you are looking for a place to go, in fact, we could use your extraordinary abilities at the palace. You pointed it out yourself: We have, frankly, a desperate need of better guards." She smiled at the end of her little speech. Prince Sasha seemed to be worried that he would accept. Well, there was no need for that, because he had never planned to accept. He had served this family miserably, and no matter how much this princess claimed that hers was "different", he knew the truth. Maybe his powers as a Grisha would be considered new and exciting at first. But as they witnessed his intense control and realized his immortality, they would see the danger in being anywhere near him.

He would seek out his mother. Their disagreement had been years ago, and he had had enough of being on his own for the moment. These two would move on with their lives and forget about him.

"Come, Natalie," Prince Sasha intoned in a bored manner.

The princess in question, however, glared at her brother, both hurt and offended. "I am not a dog!" she exclaimed. "And you, brother dear, are supposed to be helping me. That is what you promised on the way here, is it not?"

Aleksander noticed that he was about the same height as the prince when they were both standing. The princess, on the other hand, was depressingly short. He felt for her, he really did. He remembered being young, and how difficult it was to appear intimidating without showing his hand.

"Iliya, " Prince Sasha began, "It really would be best if you come with us. The Fjerdans have heard rumors about you. The real reason we stopped here at all has been so we might see if the stories are true. And indeed they are. If you do not join us on our journey to Os Alta, the others seeking you out will find you. The other summoner of darkness, at least, has had the sense to keep her head down and wait."

So they knew about him and his mother. That was fine. Baghra could take care of herself. But Aleksander, meanwhile, would be working on his new plan. The one he had been formulating fervently for the past ten minutes.

"I will go to Os Alta with you," he told them.

A/N: What is Aleksander up to? He's a very difficult character to understand the thought process of, even if it is his POV :D