"Nine weeks?" Valya exclaimed. She slammed her hands on the table. "Nine fucking weeks of cleanup duty? Not even remedial trainees work there that long!"

"You watch your language, Valentina," Josiah said. His voice had an underlying growl to it. "You raise your voice to me again and I will double your punishment. You will be shoveling waste until the cows come home."

"That analogy doesn't make any sense!" She shouted. Her hair flew everywhere. "We don't even have cows!"

Dimitri cleared his throat. "If I may..."

They both simmered down enough for him to continue speaking. Josiah pulled out a chair. Valya remained standing.

"I came to return Valentina to your headquarters," Dimitri began. He clenched his jaw for a moment, prepared to rattle off the official speech he'd been forming ever since they'd hit Ohio. "And after a period of a few days, I would like to take her back to Court. She is the only surviving daughter of the Hathaway line and now that the Council knows of her existence, they will want to have her in training."

Valya burst out laughing. "This guy. Can you believe him?"

"Valya is not going anywhere," Josiah said. His hands clenched into fists. "She is not just the daughter of our former leader, but a good fighter in her own respect. We need a skilled combat force for missions."

"She's also right here, but go ahead and discuss my future as if I don't exist." Valya relented and plopped herself down in a chair. "I'll wait."

Dimitri inclined his head towards Valya. "You were going to put one of your skilled fighters in a demeaning position for nine weeks instead of deploying her? That doesn't sound very wise."

"How I choose to discipline my forces is not your decision," Josiah shot back. "She broke the rules, she must be punished. We appreciate your presence, Guardian Belikov, but how this happens does not concern you."

Valya began inspecting her nails, despite there being no polish on them.

"I am her father, of course it concerns me." Dimitri cursed himself for letting emotion seep into his voice.

"Biology has nothing to do with family when it comes to Corinth," Josiah replied. "Blood does not equate ownership."

Dimitri set his mouth into a hard line. The deeper he went into the depths of Corinth, the more daunting his mission seemed.

"Valentina has never seen Court before; she doesn't know any of her relatives or her grandparents, who are very much alive," Dimitri said. "She deserves to meet her family. Isolation is not a good idea."

"If you two are going to continue to ignore me, can I go?" Valya asked, her lips parted in a sneer. "'Cause I've got a man to see and a bed to crash on."

Josiah narrowed his eyes at her. "No interactions with Aleksandr until you can prove that you are committed to your unit and the cause. Loyalty, Valya. It is all that we have in this life."

Her nostrils flared. "I had something better and she died halfway around the world. Consider this, Pops: I'm a kid who had to light her mother's funeral pyre. Maybe I'm a little messed up after that, maybe I made a few mistakes, but I did something! You would have wanted to keep quiet about it all until it tore us apart."

"We are having a memorial for your mother later this evening," Josiah said, his tone low. "I will expect you to be there."

"Telling stories about her around a campfire won't bring her back, Hollis," Valya shot at him. "You of all people should know that."

"No," Dimitri said in a low voice. "But it helps."

Valya stood from her chair and was perfectly still for a moment, then turned to look at him. Her eyes shone with tears. "Fine, I'll be there. But I'm not telling some insipid stories from my childhood. You can fill in the fucking blanks with whatever you like, Pops."

"Valya," Josiah growled. "Language."

"I'm out." Valya made a rude gesture as she left the room. The door slammed shut behind her.

Josiah sighed. "Kids are such a handful."

Dimitri leveled a perfectly calm glare at Josiah, feeling his eye twitch ever so slightly. "I wouldn't know."


"You owe me one," Hershey said as soon as Valya entered the combat rec room.

She didn't have the stomach to go back to her unit and Sasha wouldn't be in his. After wandering the narrow hallways outside of the conference room on Level Four, her feet took her in the direction of the rec room, hoping to collapse on the couch for a few hours before she had to reemerge for dinner. Unfortunately, it was less than empty when she arrived.

"You know, I think those are the most forward words you've said to me, Hersh," Valya squinted up at her from where she was buried underneath a mound of couch cushions.

"Well you do," she said, tugging at the ends of her hair. "I covered for you in the airport when you abandoned us. Pollock went ballistic."

"Impressive, considering he doesn't have any balls to begin with," Valya mumbled.

"Don't crack jokes about this." Hershey sat down on the edge of the sofa. "We were really worried."

Valya put a pillow over her face to drown out the din of the others playing games and watching movies. Her voice came out muffled, "Sure. Fine."

Hershey sighed, a small, imperceptible sigh, and laid back over Valya's legs. "So..." She paused for a moment. "What was Court like?"

Valya pulled the pillow off of her face and tucked it underneath her chin. "Pretty." She could barely stop herself from smiling. "The houses there are so big- the entire trainee group could fit into one of them."

"They let you see inside the houses?" Hershey said, wide-eyed.

"Yeah," Valya shrugged. "I stayed with my aunt and uncle. They've got a super cute kid named Sage and four bedrooms in their house."

"Four?" Hershey could barely contain her excitement. "Tell me more."

"Yes, Valya, tell us more," said Pollock from the doorway. "About how you compromised an entire mission to bring back Daddy Dearest."

"Oh screw you, Pollock." Valya put the cushion back over her face. "I don't want to talk to you."

"Great," Pollock scoffed. "More avoidance from the princess. Maybe one day she'll actually have to own up to her mistakes."

"For the record, I didn't go to Pennsylvania to find my father, I went to get support in the murder of my mother and your leader," Valya shot back. "Just in case you forgot about that happening."

Pollock was about to speak when a hand stopped him and in came Dimitri Belikov, towering by at least a head over Pollock's already tall frame. Pollock went to glare at him before realizing who he was and stepped backwards into the door.

The room fell completely silent and dozens of eyes turned to watch Dimitri stride across the room. He still hadn't changed out of his Guardian uniform and the distinguished pins on his lapel were clearly visible

"Valentina," he said, glancing down at Valya's prone form on the couch.

Valya slowly sat up, her hair in disarray. "Yes?"

"Josiah has told me that you are to help set up for the ceremony tonight," Dimitri said. "He mentioned something about you 'needing to practice for the mundane task you'll be doing for the rest of your life?'"

Valya groaned. "I'm not going."

"Not an option," Dimitri replied. In a single move, he picked her up from the couch and set her on the ground. "Go. You've already made enough of a mess."


Valya entered the main clearing of Corinth, a spot west of the precariously stacked boxcar houses, with Dimitri in tow. There was already a small crowd that had formed to help set up for the memorial that evening and a chorus of whoops and yells came from the assembled group when she reached the outskirts.

"Yeah, yeah," she said, gesturing for them to settle down. Briefly, she contemplated making a quip, but swallowed her words when she saw Josiah's expression on the opposite side of the crowd.

The people that glanced in Dimitri's direction looked away swiftly, his stature imposing even amongst the athletic Corinthians. He stood behind her, his hands clasped, observing his surrounding with a keen eye.

"Glad you're joining us, Valentina," Josiah said with a pointed look.

She smiled tightly. "Glad to be here, sir."

The slight twitch of her eyebrow and tensing of her facial features did not go unnoticed by those around her.

Valya let the tension in her shoulder ease slightly, but she could still feel the stares.

"We need a full fleet of chairs. Everyone will be joining us this evening, no matter what duty they are on," Josiah said, continuing his speech to the volunteers. "Team A is on chairs, Team B is on food and drink, Team C is on decorations."

Josiah rattled off a list of team members, but Valya didn't hear her name at all. She began to zone out, the words become useless background chatter until Dimitri put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't touch me," she muttered. She shook his hand off.

"I must make a call," he replied.

"Good luck," Valya said. "You won't get any reception in here."

Dimitri raised an eyebrow.

Valya sighed. "Fine. Follow me."

She glanced surreptitiously around her until she locked eyes with Josiah, then led Dimitri out from the main room of the warehouse and back up the staircase to Level Four. Behind the massive screens and the conference table lay a single landline.

She was sure that it was untraceable, but she'd never attempted to make a call on it. No one in Corinth was allowed to have a cell phone, even in the field. They all stayed close enough to each other that only radios were necessary. Occasionally, she'd see someone contact main command through the laptops that they were allowed in the field, but the network they were on was closed and couldn't access anything in the outside world.

"You can make a call here," she said. "It's- I don't know if it still works. But don't try to sell secrets to Court; Josiah would banish me for life."

"I-" Dimitri hesitated. He placed a hand on Valya's. "Thank you, Valentina."

The gesture was so soft that she barely felt it. She shifted her stance, something within her feeling unbalanced.

She gulped and sat down at a chair while he dialed. In truth, she didn't have to keep such a watchful eye on her father, but it made her feel like she was acting on behalf of Corinth. There was something about Dimitri that made her feel as if she had to pick sides. She owed Corinth her life, that was true. It had helped her and her mother when there was nowhere to turn. What did they owe Court?

"Hey," Dimitri said into the old rotary dial phone. "It's me."

The speaker on the other side of the conversation made an exclamation that Valya couldn't quite make out. The Dimitri in front of her seemed transformed; softer, quieter, not as imposing. Whoever he was talking to was important to him: maybe a different wife or another daughter. A rush of white hot anger flowed through her chest at the thought.

"No, no, calm down," Dimitri made a shhing noise. "I'm fine, I'm alright. I couldn't call earlier because I'm- well, I'm not sure where I am exactly. It's- Hey, don't get short with me. I'm doing my job."

He hesitated for a moment, then looked at Valya.

"She's fine," Dimitri said in a hushed tone. He ran a hand through his hair. "You'd like her. She's a lot like-" His voice drifted off. He looked at his watch for a second. "I need to go. I don't know when I'll be back, maybe in a couple of days." The person he was talking to said something and he broke out into the most brilliant smile Valya had ever seen. It nearly made her heart stop. "I love you too. Get some sleep, okay? I'll talk to you later."

He set the phone down and sat for a moment, his head in his hands. Valya pursed her lips.

"Did you remarry?" she asked after a stretch of silence.

"Yes," came Dimitri's voice. It felt thin.

Valya gulped, but the stone in her throat would not disappear. "What's her name?"

Dimitri seemed to deliberate something for a moment before saying, "His name is Jack."

"Oh." The word felt flat on her tongue. "A guy."

"Yeah," Dimitri said in what could have been mistaken for sarcasm. "A guy."

She fiddled with the edge of her t-shirt. "Is he nice?" she asked lamely.

Dimitri chuckled. "Yeah," he said with that same, brilliant smile of his. "He's really nice."

"What-" She took in a deep breath. "What does he do?"

"He's a baker," Dimitri replied. He stood, placing the phone back where it belonged, then gestured for Valya to follow him. "Come, we should return to help set up for the memorial."

"I-" She paused, laughing louder than she had in days. "I just realized something."

They turned to exit Level Four.

"What is that?" Dimitri asked. Their conversation came easily for once and he saw the smallest glimmer of the girl that Valya must have been before their paths crossed.

She erupted into a fit of giggles. "I have four gay dads."


The memorial was beautiful, Valya thought, but in a way that an oil painting was beautiful. It felt detached and impersonal, like something she imagined Court would dream up for her mother. Everyone seemed to be on edge during the ceremony and speeches. Because they didn't have a body, they chose to put her general pin in a box that they would bury in the cemetery later. Valya wished she could have given her mother a Viking funeral; Rose would have loved that.

Now they sat in a circle, the only thing fighting back the overwhelming darkness being a small bonfire. Valya leaned on Sasha's shoulders, her legs entangled with his. There weren't many others around the bonfire, just Josiah, Adam, Gin, and Dimitri. She thought she'd seen Pollock return to his unit directly after the ceremony, but she couldn't be sure.

"Mind if we join?" Jasper asked, Hershey in tow. He held up a bottle of vodka. "We brought booze."

"Yes!" Valya clamoured for the alcohol and downed a shot without prompting. She immediately made a face. "Ugh, did you brew this in a bathtub or something?"

"Family secret," Hershey grinned, then covered her mouth quickly. The twins sat down next to Sasha and Valya.

"I don't even want to know," Josiah grumbled as he took the bottle from Valya. He poured a drink for Adam as well. "Dimitri?"

"I-" Dimitri hesitated. He took the bottle after a moment's deliberation. "Alright. It's very appropriate to toast with vodka at a funeral."

"Even if there's no body?" Adam asked.

Dimitri grimaced. "Especially if there's no body."

There was a spark in Dimitri's eye as he looked down at his chipped cup. Valya wondered if he had to do this for more than just his wife in the years they'd been gone.

"You should tell a story, cowboy," Valya said, her throat feeling thick. "Something... happy."

Dimitri laughed. "Something happy? What do you mean?"

Valya bit her lip. "What was she like before?" The words were heavy on her tongue. "Before all... this?"

Everyone turned their heads to watch him and Dimitri chose instead to look at his shoes. He ran his fingers through his hair and it struck Valya how small and young he looked. She never thought that she would use those two words to describe him, but it felt to her that this was the true Dimitri. This was the Dimitri that her mother fell in love with.

"Rose was a troublemaker," Dimitri began. "The first time I met her, she was maybe sixteen, seventeen years old and was on the run from Court authorities. She had run away from school, taking her best friend and the next in line for the Moroi throne with her. They evaded us for two years. Two years, can you believe that?" He paused, smiling to himself. "She was dragged back to the academy kicking and screaming."

"She sounds like you, Valya," Sasha snickered.

Valya punched him lightly, motioning for him to be quiet.

"Rose Hathaway broke every rule," Dimitri continued. "She flaunted the system, but not without good reason. She dropped out of school, she dropped back in. She was arrested, accused, praised, lauded, ridiculed- She blew up the statue of a former queen during a jailbreak, broke a man who'd done many things to hurt her out of jail, and was accused of high treason in the space of a year." He pressed his lips together in a thin line.

"Rose Hathaway was, without a doubt, the most gifted Guardian the world has ever seen. She didn't just defy the odds, she set the bar that would judge others for decades. There's-" He laughed humorlessly. "There's even an award in her name. The Hathaway Prize, given to anyone who can break her score on the Guardian exam. It's only been given out once."

Dimitri sighed. He hadn't looked at anyone else during his entire speech, but Valya couldn't look away from his face. There was a whole chapter in her mother's life that she never had any access to. It was like seeing a completely different person.

"Thirty years ago, Rose was telling the same stories about me to my family. I am honored to have the opportunity to do the same." He raised his glass over his head and muttered something in Russian that Valya barely caught.

To my love.

She did the same. The vodka burned her throat.

In the distance, Valya heard music being played. It was an old folk song that was often sung late at night to pass the time or on missions to ward off the darkness. The melody was well-worn, the words impressed into Valya's mind since she was young and has only the faintest idea of Russian words, her childish tongue struggled to form the slippery syllables.

"Here, someone is coming down the hill," Valya sang softly in Russian along with the faint guitar. She nestled her head in the crook of Sasha's neck. "Perhaps it is my beloved returning."

It felt odd to her to hear the words sung at a time of mourning. She locked eyes with Dimitri who was staring at her with a strange sort of smile that shifted in the light of the fire. He took the vodka bottle and emptied it into Valya's cup.

"Spasibo."

Shadows played across the rim of the glass, turning the vodka into an ever-changing ocean. Valya wrinkled her nose and downed it.

"Hey Zoya!" Sasha twisted in his seat. "Play something cheerful, why don't you?"

In the shadowy distance, Zoya lifted her middle finger into the air to flip Sasha off. The upbeat twang of a different song, something from the many CDs littering the rec room's floors. It warmed Valya from the inside, or perhaps that was the vodka; she couldn't tell. A tingling began in her fingers.

"Come." She stood, gesturing for Sasha to do the same. She took his hand and led him to the other group, where the guitar played.

They danced, and it felt like a weight that had settled on Valya's shoulders had lifted slightly. They twirled and jumped and shook out years worth of stress.

They danced, and it felt like a prayer.

To Rose.


Closure is a fickle thing, my friends, and whether Valya and Dimitri have found it is yet to be known, but where the story goes from here is a mystery. An attack bathed in shadows, shifting allegiances, and a dangerous journey beyond the walls of Corinth awaits.

What would you like to see next in Corinthians? Add it to your review and you get the satisfaction of making a writer smile. Also a surprise. Probably. Who knows? Life is short and I'm busy eating taquitos.