TW: mentions of sexual assault near the end
Chapter 2: Queen Tatiana
Alina allowed the light to caress her, embrace her, gentle, phantasmagories touches that seemed to be thanking her for finally accepting it.
Her eyes opened, and all she could see was gold. Looking down, she noticed the power came from her palms, which were facing forward at her sides. A dome of light had formed around her, at least five meters in diameter.
She laughed in disbelief. She felt so strong, as if nothing could ever come her way.
She felt truly alive for the very first time.
So, this is what is like, uh?
"Miss Starkov?" she heard a distant voice, and turned to see The Darkling approaching her dome, eyes squinted.
She wasn't sure what would happen if he touched the light, but she wanted him to see it, she wanted him inside with her.
She stretched out a hand, and slowly, the man stretched his own. After a tense moment of resistance, she felt his fingers grasping hers as he passed through, and then the rest of him.
He looked around, a new gleam to his eyes that lit up his features almost as much as her power lit her.
"Very impressive for a first time, Miss Starkov." He congratulated her, his tone almost admiring. He looked her in the eye. "Very impressive, indeed."
"Alina," she found herself saying, elated at both her flowing light and his praise. "please, call me Alina."
Smiling gently, he tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, his hand softly travelling down her neck, leaving goosebumps on its way, until it came to rest on her shoulder.
"You and I are going to change the world, Alina." He said, with such passion is made her knees week, before turning serious again and squeezing her shoulder for a moment. "Now, make it shrink."
"How?"
"Call it to you, as if receding the day into night, until only two small orbs remain in your hands."
She nodded, focusing. Gently, like a mother soothing a scared child, she called the light back inside of her.
She felt like she was petting it, hushing it, telling it was time to rest.
Slowly, the dome began to shrink, and then more, and then more, and then she had to blink several times to get adjusted to the natural light of day.
She lifted her hands, one small orb of light in each, and smiled as brightly, looking up at The Darkling, who couldn't seem to keep his eyes away from hers. His chest moved up and down in rapid motions, his gaze so wide there was almost no grey in there. There was a frenzy in his gaze, something primal yet profound, and Alina felt like he could be the one to burn her instead of the other way around.
Finally, she closed her hands into fists and the lights disappeared. She felt almost drunk, the satisfactory hum of her power now coursing through her body, giving her a new sense of confidence so foreign to her.
"You are magnificent." The Darkling breathed out, startling her, making her cheeks burn.
"It was just my first try on my own."
"And look around you. Look at what you can do." He gestured with his arms.
She did, and found the grass turned black, the water of the lake smoking, some steam coming up and forth. She was definitely not putting her hand in there.
"The gardeners will hate me."
He chuckled quietly, taking a step closer, until their chests almost brushed with their breaths.
"Maybe." He said, taking her hand again. "But all of Ravka will love you."
Slowly, he lifted her hand, still way too warm due do the use of her powers and bought it up to his cold lips. Alina held her breath before releasing it again, heart hammering in a way she didn't fully comprehend.
"I don't need all of Ravka." She said, without thinking; a new habit around this particular man, apparently.
"Oh?"
Kiss me.
She thought, and he seemed to have guessed it, for he began to lean forward.
"ALINA STARKOV! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU ALL OVER THE PLACE! I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK AN—SAINTS!" Genya, who had been marching towards her with a big scowl, her white kefta willowing behind her like a snowstorm, came to an abrupt stop. "What have you done to this place?"
"I can summon now!" she exclaimed, beaming at her. Genya was the only one who knew of her little,…problem.
The tailor looked around, evidently impressed.
"Remind me to stay on your good side." She took notice of The Darkling and immediately straightened, bowing slightly. "Forgive me, Moi Soverennyi, but the queen has extended an invitation for the Sun Summoner to have tea with her and her ladies."
The Darkling nodded once, casually dropping Alina's hand. By the way Genya's eyes barely flickered, Alina knew she now suspected something.
"Of course, Miss Safin. Who am I to keep the queen waiting?"
They smirked at each other, and Genya held out her arm for Alina to entwine with. On her way, she quickly snatched the forgotten letter.
Alina didn't look back to see the damage she had caused, but to see if he was still there, but The Darkling was already marching up to the stables without a second look in her direction.
"Here." Alina offered the paper to Genya, who gave her an apprehensive look. "It's the last one; I swear."
Hesitant, Genya took it and hid it inside one of her many pockets as they continued their path towards the Little Palace.
"You stink, you know?" she said as they entered and began to walk through the corridors that led to the stairs.
Alina was aware. Her face felt hot and wet, and she couldn't wait to get out of her clothes.
"Does the queen really want to have tea with me?"
"Unfortunately." Genya sighed as they began their eternal ascension towards Alina's bedroom. "It's mostly so she can show you off to her friends as if you were a shiny ornament, and to get some intel for the king. So, be careful of what you say."
"Will you be there?"
"Fortunately for you, yes. But I'll be mostly by the bitch's side." She gave her friend a sideways look. "Do you know tea etiquette?"
"You… take the cup and drink from it?"
"Saints."
"What? Why? It's just tea."
Genya opened the door and pushed her inside, slamming it shut and shooing her towards the waiting bathtub.
"Maybe she's also expecting that. She does love to have a laugh at people regarding those things. HURRY UP OR WE'LL BE LATE!" she yelled, clapping her hands and taking out a blue dress from her wardrobe.
Alina did her best with the insufferable little buttons, almost ripping them off and exhaling in relief when it fell to the floor. She took off her boots next and the pleasure was even grander. How she hated to be sweaty.
Soon, she was naked and inside the bath, which smelled of lavender. She scrubbed her legs with the sponge.
"Can I come in?" Genya asked from the other side of the curtain.
"Yep."
The woman, as usual, wasted no time.
"Did you wash your face already?"
"Yep."
She knelt by the tub, behind Alina, and began to disentangle her mass of her with hard yanks.
"Hey!"
"Oh, I'm sorry; but if you had been where you were supposed to be we wouldn't be going against the clock."
It was true that she was meant to spend some time in the library learning grisha theory, but she had forgotten all about that as soon as her eyes shot open in the morning and decided to become what she was meant to.
"Sorry; I wanted to try something on my own."
"You weren't really on your own, were you?" the redhead asked carefully, twisting Alina's hair from one place to the other.
"General Kirigan found me." She hesitated for a moment. "He was actually the one who helped me summon."
"I thought you had done it by yourself." Her friend sounded confused.
"I did! He just,…gave me some words of encouragement."
"Words of encouragement?"
"Yes."
"Ah."
"What?
"Nothing."
"What?!"
"Up." Genya held a towel for Alina to wrap herself in, and quickly took her back into the bedroom and sat her at her dressing table, getting to work on her face.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing." She said as she ran her expert fingers over her face, fixing and making her look presentable. "Now, I'll run you over the etiquette really quick. So, keep up, Starkov."
"Yes, Miss Safin."
After a moment of severe silence, they both laughed.
Much to Genya's apprehension, Alina refused to wear a dress, and insisted on taking a clean, silken kefta instead.
"If she wants me to dress pretty only to make my ignorance funnier, she'll be disappointed." Alina said as she took a belt. "The kefta will remind her who I am."
"I don't think she'll care either way."
"I can accidently blind her as a reminder."
Genya laughed at that, shaking her head and taking her friend's arm and leading her towards the Grand Palace.
They took some corridors which avoided the throne room Alina had seen only the first time she had arrived, which, come to think about it, she realized it was the only time she was inside that place at all.
They soon arrived at a grand double set door; the handles made of pure gold. Alina frowned. One could feed all the orphans at Keramzin for a few weeks with that.
Two guards opened the doors for them, and the young women entered, heads high and shoulders back. Alina had refused to relent her hold of Genya. She didn't care if the queen felt insulted by it.
The woman in question sat upon a ridiculous golden chair, resembling of her own throne. There were two servants in white on either side holding trays. Down the steps of the queen's chair-because of course she had to be set up on a dais- there was a small, round table almost full.
There were seven or eight women of various ages, all dressed finely and speaking faintly to each other.
When Alina entered, the room became silent. The queen shifted her blue eyes to her and raised an eyebrow, quickly taking in her clothing and her arm around Genya's.
Letting go of her friend, Alina took a step forward and bent respectfully.
"Moya Tsaritsa. Thank you for the invitation."
"Of course, Miss Starkov. I have been waiting for some time with our Sun Summoner for quite some time," she spoke, her voice forcibly airy, as if she wanted to try and be some sort of ethereal creature. "alas, the general has kept you busy with all kinds of training."
"He has, Your Highness. But it's all for the good of Ravka."
"It is so good to know you care so much about your country, Miss Starkov." She said the last two words with a special accentuation, as if to belittle her due to her lack of title.
Alina did her best to smile.
"Don't we all, Your Highness?"
"Of course, dear, of course." She gestured towards an empty seat at the table, almost directly underneath her, between two middle aged women. "Please, have a seat."
Alina could feel Genya moving in a different direction behind her as she approached the queen.
She sat down as gracefully as she could and smiled at the women around her.
An older woman clad in green smiled back.
"Tell me, Miss Starkov, how do you find Os Alta so far?"
Before Alina could answer, the queen spoke up:
"Well, that is quite rude of you, Lady Popovich. You have yet to let me introduce yourself."
Lady Popovich looked down; face flushed as she uttered an apology.
As Genya conducted some male servants towards them, they shared a look.
"Miss Starkov; allow me to introduce you to Lady Tanya Popovich, to her right…" Alina did her best to remember their names, but as the queen introduced each of the ladies, she also launched into a small monologue about each of them. Alina couldn't help but notice how she liked to talk highly of them, only to put in a small jab in the middle before finishing with some apologetic, merciful tone and moving on to the next one.
The servants placed a small plate filled with water in front of each woman, and the Sun Summoner couldn't help but notice how all the women at the table and the queen had shifted their eyes towards her.
With a blank expression, Alina dipped her fingers delicately into the water and then used the cloth set to her left to dry them. Standing against a wall, Genya hid a smile as some of the ladies' disappointment became evident.
The door busted open, and a young woman in pink rushed in. Her cheeks were flushed, her blond hair just a little bit messy.
She curtsied.
"Moya Tsaritsa, my deepest apologies." She had a nice, gentle voice.
"Lady Anastasia, for a moment I thought you might desert us. It is unseemly to be late."
"It will not happen again, Your Highness."
"No. It will not." She said, curtly, then nodded to the only chair available. "Sit."
Lady Anastasia hurried towards the table and sat, quickly washing her hands. She looked up, and Alina thought she knew her from somewhere.
Then it hit her. She had run into her just days before in the maze, fooling around with Nadia.
Discreetly, Alina swiped her finger across the corner of her mouth. Lady Anastasia's eyes grew large for the briefest moment before she wiped her mouth casually. Then, she sent the other woman a minuscule smile.
They all waited in silence as one of the servants handed the queen her cup of tea, and only after she took her first sip did the other servants approach the table.
Alina took in the smell. Was that peaches? She had never had peach tea. She was used to herbs and such, but fresh fruits were too rare in Keramzin and The First Army to use it for tea.
The servants laid out silver platters with sweets of all kinds, most of which she had never seen, and shot a look at Genya, who made an almost imperceptible sign with her hand.
Wait.
Everyone looked up at the queen as she took her first sip and contemplated the cup with fake, dramatic anticipation. Finally, she looked at her audience.
"Please, help yourselves. The tea is delicious, and the pies smell divine."
Only then did the other women began to eat. Some had more water poured into their cups, but Alina always preferred a strong drink, no matter the taste.
She noticed how all the hands reached out for the pies instead of the biscuits or cookies, just like Genya had warned her. Apparently, the guests would preferably eat whatever the queen felt like it that day, and the rest tended to remain untouched and later thrown away.
"Miss Starkov," the queen spoke, finishing a small slice of pie and handing the plate to the other servant behind her. Her eyes were slightly narrowed. "how have you been adjusting to life at the Little Palace? I imagine it must be quite the difference compared to an army camp."
"Or an orphanage." Snickered a woman across the table to Lady Anastasia, who frowned but then smiled slightly, not saying anything.
"I'm still settling, Your Highness." Alina sat straight and looked her in the eyes to address her. "It's quite the big change of scenario, but so far I've been adapting well enough."
"I heard that you had a small incident with one of the Squallers about a month ago." She said, with fake innocence. "What was her name, Genya?"
"Zoya Nazyalensky, Your Highness."
"Oh, yes, I remember her from the last Winter Fete. So talented, so beautiful." She said, looking pointedly at Alina at the last part.
She resisted the urge to tell her she wasn't the one with a Tailor working on her stupid face day and night.
"Yes, Zoya and I were training with Botkin." Alina admitted, wanting to smile at the memory of Zoya coming out of The Darkling's chambers in tears. "It was hand to hand combat; she's got far more experience than me, and I got hurt; but it was nothing."
"I was sure I heard she had used her power on you." The queen placed her fingers underneath her chin. "I believed that to be prohibited during combat training."
Alina didn't know what to say; she wasn't sure what the woman sitting to her left and above her wanted to get at.
"It was an accident on her part. Sometimes, our powers just," she flickered her fingers, a steam of light rolling over them and disappearing, startling the other guests. "come out on their own."
She wanted to turn back so she could see Genya's face, to know if she had given the right answer or not; but breaking eye contact while talking to the queen of Ravka was considered rude.
"And yet your general saw it fit to send her away." She said, pretending to be confused.
Alina kept on hesitating. Something told her that, not matter how much she disliked Zoya, this was not the right time and place to give an honest opinion.
"She's part of The Second Army, Your Highness. A lot of us are always being re-assigned somewhere or called back."
"But you have not."
"I—I've only been training for a few months. Zoya's had years."
"Besides," a soft voice spoke up, and everyone turned to Lady Anastasia. "there is only one Sun Summoner; sending her out without sufficient training would put all of Ravka at risk, would it not?"
"Indeed, Lady Anastasia." The queen had to concede. "You are very smart, are you not?"
Lady Anastasia bowed her head humbly.
"I simply enjoy all kind of knowledge, Your Highness."
"So well educated, so modest and pretty, such an extraordinary lineage." At this, queen Tatiana turned back to Alina. "The House Gusev extends back to the days before The Fold was formed; they even had a few monarchs on the throne."
"A long time ago, yes." Replied the blonde, hurriedly.
"And yet," the queen squinted her eyes, and Alina already felt sorry for the young woman. "you remain unmarried. It is such an odd situation for you, dear. The years do go by," she touched her face and smiled. "well, for some of us at least." She laughed airily, and Alina really, really wanted to tell her that she couldn't pull that off. She sounded ridiculous. "So, I assume you must have at least one prospect. What could possibly be wrong with you?"
"Nothing is wrong, Your Highness." She replied, her cheeks red. From the distance, Alina thought she saw her eyes glistening with tears. "My father is very strict. He will not let just anyone wed his youngest daughter. And to be quite honest, I do not believe he wants to give away his youngest one yet. Seeing Zasha wed Galina and move out of our home was hard for him." She finished with affection, earning several soft smiles.
As far as Alina knew, it was rare to see same sex marriages in the nobility, and it required a long process which involved plenty of paperwork. Regarding the royal family, it was prohibited.
The queen leaned back on her chair and stretched out her right hand. A small plate with the cup of tea was set upon it, and she took her time with the second, small sip.
"Well, I imagine you must be eager to start your new life. Marriage is such a bliss. I shall talk to your father about it soon."
Lady Anastasia opened her mouth, but the queen was faster.
"Lady Yelena, would you please grace us with another one of your arias? You have the voice of an angel, my dear." The woman sitting on her left stood up. "A moment. Genya, please take care of that ugly mole above her lip; it is most distracting."
Well, it seemed as if Alina were safe now, at the cost of that poor woman.
She didn't dare to look at Genya for the rest of the event, for she could feel the queen's eyes on her, analysing her every move.
The sun was setting when the queen finally decided she had had enough company for the afternoon. Alina was more than relieved to stand up; her butt hurt, her legs protested and her back cried.
Each lady bowed to the queen, uttering a respectful "Moya Tsaritsa", and the summoner did the same, aching to get out of that place.
"I should escort miss Starkov back to the Little Palace, Your Highness." Genya stepped forward.
"I am sure she can find her way back on her own." Interrupted a new voice.
Everyone turned to face the king and bowed, giving the expected greeting. His sleazy eyes drifted to the redhead, who stood stiff with both hands clasped behind her back. Alina looked at the queen, who didn't seem too happy either.
"If I may, Your Highness?" Alina took a step forward, not even knowing what she was gonna say. She felt sweatier than she did earlier in the gardens. "General Kirigan insisted that Miss Safin remain with me for this night. My training today was most …aggravating, and he saw it fit that someone helps me recover."
"Aggravating?" he asked, seemingly suspicious.
"In a good sense, Your Highness. I've shown quite the improvement today, but I'm afraid it's taken it's toll on me." Alina wasn't sure where all that came from, but she had a feeling The Darkling just might be a tad amused by her, and that only made her want to smile and reveal her charade.
"You do look plainer than usual."
You're one to talk.
She smiled humbly, and the king grunted.
"Very well, then. If General Kirigan insists."
"He does, …Moi Tsar."
How she hoped the king didn't bring the subject up with The Darkling.
"You are both dismissed then, but Miss Safin will return to her duties at dawn."
Both women bowed and left the room.
Alina casually held on to Genya's elbow as they hurried out of the Grand Palace, looking around at all the ugly paintings of Lantsov ancestors.
Once outside, the chilly air hit them both, but Genya continued to pull her along across the dark.
"You didn't have to do that." she said quietly.
Alina shrugged.
"It's nothing, really." she swallowed, giving her closest friend a sideways glance. "I've, uh, heard some rumours about the king and-"
"The queen usually keeps me too busy during the day, so his attention won't drift during the night." said the redhead, as if talking about the weather. "But sometimes it's inevitable." She looked at Alina, both now at the entrance to the Little Palace, illuminated by lanterns. "Thank you." she said, softly, looking into Alina's dark eyes with sincere, deep gratitude.
"It's nothing, really." the brunette felt uncomfortable. On the one side, she wanted to jump at the king and claw her way into his heart and rip it out for doing what he did; on the other, she knew there was nothing to do to help her friend. "It's just one night."
Genya sighed and drew her into a hug.
"One single night free can be a marvellous gift."
Alina smiled, returning the embrace.
"So, …I'm guessing we're having a sleepover? I never had one back at Keramzin! All the other girls were older than me and wouldn't let me join in!" she tried to cheer the mood.
Genya parted, quickly wiping her eyes.
"Neither have I, and I would love that." she turned serious again. "But first, we need to talk."
A/N: Hope you liked it!