AN: abandon all the logic... (i mean, it kinda feels like a filler chapter? but it ends with a bang. i think)
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for the record, the big action scene that i envisioned ended up so much poorer than i wanted it to be
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some might remember that when i intended the second and third arc to be separate fics from "misclassification", the third one was going to be called "decision tree". I felt that this title fits chapter 15. Enjoy!
The girl was nowhere to be seen at the Little Palace, and Baghra was left with the final, unimaginable option. Following the shadows, she entered her son's chambers, prepared to confront him, but Aleksander slept like the dead.
(She thought she'd raised him better.)
Even from a distance, she could feel the filthy power radiating from the bones around his neck. He would have no excuses anymore.
Baghra will not enjoy seeing her son's death, but it will have to happen eventually. Not tonight – she expected to deal with the girl in private and later lure the answers out of Aleksander, but it looked like she had to choose one.
It seemed obvious. Once a traitor, always a traitor. And when you're given a chance to capture one, well... Young Inferni would easily give up all the answers Baghra might want. After all, what was such a poor student and weak Grisha against the full power of a Shadow Summoner as old as Baghra Morozova?
Foolish girl will wish she didn't try to trick her.
Starkov muttered something incoherent and rolled to her other side, successfully untangling herself from Aleksander's needy arms. Baghra sighed and reached out with a delicate tendril of power.
Alina was cold.
She hasn't felt so cold in years, so that was what woke her up – that, and some strange, earthy smell.
She opened her eyes to the darkness. Not the kind of darkness that she's always fantasized about, the glorious, endless darkness of the Shadow Fold, but an ordinary one that brought back childhood fears.
Dark, cold and smelly. Alina cut off the memories of Keramzin, and focused on fire, but her hands were empty. Over the years, she got so used to the discreet prisms hidden in her rings that it took her a moment to realize she wore none. Next, she reached around with Small Science... And thank the Heretic for all her hard work in Inferni classes, because despite sensing no useful gasses, it gave her a chance to realize the darkness was hiding another breathing person.
It certainly stopped her from true Summoning and illuminating this place in the presence of a stranger.
"Show yourself!" she demanded, trying to sound confident. Surely it was some strange prank, maybe another initiation for a brand new Oprichnik-
The darkness shifted, revealing a slightly wrinkled hand, holding a candle.
"Took you long enough to wake up, child. Too much wine last night? Not a great start of your new career," Alina recognized the voice immediately as Baghra's.
Volcra damn it.
She could bet the hag wasn't too happy with her, given Alina's theatrics last time they spoke. In her rush to expose the imposter and prove her point to the Darkling, the commander-turned-bodyguard has completely forgotten that she would have a problem with Baghra after her return. And... there was no plan to solve it. Not yet.
Now, what would the Black-
Oh, right.
"Were you happy to see your son come home?" Alina chirped. Better to remind Baghra of certain excellent blackmail material from the start. She didn't move to stand up, but while awaiting the answer, Alina did her best to innocently feed the flame-
That was gone the instant she tried to play with it.
"Foolish girl," Baghra began and Alina rolled her eyes. Really? After years of teaching the youth that was the only-
"I can see you! Quit making faces and listen closely, girl, because I'm not in the mood to repeat myself! You can forget about a secret that isn't your to tell, and start earning your freedom. I'm not letting you go until you tell me every single thing that this idiotic son of mine came up with-"
Alina closed her eyes, useless in the dark, and tried to make herself more comfy on the hard ground.
"Then I guess I'm gonna spend quite some time here, you old cow."
Aleksander woke up alone. As disappointed as he was, that was no surprise.
Neither was the fact that once he was ready to face the day, Alina was nowhere to be found. Looked like they were still fighting and the small truce from the previous night wasn't going to last.
Truce or no truce, she's appointed to guard him when he left for the Grand Palace, and only her partner showed up. Poor Dimitri looked so stressed already that the Darkling didn't harass him too much with questions, and decided to let it go this once.
Another insubordination, another proof of his weakness-
No. He was not thinking about Alina for now, he was going to smile and pretend to court this annoying Sun Summoner that the Saints have sent as a curse upon him. And next time he sees Alina, Aleksander will act like a proper General with a wayward soldier.
Of course all the soldiers have been through training in case of capture and interrogation, but being held captive in the primitive cellar of Baghra's hut was nothing like any Fjerdan or Shu scenarios.
Her nice, warm kefta was gone. Dressed only in her undergarments and some scratchy shirt, Alina wished she'd never complained to David about the modifications.
Despite her steely resolve to not tell Baghra anything, the hag still brought her a slice of bread with cheese and a cup of water, from time to time. Meals were so irregular that they soon made Alina lose track of time. The humiliation of using the bucket and waiting for Baghra to empty it was something she tried to ignore.
After initial cheekiness and coming up with some more crafty insults, Alina remained silent when Baghra kept coming down to question her. The Stag was one thing, but who would have thought that the Darkling's mother could be so obsessed with the Shadow Fold? Perhaps Alina should have expected it after that memorable time they spoke before the hunt.
All the merry sessions happened in total absence of light – the hag wasn't lying about her night vision. She needed no flame to guide her down those steep stairs that Alina glimpsed a few times during her lessons once upon a time.
She tried to act brave and cunning, to come up with some brilliant plan to escape the crazy old crone in time to triumphantly arrive at the Solstice festivals and expose Grigoryevna... But something was holding her back.
Alina hated this helplessness, this strange detachment which seemed to grow inside her ever since she woke up in this volcra damned cellar. As if a void replaced her heart... She was solely missing something. Was that because of the lack of any light in here? Were Sun Summoners like flowers, useless and starved of the warm rays? She could almost feel something calling her, longing for a reunion-
Was it the darkness, messing with her? Did Baghra do something to her, surrounded her with the cold, evil Shadows-
No! Alina began to think like a terrified otkazat'sya villager!
If Baghra was evil, it was because of her glorious personality, twisted mind and cruel behavior, and not being a Shadow Summoner. Alina definitely didn't imagine herself to be their natural enemy. To be fair, her plans for the Darkling were far from murderous.
Lost in pleasant thoughts and ambitious dreams for a while, she survived another day.
"Nothing in the Grand Palace," Genya summed up her report.
Aleksander rubbed his forehead, leaned back and looked up and down his most talented Grisha. Genya, David, Ivan and Fedyor all stood before him like schoolchildren about to be scolded by the headmaster, but the matter was serious and he knew that if there was anyone who wanted to find Alina as fiercely as he, it was the four of them.
"Not even a word? How can one loud, highly noticeable, famous Inferni disappear in the middle of the night from the sanctuary of the Little Palace, never to be seen again? It's been days, and none of you have anything?!" He was shaking - the Darkling almost lost control and he hated being seen like this.
He's already heard all the Heartrenders had to say, and now he stared expectantly at the last member of their little group.
David looked more awake than ever. Those usually calm and dreamily distracted blue eyes were determined and focused. "No Fabrikated traces of assault. None of her blades have left the Little Palace. Her rings were found with her last kefta. I tracked itto your quarters," Ivan choked next to him, while Aleksander's face was frozen in polite interest, "And there is nothing else to find her by, except-" Durast finally stopped ranting and looked away, his eyes widened suddenly. He mouthed something that resembled 'such an idiot'.
"Yes, David?"
"I might have an idea. Just need to-"
Aleksander watched the Materialnik leave without any further explanation and sighed. He looked back at Ivan's frown and crossed his arms. "So all that's left for us is to wait for our genius Durast to save the day."
She blamed the dark on her stupidity. Alina couldn't believe it took her this long, unknown period of time to realize she was missing her locket. She'd never taken it off ever since David gave it to her. Not to bed, not to bathe. Never to battle. She desperately wished she wore it now. She had a bizarre feeling she would be safe as soon as she got it back. It was irrational, but that was all she could think about.
Kefta was possible to replace. The locket was not.
"Where is it?!" she yelled at Baghra when the hag approached her the next time.
"She speaks!"
"Where is my necklace?!" Alina crawled towards the voice in a sudden burst of strength and grabbed Baghra's fragile frame blindly. Woman's voice turned ice cold. "You mean that barbarous amplifier? I've been wondering... Human amplifiers are extremely rare... Who was this child? Did you learn his name before you killed him and took his bones, you little monster?" The last word was a hiss, and crude hands dragged Alina away by hair.
She was so shocked by the accusation that she let Baghra leave without the damn bucket after spitting down at her. Alina wiped it away with disgust, but then she replayed Baghra's words in her head.
Barbarous... amplifier?
Apparently there weren't any bounds to her stupidity after all these years. Alina tried to remember if it really was so obvious... Could that be that she has been being amplified since she was a wild eight years old? Childhood memories were terribly vague and blurry, but she never really forgot the warmth... Strength, confidence and pure joy of keeping a trophy...
It wasn't like adult Alina decorated her tent with heads of Fjerdans she killed or what. And yet she's kept tooth of that stupid Mol (another worry – if something happens to him, if he dies... will her locket fail her?), she kept it for years and her best friend made a locket for it... A locket that allowed the bone to touch her skin.
David must have known... But why hasn't he told her? Perhaps he saw her as smarter than she was. What would Ivan say?, she wondered. Probably nothing flattering.
She recalled everything the Darkling and others have ever tried to teach her about amplifiers. The classes during which she took lovely naps, both hunts for the Stag, old stories told over a fire...
I was a fool... Or was I trying to fool myself?
The youngest anyone ever bonded with an amplifier was thirteen – Zoya.
Children weren't amplified in any stories... Only adults or young adults.
She remembered how obsessive Zoya could be about her bracelet, almost like an addict.
Alina never felt like that. Possessive, yes - not unusual for an orphan. But surely not addicted! She will be fine – as soon as she gets her hands on the locket or sunlight. Or both. Baghra without a doubt will come back for the bucket soon – that was her chance. No more covering on the ground like a helpless child.
Baghra's favorite mockery echoed in her head: Nobody will find you. Nobody even searched for you.
Alina never believed those words, not even in her worst. Her chest might have felt empty without the amplifier, but she knew there was something that could fill any void.
David... Ivan... Fedyor... Even Genya...
The Darkling.
.
.
.
Her hands began to glow, faint enough to remain unnoticed, but bright enough to battle the darkness and show Alina the way towards the stairs.
Experimenting with the Stag amplifier was the only thing that could distract him from worrying about Alina and going crazy when he had to attend the festivals and smile at lady Vasilissa and Lantsovs instead of leading the discrete but thorough searches.
Aleksander expected his Summoning to be helpful, but so far it failed him.
His vision got blurry when he stroke the antlers.
Maybe it was wishful thinking, but somewhere from the west Aleksander could swear he felt a humming mass of his own power.
The Shadow Fold, reached at last.
A bit different, somehow alike but much weaker sensation he got from the direction of Mother's hut. He hasn't seen her much lately, but she still was there, and she would witness him mastering his creation after all this time.
If there was something he couldn't imagine being absent it was those three: Alina, Mother, the Unsea.
Or maybe four.
(The antlers cooled his skin pleasantly.)
Aleksander hid a smile behind a goblet. He drank nothing – until Alina was found, he had to stay completely focused – but wouldn't let any of the otkazat'sya notice his anxiety.
He seemed perfectly calm and collected, internally examining the subtle pull to an unidentified object that the antlers wanted desperately to reach.
(He hoped it wouldn't end up in accidental Amplifying of the nearest Grisha like it happened from time to time ever since Alina had David bond him with the Stag.)
But the facade broke the moment he noticed David, trotting towards him, holding some strange device. He rushed to meet him, crowd of Grisha and courtiers parting like water before a Tidemaker-
"Have you-"
"I found her!"
"Good," Aleksander sighed deeply and felt an impossible weight dropping from his shoulders for the first time since she's disappeared. He rubbed his chin. "Where is the squadron? You've gathered someone already, haven't you?"
"No, moi soverenyi. I don't think you want others to... Alina is at Baghra's hut."
Aleksander froze.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes." There was no doubt in Durast's voice.
Mother.
Alina sat patiently on the highest stair and gathered all her strength. She didn't have to wait long. However Baghra kept the natural light coming through the hut's windows, she certainly forgot about the door which she left wide open.
Bad for her.
It was afternoon (later Alina would learn it was her awaited Summer Solstice) and despite all logic or biology, Alina's eyes got used to such brightness in a blink of an eye. Whether it was a matter of surprise, age or just luck, Alina managed to throw herself at Baghra and roll them away from the cellar door. Instinctive tendril of power sent around the room revealed the locket, mostly unharmed, laying on a wooden table. Summoning the light from the outside in quick, short blade-like rays, Alina successfully blinded Baghra for a moment - reveling in the power flowing through her body, making her stronger with each passing second – and jumped after the locket.
Alina bared her teeth in a vicious smile as soon as she felt the familiar warmth-confidence-strength after grabbing the platinum star and hanging it carefully on her neck beneath the shirt.
"Yes, take it... Won't be much help. Even if you run, you won't get to your General in time. And you won't escape, girl."
Not even Fjerdans have ever glared at Alina so hatefully.
"I'd love to see you stop me, hag!" The voice she has barely used lately was harsh and laughing made her throat ache, but the indignant look was worth it.
Baghra straightened more than one ever thought possible and Summoned, snarling, "There is no fire in this house. Only darkness, you foolish Inferni."
Alina's face turned into a mask of serenity.
"I'm the Sun Summoner. It gets dark when I say it does."
Few hours ago she was powerless underground. Now she felt more alive than ever.
But she still needed more, she needed to take it outside.
Alina formed a half sphere of pure light in front of her, like a shield, willing it to be physical enough to push Baghra towards the door. The woman froze, gaping at radiance obeying an Inferni, but eventually stepped back far enough to leave the hut.
Alina inhaled the fresh scent of pines and reveled in the feeling the sun on her skin. She was going to camp outside the Little Palace for weeks once she was done with hags and imposters.
Baghra seemed to get back to her senses (as much as an insane, evil old woman could) and began to fight back. A little blackmail was fun, but how many times did teenage Alina imagine kicking her ass? Being a senior didn't matter for a Grisha – if only, it gave Baghra the advantage. She was actually screeching something about how it was impossible, how Alina was a filth and Heretic's sycophant and weak Inferni and could not be the Sun Summoner, but Alina happily ignored her, focused solely on the chance to finally, after all this time, channel all the power she could and just Summon to her heart's content.
But something snapped in her once Baghra yelled triumphantly,
"You might kill me, girl, for it will mean your destiny is to purify the world from the Shadow Summoners! The only one left to destroy will be my son-"
Black Heretic help her, Alina had enough of this hateful woman. The light she Summoned has been somewhat contained by the woods so far, but soon there would be students walking nearby and noticing something was wrong.
Shadows that Baghra Summoned were of impossible spread and only seemed to thicken...
Alina realized it was the last opportunity to finish her little plan – easily the most ridiculous and hastily-to-be-executed of all her ideas, but what better revenge could she come up with without revealing her secret too soon?
Amplifiers weren't the only thing she mused about in captivity.
Instead of Summoning again, she followed the very road that all Grisha sources have warned her away from. Never will she ever reach such pure, endless power with mere small science.
Alina Starkov called upon merzost.
The surprise on Baghra's face would be almost comical if it wasn't followed by absolute fear. Dominant, mean part of Alina hummed with delight.
The final result wasn't exactly what she expected, but supposedly neither was the Shadow Fold when it was done, and so Alina watched curiously how Baghra was overcome by unavoidable force and her body became one with the Shadows and they all morphed.
Morphed into an old ebony tree.
Alina felt a strange weakness and had to lean on the thick, eerily smooth trunk of Baghra's tree.
Baghra's tree.
Tree that used to be Baghra.
Tree that Alina herself created-
Suddenly she heard heavy footsteps behind her, her heart skipped a beat and she knew.
Aleksander ran, and yet when he reached Mother's hut, he felt he was too late.
But then Alina turned away from a strange black tree (which definitely wasn't here the last time he'd visited), and ran towards him-
She was alive, she was alright, she was jumping at Aleksander and wrapping her arms tightly around him. He hugged her back, trying not to squeeze the life out of her unusually skinny frame.
"Moi soverenyi," she muttered and he laughed.
The Darkling wiped the bizarre moisture from his eyes with a sleeve, and decided that there will be time later to ask about her week or why this tree felt like Mother and merzost.
He pressed his lips to a bone-pale lock at her temple and whispered, "Call me Aleksander."
AN:
"did you learn his name before you killed him and took his bones?" Baghra is using the male pronoun because seeing a child's tooth as an amplifier made her remember the time when she feared for her son instead of being afraid of him. and since human amplifiers are so rare she might have even thought it was her sister's descendant, a boy that looked like baby Sasha- aaaand that's enough, before i get teary-eyed
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could Alina "glow" on her own in canon or did she need some brief access to the sun first? idk. (i have a thousand different, contradicting lore-headcanons a day and dont remember a thing.) i certainly don't mind using the power of love and found family.
if you wonder why she didn't Summon as soon as she realised Baghra-spontaneously-kidnapped-her-and-hid-in-a-basement well (i just wanted to have a reason for her to get to the tree part?) i'd say she went into some kind of shock after sudden separation from The Tooth (she did wear it almost constantly for more than ten years and as a little girl. i'd say it might have been a bit of a difference!) plus she only practiced Sun Summoning above ground, during the day (uugh not enough small science fun for a Grishaverse fic, i'm sorry!) so in a cellar of a crazy Shadow Summoner, probably filled with some bordering-on-merzost stuff ... i guess it might be harder. idk i'm trying to stay for now in the small space between under- and overpowered
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of course, Baghra was turned into Diospyros ebenum, the ebony tree
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i kinda wanted the name reveal to happen later, but they have known each other for years now, it's about time, right? also, book!reveal show!reveal
despite the quote, nobody knows the name in "misclassification" unlike it's known in the show version. you probably noticed i only used it in Darkles or Baghra's POV and never will I call him Kirigan. it just feels so strange in my head!
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next: should-be-short chapter that ends the 2nd arc and sets up the scene for the final part (probably more ambitiously than it will end up, but i guess whatever feeds our imaginations, right?)
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let me know what you think of this weird chapter (or the fic as a whole, dear binge-readers ;))