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#the darkling series
padfootagain · 4 months
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The Last Ones On Earth (IV)
Chapter 4: An Age
Hello, hello! Here is a new chapter for my Darkling series!
I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!
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Pairing: The Darkling x reader
Warnings for the series: mentions and depictions of violence and warfare, mentions of trauma
Warnings for the chapter: None
Summary: You and the Darkling are a team, even if no one knows it. Beyond being a team, you are the only one he trusts, and he's the only one you care about, and you're each other's true love. But if you've kept your secrets hidden for a long time, now that the Sun Summoner is fighting against you, it's time to reveal who you are, and what you are capable of...
Word Count: 2744
Masterlist for the series – The Darkling’s Masterlist – Main Masterlist
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Alina stares at you as if you were a ghost. Or perhaps a dragon. Or a strange mix of both.
You give her a minute to register your words, you can almost call them a threat. You doubt that she’s weighing her options, though. You reckon she simply tries to understand what your words mean.
And then it’s back. The pride in her gaze, the rise in her chin, the tightness in her jaw.
Stupid girl who believes herself important…
“You say you want to talk, and yet you use threats already.”
“Who was put in chains to see you again?” you reply with amused sarcasm.
“And we were clearly right to mistrust you,” Zoya crosses her arms before her chest, her beautiful features slightly distorted by anger.
“Indeed!” you shoot her a smile. “It was pretty reckless to let me see all of you so easily.”
“David vouched for you,” Genya replies in a grim fashion, and David averts his eyes to stare at the carpet.
But your smile softens as you turn to him.
“Thank you, David. That was very nice of you.”
You turn towards Alina again. You notice that her hands ae touching.
Your smile grows, this time, more threatening, almost predatory.
“Child, let’s not make a mess. I simply want to talk, I haven’t come to hurt anyone.”
“Say that to the soldiers outside.”
“Collateral damage, I’m afraid,” you shrug. “I’m not going to hurt anyone in this room, I promise.”
“If you side with the Darkling, is your word worth anything?”
You raise a surprised eyebrow.
“If you truly knew him, you’d know how foolish that remark is. The Darkling is a lot of things, but he does stay true to his words.”
“And by ‘a lot of things’, you do include mass murderer, of course,” Nikolai points out.
“Coming from a man whose main occupations are pirating and inventing mass-destruction weaponry, I do find the remark particularly ironic.”
But you heave a sigh, tired of losing time you don’t have. There is too much work to do. Grisha to rescue, friends to bury, a whole nation to lead…
“Now, please, Alina. Again, I will not hurt you, so come sit down so we can talk.”
“I’ve never liked you,” the girl mumbles under her breath, her hands slowly moving, and you can see glow coming from her fingertips.
You roll your eyes.
“If I fought every person I didn’t like, only three people in this room would still be alive, including me. And you would not be breathing anymore, Starkov. But as I can’t choke you to death with my bare hands the way I truly long to, please, don’t do anything stupid and sit down.”
With a frustrated sigh, Alina closes her fists, but lets her power subside, and at long last, joins the gathering around the wooden table again.
“We will not yield when it comes to destroying the Fold,” Alina stubbornly declares.
“I am aware of repeating myself, but it will not work without the Fold,” you reply.
“You cannot destroy entire villages!”
“You cannot force people to change if you give them a chance to remain as they are.”
“People can change.”
“They can,” you nod in agreement. “But most of the time, they don’t want to. Why would they? If what you are asking for goes against their own interest, why would they change?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
You snort at that.
“Please… Don’t be so naïve. Of course, some people have enough compassion to not hurt Grisha. But the majority will take centuries to reach this kind of tolerance. And in the meantime, people are dying. Our people.”
“We are all Ravkan,” Nikolai argues.
“Are we? Because when I was arrested by your men a few weeks ago and kept in a cage without water, food, or anything against the cold for three days, waiting to be executed that more Grisha were captured because, and I quote ‘it would be a waste of energy to set up the gallows just for a couple of them’… without any sort of trial or justice whatsoever, I did not feel very Ravkan… but I did feel very much Grisha.”
Nikolai doesn’t answer, instead he looks guiltily at his hands.
“I don’t care about Ravka,” you answer in honesty. “I don’t care about Shu Han, I don’t care about Fjerda, or any other nation. At the end of the day, we are all humans. And we are Grisha, and otkazat’sya. The Fold is not to be used as a threat against Ravka alone, that’s the whole point. It’s the only weapon in our possession that is powerful enough for all Grisha to be safe, no matter where they come from.”
“I do not condone what has been done to you,” Nikolai finally speaks, his voice slow and measured. “But if people are turning against Grisha, it is because of the Darkling’s actions.”
You roll your eyes at that.
“This has been going on for centuries, it is nothing new, they simply have an excuse to do as they please without any repercussion, and they enjoy their newly-found freedom to slaughter all the Grisha they want. It happens again, and again. We have tried to be useful, we have tried to prove people we are no threat, we have tried working hand in hand with kings, and it doesn’t work. The Fold is our last chance.”
“You speak as if you had done all of that, but you are barely older than us,” Zoya spits in a venomous tone. “Who do you think you are, Maeve?”
“Y/N,” you interrupt her.
The girl frowns.
“What?”
“My real name is Y/N. Maeve is only my latest identity, I’ve had many of those before.”
Suddenly, Alina’s eyes grow round, and she finally seems afraid of you.
At long last, some intelligence…
“Are you a spy?” David asks, taken aback by your statement.
But you shake your head.
“Not exactly.”
“You are like him.”
All turn to Alina as she speaks again, her voice uneasy.
“You said you are a powerful Durast.”
“Incredibly powerful,” you correct her.
“You are like the Darkling.”
“Aleksander. That’s his name.”
He’ll hate you for saying it out loud, for revealing something so personal about him.
Aleksander. His first name, his true one. The one only you and Baghra know. The one that tastes of the young man you met all these years ago, unconscious in the snow somewhere near Fjerda…
 All around the table frown. As if they never wondered what his name was. And perhaps they truly never cared to wonder. Perhaps the title was enough. It’s easier, anyway, to stare at a man you send to die on a battlefield and see only a rank, a title, and not the human wearing it. It’s easier too to kill an enemy if he is but a shadow, a symbol, and not an actual breathing man.
You lean a little over the table, your forearms resting on the hard surface, your fingers intertwining together.
“Aleksander and I are extremely powerful Grisha. Just like you, Alina. Just like Baghra. Just like Saints.”
“I don’t understand,” Mal admits.
“Grisha draw great strengths from using their powers. The more powerful you are, the better your health. Some of us are so powerful, we are virtually immortal. Or, well, if you smash my head with a sword, I will die. But I barely age at all. I can leave for thousands of years.”
“Bullshit,” Nikolai curses.
“I’m afraid not. It is a great curse, indeed. But power always has a cost.”
“Some would consider themselves lucky to never age. Especially my mother, considering all her efforts to hide her true age…”
“Well, my dear prince, your mother has not seen people dying for hundreds of years.”
Again, Nikolai looked away.
“You said that Alina was like that too…” Mal insists, and you don’t fail to notice the way Alina flees his gaze.
“Indeed. She will without a doubt outlive all of you, and your descendants on many generations.”
“If it’s so unbearable, why are you still alive? We wouldn’t be in this mess if you and the Darkling had given up,” Zoya adds bitterly.
But when you turn to her, your stare is filled with a cold fire that shushes her.
“Many powerful Grisha kill themselves, after a while, after it’s too much to see all the people you love die over and over again. Aleksander and I were lucky, we found each other. And don’t forget that without our efforts, the Little Palace would not exist and Grisha would have never known any type of safety. We were the first to manage to live for longer than a couple of years at the same place, while using our powers, and remain safe.”
“You speak as if you were there when the Little Palace was built,” David frowns.
“I was there,” you correct him. “I built the place. Literally. I am a Fabrikator, after all.”
“You do expect us to believe you?” Mal scoffs, but Alina shushes him quickly. And you can see on the faces of the others that their opinion of you changes as they realize that Alina does, indeed, believe you.
And rightly so. After all, you are telling the truth. The way you had planned to do.
You choose your next words carefully.
“I have seen the same pattern again and again. I know what will happen, because I have seen it before. I have tried every other way to help Grisha: hiding, fighting, being useful, being tamed, being strong… it doesn’t work. It never works, because otkazat’sya are afraid of our power, because they feel different and thus frightened. You ask me to wait, that we are in no rush to change the world, but I have been working towards that goal for hundreds of years. I am not in a rush, I am patient, indeed. But things must change, eventually. And we have an opportunity here that will never present itself again for things to finally go the way we want.”
You heave a sigh, and you seem tired now. Despite your face untouched by the many years you have spent on this earth, there is something new in your gaze, a sadness that doesn’t fit the youth of your features. It seems ancient, brought by a pain too great to have occurred in only a lifetime.
“If you want proof, I can tell you everything you want to know. I’ll tell you how Aleksander and I met. How we ran. How we hid. How we fought. All the things that we tried to help Grisha and how it always failed. How we were betrayed and how we survived. If it can prove my point, then so be it.”
“How old are you?” Alina asks after a short silent.
Her voice is cautious, slow. As if she’s afraid of your answer. And perhaps she is. She should be. After all, it shows how powerful you are, how much of a threat you can be. To her, who is doomed to a deathless life as well, it also means facing the truth about her lover.
Your smile is smug when your lips curl upwards and you answer.
“I’ll turn 889 in a couple of months.”
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Over 400 years ago
Os Alta – over the grounds of the royal Palace
Your hands moved relentlessly in those days. There was so much work to be done. You had help, of course, from otkazat’sya workers but also from other Fabrikators. It was the name that was chosen for the Grisha sharing your powers, along with a colour: purple, like the petals of flowers, like berries, like poisons…
But on this room, your work was to be done in solitude. No one could know about the changes you were bringing to Aleksander’s War Room. It would protect you from eavesdroppers, fire, and many other threats. It would be a safe room. Even if Aleksander’s plan in the army seemed to be working for now, you reckoned you couldn’t stop being cautious. You needed safety, as always.
“You are working too late, my love.”
The warm voice filled your heart with something both peaceful and excited. You couldn’t refrain a smile as you turned to your husband, who was walking inside the room and closing the door behind him.
“You must rest,” he insisted, but you shook your head.
“I am perfectly fine. Besides, I can’t work on this room during the day, it’s too risky.”
Of course, he knew you were right. Still, he wished you could rest more, he wished you could be safe and wouldn’t have to hide…
Soon. He hoped it could be soon. With this safe haven you were building together, it could be the answer to everything. Perhaps it could even be a home…
You chuckled fondly as he wrapped his arms around you from behind, pulling you close.
“You’re distracting me!” you complained in faked annoyance, and Aleksander knew perfectly what you were doing.
“You love it.”
“I do not! I am busy!”
“And I am tired and long for a good night of sleep in a comfortable bed with my beloved wife.”
“Is it not too risky?”
“We are safe for now, let’s enjoy it, while it lasts.”
“Do you think this could be it? That we could finally remain safe?”
“I do not know. I hope so.”
“But we’re both too old for foolish hopes, huh?”
You exchanged a sad smile.
“We should not be seen as a couple,” Aleksander went on, and he knew he was breaking your heart a little by saying that, the same way he was breaking his own. “It would be too dangerous.”
“I agree. We are both powerful, we will live long lives… It would be too frightening for the otkazat’sya.”
“Build us a room where we can be ourselves, my love. We will pretend the rest of the time.”
You turned in his arms to face him, and his hand immediately raised to rest over your cheek.
“I’ll make you pay for that,” you warned him, and he raised a surprised eyebrow.
“Really? Will you? And how could I repay this debt towards my favourite Fabrikator?”
“An awful lot of kisses will be required. And some cakes. Lots of sweets.”
You both laughed at that, despite your shared tiredness, despite all the things you had been through. A bright laugh made of bright hope, a fool’s hope perhaps, but hope all the same. The sounds filled up the empty room, and echoed in its blank space.
“So, we’ll hide that we are married?” you asked after growing quiet again, and Aleksander nodded, although you could see it pained him to do so.
“It’s safer this way. If I am to step up, I will have many enemies.”
You nodded, tugging your head on his chest, so he could rest his chin on you.
“We’ll make it work,” you reassured him, feeling the tension in his body, the fear too. “We’ll make it work, Aleks.”
“I know. I’m just… worried that you might… that I might lose you.”
“You won’t lose me. I’ll be right there. And I’ll steal an awful lot of kisses in this room.”
“Is it safe already?”
“Safe enough for us to have this conversation, yes.”
“Can you lock the door?”
“Already done it.”
He chuckled.
“You’re getting good at using your powers without moving your hands.”
“I still had to move a finger, but my hands didn’t touch.”
“That’s my wife. So powerful.”
But he felt you tensing in his gentle hold.
“It will be worth it, right? All these moments together we’ll have to sacrifice, all this fighting, all this work… tell me it will be worth it. Tell me we’ll make it.”
He took your face in both his hands to force you to look up at him.
“It will be worth it,” he assured you, and in his dark eyes, you saw no lies nor doubts. “We will make it through. You and me, the way we have planned. The way we promised each other we would.”
“Until we’re the last ones on Earth?” you still asked in a trembling voice, even if you didn’t doubt him.
He nodded, a smile on his lips as he pulled you in a tight hold again.
“Until we’re the last ones on Earth, my love.”
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Taglist : @reg-arcturus-black @wolfmoonmusic @budugu @sayumiht
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heliads · 1 year
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So, Before You Go Masterlist
Completed sequel series to Time Can Heal (But This Won't)
previous series masterlist
Hellas is gone; so too is your life as a cartographer. You and the Darkling must quell Alina Starkov's attempt at an uprising in order to protect the Grisha of Ravka. However, your gods are not as dead as they seem, and that which you have taken for granted will soon prove to be quite unpredictable indeed.
Chapter One: First Call to Arms
Chapter Two: Warnings of a Bygone Era
Chapter Three: Forgiveness is a Difficult Fire to Burn
Chapter Four: War on the Spinning Wheel
Chapter Five: We Are Quiet, and We Are Cold
Chapter Six: One More Body to Burn
Chapter Seven: The Walls Close In
Chapter Eight: Every Golden Age Will Rust
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peraltuki · 1 year
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Oh Lord ‼️‼️‼️‼️
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criminalamnesia · 1 year
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Dancing With Our Hands Tied
summary: Nikolai confronts you about unspoken feelings.
warnings: fluff, no use of y/n, not proofread, no gendered pronouns used (that I know of), grisha!heartrender!reader
author’s note: dancing with our hands tied by taylor swift inspired this! also listen I love zoya and nikolai but nikolai is just sooooooo ksjfjsjs I wanted to write a reader insert for him.
What you had with your captain was something no one understood– not even the two of you.
Sturmhond– or Nikolai, as you knew him in secret– was your friend. Your captain. But he was also something more.
He was a rogue ship, and you were a lighthouse guiding him home. He was a dangerous sea, threatening to drown you if you tested your luck– and oh, how you were so close to seeing what would happen if you did.
You shouldn’t even know his true identity. But, as fate would have it, he needed a heartrender with a specific set of skills that you just happened to have, and you needed an escape.
You were his tailor– disguising his appearance and turning him into the infamous Sturmhond. That was the only reason you were allowed to see him without his mask– you were the one to put it back together.
“You’re not surprised?” He had asked you the first night your services had been requested.
The ginger hair of Sturmhond had faded. The crooked nose had straightened, but the same smug grin was still present.
“No,” you had said. “I know that heartbeat. I knew it was you a mile from your ship.”
That took him aback. How did you know his heartbeat?
You had laughed, your eyes twinkling with something he found mesmerizing. He didn’t know you– he was sure of it. He wouldn’t forget a face like yours.
One of your hands was on his shoulder, holding him still. The other roamed his face, fingers dancing across his skin as you worked.
“You’re staring,” you stated, your fingers moving to his messy blond hair. “Trying to figure out how I know you?”
“Yes,” he admitted, eyes watching your face intently. “Were you at the Little Palace?”
You nodded. “I was.” The blond of his hair started to turn red. “But I spent most of my time in the Grand Palace.” You paused, your hand leaving his shoulder to move to his chin, tilting his head to the side. You could hear his heart beat a tad bit faster.
“The Darkling gave me to your mother, as he did with Genya. I was her apprentice. She taught me how to tailor.” You told him.
“I didn’t suffer the same fate she did, if that’s what you’re wondering. Your father had eyes for her, not me.” You couldn’t help the bitterness in your voice. Nikolai flinched.
“You were rarely home– but I met you once, when we were both still small. That’s why I know your heartbeat. The only one of the Royal Family to have a good heart– not a sour one. It stuck with me, I guess you could say.”
“I don’t remember you,” he admitted, and you gave a small laugh. His blond hair was almost completely red now.
“I wouldn’t expect you to. You’re not the only one being tailored, Captain. The First Army can’t take me back if they don’t recognize me, now can they?”
“Are you listening?”
Nikolai’s voice broke you from your thoughts. He was sitting on the bed in his quarters on the ship. You stood between his knees, your hands on his face as you changed him back into Sturmhond.
“Mhm,” you hummed. You weren’t. This routine was something you could do in your sleep, and truthfully, you found your mind drifting off more and more whenever Nikolai required your assistance. It’s not that you found his company dull– quite the opposite, actually. But you didn’t want him to know that.
“No you weren’t,” he gave a small chuckle, one of his hands moving up to grab one of yours. He pulled it from his face as he intertwined your fingers.
“Nikolai,” you hissed, pulling your hand from his grasp. “Do you want me to mess up? I was in the middle of reforming your nose.”
He sighed, his hand falling back to his lap as you raised yours once more. You avoided his eyes, knowing you wouldn’t like what you saw in them.
Between the two of you, he was the more open with his feelings. For the past few weeks, he had continuously tried to corner you and get you to talk about whatever the two of you were. To try and figure things out. You had successfully avoided him thus far, but you knew you were dancing on thin ice.
It was only a matter of time before he recruited one of the twins to subdue you while he forced you to listen. You wouldn’t put it past him, and you knew for a fact Tolya would help him. Curse that hopeless romantic.
“You’re insufferable. And exhausting,” he told you as you grasped his chin gently between your fingers, turning his face this way and that to examine your handiwork.
“I know. You tell me quite often,” you remarked, nodding to yourself as you moved to focus your sights on his hair.
He sighed. Silence engulfed the two of you. It was almost smothering, full of unsaid words and the tension between the two of you. You were suddenly aware of how close you were to him– his knees caging you in as you stood between his spread legs. His face in your hands, his hands now on your waist.
“We keep dancing around this,” he said. You didn’t reply, choosing to focus more intently on the roots of his hair. “The whole crew thinks we’re sleeping together.”
That caught you off guard. You gave a snort, rolling your eyes. “Of course they do. You call me to your quarters in the night, every week. You always stare at me, especially when you think I’m not looking. And you’re handsy– you’ve always got a hand on my back or my shoulder or something.”
Nikolai chuckled. “Well, you’re one to talk. Every time you laugh at something I’ve said, you grab onto my arm and go ‘oh Sturmhond!’. And don’t act like you don’t stare, too.”
“I do not say ‘oh Sturmhond’,” you said, looking down at him. He grinned that same crooked smile.
“I know you’re thinking it. Probably thinking some other things, too. Like how you’d like to–”
“Shut up, or I’m going to give you a black eye.” You hissed, pulling his hair harder than you should’ve.
He laughed. “You wouldn’t. You like my face too much.”
“Im sick of it, actually,” you remarked. “I see it everyday.”
“If that were true, you wouldn’t be here.” He replied.
“You say that as if you’d let me leave. I’m the only tailor you’ve got.”
He shook his head. “That’s not the reason I wouldn’t let you leave, and we both know it.”
You dropped your hands as the last of his blond turned red. Your job here was done. There was nothing stopping you from bidding him goodnight and excusing yourself to your own cot. You knew he would drop it and let you go without another word, but you couldn’t bring yourself to say anything. You didn’t want to say anything.
“So now you’re keeping me prisoner?” You said, suddenly all too aware of his hands squeezing your waist.
“Maybe I am. At least until you admit you like me,” he said, and you scoffed.
“If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t be here–” you began, but he cut you off.
“That’s not what I mean and you know it.”
He moved to stand. You tried to step back, but his hands on you kept you rooted to the spot. You looked up at him, heat rising to your cheeks. Your chests were touching now, and there were only inches between your lips and his.
“When are we going to stop playing this game?” He whispered, one of his hands moving from your waist to brush a strand of hair from your face.
“You like it too much to stop.” You retorted.
“I’d like honesty more,” he said, and you shook your head. “As much fun as playing cat and mouse is with you, I’m growing tired of chasing. And we both know you’re tired of running.”
His hands were on your hips as he swung you around the deck, a laugh on his lips as you clung to his shoulders. You couldn’t help but smile as he dipped you, your eyes meeting his. There were unspoken promises in his gaze– too many feelings, and you had to look away.
Others danced around you two as a few of the crew played some song you’d never heard on makeshift instruments. Laughter and conversation made it hard to think straight. Spirits were high– you’d all just succeeded in breaking through a Fjerdan blockade– and that called for a celebration.
“They’re all going to think we’re together,” you had told Nikolai as he grabbed your hand and pulled you to the dance floor. He had laughed, leaning in close to whisper “let them” in your ear.
He had kissed you for the first time that night, after the party had subsided and everyone was asleep but the two of you. You had been talking quietly, watching the stars and listening to the waves, and he had kissed you and you had melted.
“Nikolai..” you sighed, your hands moving to rest on his shoulders. “This isn’t a good idea.”
“I don’t care,” he told you, and his heartbeat was as steady as it had ever been.
“I do,” you told him, meeting his gaze. “You can’t play pirate forever. What happens when you go back to Ravka, back to your family? You can’t marry me. I’m nobody– not a princess, not a diplomat. I’m an escaped servant who knows too much and would be imprisoned or executed for escaping.”
“Privateer,” he corrected, and you rolled your eyes. “And I’m the second son– a bastard second son. I’m already a disgrace in their eyes,” one of his hands moved to the small of your back, his thumb rubbing circles into the fabric of your shirt. “I can’t disappoint them any more than I have.”
“It doesn’t matter what they think of you now, they still won’t let me anywhere near you.” You replied, and he shook his head.
“Why are we even talking about this?” He asked. “We’re not in Ravka. We’re in the middle of the ocean, and no one cares what we do.”
He was right. You were far from Ravka and his family and your pasts. You were someone new, and he was, too. You weren’t an escaped servant– you were Sturmhond’s first mate. You were his most trusted friend– besides the twins– and you were the one he wanted.
And you wanted him, too.
“I don’t care about details,” he said, his voice low. “I don’t care about families or consequences or rumors. I care about you, about that little smile you always get before you win at cards, about how you let me drag you onto the dance floor while the crew stares, and how you put up with me more than you should.”
You didn’t say anything, too stunned for words.
“I would do anything,” he began, his face slowly inching towards yours. “To dance with you again. To kiss you again. To not hide behind stolen glances and little jabs at each other.”
“Nikolai,” you murmured, your eyes flitting down to his lips.
“Yes?” He asked as your eyes found his once more.
“Just shut up.” You said, and you closed the gap between the two of you, your lips meeting his.
Maybe nothing he said would be true in the morning. Maybe he would realize this was all a big mistake, but you didn’t care.
He was right. You were tired of running, and you were so glad he was tired of chasing.
And as you kissed, that heartbeat that you’d remembered after all these years– that you’d always remember– soared.
And you knew he wasn’t lying.
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adriiivna · 2 months
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Alina and the Morozova Stag
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karinagiada · 3 months
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Sankta Alina ✨
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marvelmusing · 2 months
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Our Souls
A ‘His Dark Materials’ Inspired AU
Aleksander Morozova x Fem!Reader
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☽ Our Souls
As a well-known scholar, you’re invited to a gala at Lord Morozova’s estate. What you don’t expect is for the man himself to show a particular interest in you and your dæmon.
☽ Mirror Image
Aleksander finds you at another gala, and the two of you learn you have more in common than you realised.
☽ Handle With Care
Aleksander finds you in a vulnerable state and takes care of you and your dæmon after an altercation.
☽ His Attention
An interaction between you and Aleksander at the university doesn’t go unnoticed, and you decide to take a subtle stand against the rumours surrounding you.
☽ Conflict of Interest
The second Prince of Ravka shows an interest in you, which causes division between you and your dæmon.
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renegadesstuff · 1 year
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More BTS 🥰❤️
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Favorite Character in a TV-Show 2023
The Darkling in Shadow & Bone Season 2
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padfootagain · 10 months
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The Last Ones on Earth (I)
Chapter 1: A Mission
Hi everyone! It’s me! Mrs. No-self-control! Here I come with a new series! The concept is simple: what if the Darkling was a little less alone…
I hope you like it! Let me know what you think!
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Pairing: The Darkling x reader
Warnings for the series: mentions and depictions of violence and warfare, mentions of trauma
Warnings for the chapter: None
Summary: You and the Darkling are a team, even if no one knows it. Beyond being a team, you are the only one he trusts, and he's the only one you care about, and you're each other's true love. But if you've kept your secrets hidden for a long time, now that the Sun Summoner is fighting against you, it's time to reveal who you are, and what you are capable of...
Word Count: 5214
Masterlist for the series - The Darkling's Masterlist - Main Masterlist
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It’s very dark outside, but that’s okay. You like it this way. After so many years spent by Aleksander’s side, you’re used to the shadows. You find comfort in them now.
You remember when you were a child - such a long, long time ago – you used to be afraid of the dark. You longed for daylight, moonlight, anything to pierce the black veil covering your world. You couldn’t see anything around you, the unknown was a scary place. You didn’t realize by then that the shadows were a hiding place. If you couldn’t see a thing, no one could see you either.
Besides, the dark was a place filled with stories of monsters and spells and evil creatures lurking in its midst. It was evil, against the goodness of light.
What a fool you were by then…
You’ve never gotten used to the sight of the Fold. You should have, it’s been here for such a long time now. Still, you struggle with the view of it as you stare at the darkness by the window: the sharp edges of its unpalpable wall, the shouts that struggle to get out of it, to escape.
It’s a prison, in a way. You want to make it a key towards freedom…
“Are you certain that this is a good idea?”
Aleksander’s voice is deeper than usual; low and cold but you know him enough to identify the worry that’s there too. He sounds almost afraid. You know he’s terrified, actually.
It’s a rare emotion to hear in his voice, and you turn to look at him at the sound. He’s standing in the middle of the room, gaze lost on a map splayed on the table at the centre. You know he doesn’t see any of the lines, any of the names or letters traced in black ink. The light is too low, only a torch and the fireplace, painting strange shapes in red and gold over the furniture, the walls, his tall frame…
You walk across the room, steps slow and measured, trying to be quiet, as if not to scare him away. As if he could ever walk away from you…
You don’t speak until you’re standing by his side. You lean against the table, your back against the wooden furniture, so you can stare at him. He doesn’t turn his black eyes towards you though. He’s too lost in thought, or perhaps he’s fleeing your gaze. You’re not sure. It doesn’t really matter, anyway.
“We don’t have a choice,” you speak in a soothing voice, crossing your arms before your chest. “They won’t let you go anywhere near Alina. But they don’t know who I am. We know they’ve taken Genya and David in. Probably others too. They could want to take me in too. I can try and get closer, close enough to talk with her.”
“And if you can’t convince her?”
“It doesn’t matter. It will give you time to access Keramzin undetected. And I’ll make sure she joins us, whether she likes it or not.”
“She will try to kill you.”
You notice the way his fits clench by his side, so tightly you’re pretty sure it hurts. His knuckles have gone ivory with the strength of his gesture, even if his voice didn’t falter. You reach for his hand, and he lets you slip your fingers between his.
After all this time, it still feels the same. The rush of his amplifying powers coursing through your veins. The callous pads of his fingers brushing against your knuckles and sending shivers down your spine. The warmth of his palm soothing you, making your heart skip a beat…
You know he feels the same. You see it in the way his hold on your hand is tender, in the way his shoulders drop ever so slightly, in the way his gaze shifts in your direction, without looking at you. He’s averting his gaze still. It’s alright. You’re used to it.
“I’ve survived more perilous situations.”
“Because I was here.”
“Don’t take all the merit. I’m incredible.”
He lets out a shaky breath, the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips. There was a time when he would have offered you a full laughter at that remark. It was a long time ago, when you were young, and too naïve for this world. When you still believed there was a peaceful way out of all this…
“I will be cautious,” you tell him, and your voice sounds like a promise, your tone makes him tighten his hold on your hand. “I will come back to you in one piece.”
“You’d better. Or you’ll have me to deal with.”
“I’m sure I should be terrified of the Darkling’s punishment, but I really am not.”
“You should be.”
You scoff at that.
“We’re alone, you know. No need to play the cold, tough guy with me. I’ve seen you cry before.”
“I’ll cut off your tongue if you tell anyone about this story.”
And his voice is icy, and firm, and serious, and anyone but you would have trembled before such a threatening tone. But not you.
You’re the only one he would never hurt in any way, and you know it. He could kill, torture, destroy, annihilate everything, the entirety of Ravka, of the world even. But not you. You could betray him, you could try to kill him, and he wouldn’t lift a finger to stop you. You’re the only one he wouldn’t punish, the only one he would forgive. You make him weak like that.
And he hates it. He hates it, but he needs this fragility, this one weakness. He must indulge it, he doesn’t have a choice. And you know it, you feel the same about him. That’s why you’re never afraid when he’s around, no matter what he does, no matter what he says. You trust him too much for that.
When he turns to you, at long last, he forces a tender smile to his lips.
“And throw it to a Volcra?” you ask, struggling not to smile too brightly.
“Or one of my nichevo’ya.”
“Of course, for a second I forgot your new minions.”
“You are not terribly fond of them…”
“I know how painful it is for you to summon them. Of course, I’m not fond of them. They’re efficient, though.”
You stare at each other for a while longer. In the hearth, the fire lets out cracking sighs. There’s an owl outside, somewhere, you hear it singing, the voice of a night at its fullest. There are voices in the corridor too, coming inside Aleksander’s room as shushed, barely there at all, only ghosts of other lives. Lives that will never be like yours, or Aleksander’s…
“I will have to tell Alina the truth, if I want to have a chance to convince her.”
Aleksander clenches his jaw.
“You shouldn’t. It’s too dangerous.”
“We’re beyond pondering about risks, I reckon.”
“Y/N…”
“I know what I’m doing. If I want to convince her, she needs to realise that this is not going to work. That none of it will ever work. We’ve tried it before, and it failed, because the world is not going to change, unless we burn it to the ground first. She needs to understand that.”
“I’ve tried to show her…”
“No, you’ve tried to lure her into trusting you too blindly to protest.”
“She’s a child. She will never understand…”
“Then we’ll get rid of her. She’s too dangerous alive if she’s not on our side.”
“On this, we agree.”
You heave a sigh, suddenly tired, as if the weight of many battles fought in the past was suddenly thrown onto your shoulders once more.
And he hates it. Aleksander hates seeing you like this, tired and almost broken. But then again, after all you’ve been through, how could you not be like this? He has lost himself too, along the way. He has lived too long to remain the same.
You’re disappointed for a second when he lets go of your hand, but it only lasts a moment. Instead of your fingers, he reaches to touch your cheek.
You’re the only one he has ever touched so gently, so slowly, so lovingly. He hates it, the power you have over him. But he has never had a choice.
It was always you. It still is. It will always be.
“I cannot lose you,” he whispers, and Aleksander wishes he could add an argument about how useful you are, to at least keep the illusion that he’s not so vulnerable, but what would be the point? After such a long time loving you, it would be of no use at all. “Please, be careful, my love.”
Your smile widens, you can’t help it. It would be dangerous for others to know who you truly are, just like no one can know who hides behind the image of the Darkling. It’s safer if the world doesn’t know about your relationship with Aleksander either.
The Darkling’s wife, that would put one hell of a target on your back. And it would make him unbearably vulnerable too.
That’s why these moments are so rare these days. The ones when he calls you sweet names, and touches you like this, and lets you get so close again. There was a time, long, long ago, when things weren’t so complicated, when you were together all the time, when all you both had to do was love each other. But that type of happiness didn’t last for long. You learnt that lesson the hard way.
You are both Grisha. You were never allowed to be happy. If you want happiness, you need to fight for it.
You lean into his touch, letting him cup your cheek, brush the pad of his thumb across your soft skin. You close your eyes for a second, enjoying the soft caress. You wish you could stay like this forever…
But when you open your eyes again, and fall into his dark eyes, you read too much fear into them to be fooled.
You are both Grisha. If you want happiness, you need to fight for it. And if it means that you must burn the entire world, until there’s no one else left, then so be it.
“I’ll come back to you. I always do. I always will,” you promise him, resting your hand against his heart, feeling its steady beat, the rhythm that matches the one under your own ribs, the rhythm that belongs to you.
He nods, and you can’t help but step into his embrace, but hold onto him as tightly as you can. It takes him a moment to reciprocate the gesture, but he does. He kisses your forehead, sweet and tender and a little desperate.
“Be careful too,” you admonish. “I’ll meet you at the Little Palace.”
“Until we’re the last ones on Earth,” he whispers into your skin, eyes closed, his voice a mantra you’ve both been repeating for years, so many years… It’s almost a prayer.
And you pray too, you pray even if you don’t believe in Saints. You know who they really were: Grisha slaughtered and brought into legends.
What an irony, to idolize the most hated people of this world…
You breathe in deeply his scent: woollen kafta, a bit of leather, something cold like a wintery night. Home.
You bury your face in the crook of his neck, and that’s the safest you’ve felt in a while. When you answer him, your voice is firm, unfaltering. A promise, just like a vow.
“Until we’re the last ones on Earth.”
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You leave before dawn, it’s safer that way.
You know Aleksander is watching you leave through the cracked windowpane of the room he’s taken as his own, in the deserted house where the Grisha have now taken refuge. You take one last look at the wagon that arrived the previous evening. There are still traces of blood darkening the wood.
Twelve Grisha rescued from a town nearby. Encaged. Beaten almost to death. They were to be killed without much of a trial or any type of mercy. Their crime was existing.
You are used to it by now, but you wish you weren’t. You wish it could still surprise you, that you could still be aghast by the cruelty of it. But you aren’t, not anymore, not after witnessing it again, and again, and again.
It will always happen. You’ve lost your hope for a better world made with peace and harmony a long time ago. You are not so naïve anymore. Instead, you’ve learnt how to kill.
You have a long journey ahead, at least three days of riding before reaching the last-known location of Alina and Nikolai Lantsov, along with their little group. It’s safer if you travel alone, no one will recognize you without your kefta, no one has ever paid enough attention to you for that, anyway. Besides, you’re strong enough to defend yourself. No, you are not worried about the journey that awaits you, you are worried about the negotiations that will follow.
You’ve almost guided your horse outside the lands attached to the mansion, and you can’t help but take one last look over your shoulder. Beyond the large house stands the infinite wall of the Fold. It stretches up to the heavens, loses its tip into the clouds, you wonder if it has any end. From here, it only looks like a dark void: ominous, unforgiveable. It is splayed in both directions too, from South to North, as far as the eye can see.
You can feel Aleksander’s stare upon your frame, and your eyes drift down from the Fold to its creator, to his motionless shape by the window of his room. He won’t move, won’t acknowledge your presence any other way than by staring at you as you leave. You shoot him a smile anyway.
He’s grateful for it. If he never sees you again, at least he’ll have the memory of one more of your smiles…
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Ten months earlier
The Little Palace
You had not seen Aleksander in a while.
It wasn’t that surprising, with the new Sun Summoner taking up an awful lot of space and air. She enjoyed complaining too much. She also enjoyed thinking she was righteous. Maybe she was. More than you, at the very least, without a doubt.
You had not seen Aleksander in a while, and so you were surprised when he called for you, sending Ivan to look for you and bring you to his war room. You bid David a good night, leaving behind your messy desk on which you worked on some gloves to help Alina control her powers. A waste of time and energy, in your opinion, but maybe there was a tinge of jealousy that blurred your judgement when it came to her.
You followed Ivan, trying to control your heartbeat into a steady rhythm, so that the Heartrender would not notice how excited you were at the prospect of seeing the Darkling. No one in the Little Palace knew how close the two of you were, and it was better if it remained that way. It could endanger more secrets, some darker and more dangerous than a hidden love story.
Lucky for you, you had been playing this political game for a long time now. You were used to controlling your own heart. And even if Ivan was a talented Heartrender, he couldn’t sense any change in your heartbeat as you advanced towards the door of the War Room, the Darkling’s symbol of a moon in eclipse engraved on its surface.
He opened the door for you, and let you walk inside.
The Darkling was leaning above the giant map set in the middle of the room, lost in thought, considering the next movements of his own troops. He was alone, wearing his usual black kefta although you noticed that his hair was a little dishevelled after a long day. It was nighttime, after all. Dinner had passed, and with it, most Grisha in the Little Palace had gone to sleep, before a new day filled with training and work would arise. Outside, stars were shining brightly, you could guess the blurred shape of their light through the windows on the opposite side of the room.
The Darkling didn’t look up as you stepped inside, didn’t acknowledge you at all.
“Thank you, Ivan. Leave us.”
The Heartrender gave a small bow, almost a mere nod, before turning on his heels and walking outside the room without a word, closing the door behind him. You moved your hands in a quick, circular movement to lock the door.
You relaxed as soon as you were safely alone with the Darkling. Although, he was still hunched over his map as you turned to him again.
He seemed worried, his brow bearing a frown that traced lines across his forehead and at the edges of his eyes. You heaved a sigh.
“You do know that even the General of the Second Army needs to sleep every once in a while, right?” you ask, crossing your arms before your chest.
Your tone was both teasing and admonishing, and Aleksander closed his eyes at the sound.
He had missed you. Saints, he had missed you so much over the past three months. But seeing you alone was too risky for a while. Now though, with your work for Alina’s gloves, he had a perfect opportunity to require your presence, alone.
At last, he stood straighter again, looking up to catch your eyes with his black ones. He tilted his head to the side a little.
“Do I look so tired?”
“You look exhausted.”
“You don’t look so rested yourself.”
You smiled at that, and he noticed the tears that shone in your eyes. He tried not to feel happy about the sight, but he did. You had missed him too… even after all this time, you still missed him…
“Lots of things going on. Lots of things to worry about,” you answered, shrugging. “Doesn’t help that I’m working way too much because of your stupid gloves. You know how grumpy that makes me if I don’t get my beauty sleep.”
He chuckled.
“And how many years have passed since you’ve had one of those peaceful nights?”
You didn’t answer at first. Before that, you took off the leather gloves that you always wore. He was the only one who got to see you like this, with your last bit of armour, of disguise, resting on his table. You were fully yourself before him.
“Two.”
He frowned, searching through his memory. Two years…
He smiled as he figured it out.
“Our journey to Ketterdam?”
“We had a couple of days free then. It was nice.”
“We spent all of those days in bed…” he gave you a smirk, a dangerous glint in his eyes that you recognized, and that made your heart skip a beat, like it always did.
“That’s what I’m saying. Despite your unbearable snoring, I still had plenty of time to rest.”
He laughed at that. It wasn’t one of his bright ones, the ones he used to give you when you met, when you tried to have a life together. But it was a laugh all the same, and you welcomed the sound of it, tried to carve it into a memory.
But too soon, the sound vanished, failing into the air, replaced by the cracking of the fire in the hearth, the soft sound of his breathing, the regular ticking of a clock. There was no sound coming from outside the room, and no word spoken inside could escape either. You were an amazingly skilled Durast, after all. You had prepared, in secret, long ago, some materials only known to you that could absorb sounds.
No eavesdroppers. Aleksander and you could talk without fear.
He clenched his jaw, straightening his posture a little. Coming into a commanding stand.
“There is much to discuss though,” spoke the Darkling in a cold voice. “We don’t have much time…”
But you didn’t let him finish. Instead, you crossed the room, and rushed into his arms.
Aleksander’s arms…
“Y/N… we need…”
“Shut up. We’ll discuss everything you want. But give us five minutes. Just five minutes to be ourselves. Please, darling.”
You felt him tremble under your touch as you called him by this sweet name. Both of you were too used to act distant, like strangers. It was good to be reminded that you were so much more than that.
At last, he wrapped his arms around you, an embrace strong, comforting, safe. Arms that had never failed to protect you, no matter what the world had tried to destroy you both…
“I’ve missed you,” you whispered, your voice more fragile than you intended for it to be, but you couldn’t find a way to care.
You closed your eyes, breathed deeply his scent. The wool of his kefta, a tinge of leather, something cold during starless nights.
Home.
“I’ve missed you as well, my love,” he whispered in your hair, brushing his cheek against your temple, his beard tickling you in a delightful way.
The skin-on-skin contact made the rush of his amplifying abilities course through your veins, but it wasn’t what sent electricity travel across your spine. It was because of the hand he slipped to the back of your head, to press you closer to him, to keep you right there, tugged into the crook of his neck.
You remained motionless for a few minutes, basking in each other’s presence, in each other’s warmth, in the safety of an embrace you had shared thousands of times, so familiar and missed as soon as it was broken.
“Are you sleeping at all these days, darling?” he asked in a soft, tender voice that almost sounded like it wasn’t his own anymore, after banishing it for so long.
You nodded, even if it was almost a lie.
“Just not enough,” you reassured him.
“Nightmares?”
“Sometimes. I’m genuinely busy though.”
“I wish I could tell you to get more rest, but time is working against us.”
“I know. It’s okay. You look exhausted too.”
“I am, but that’s not the point. I think I’ve found the stag, Y/N.”
You looked up at him, not breaking your embrace just yet, but frowning hard.
“Are you certain?”
“Not entirely, but it seems promising. Trackers seem to have found it in Fjerda, near the border.”
“Saints…”
“I know. I doubt it is a coincidence that we finally find Morozova’s amplifier when the Sun Summoner appears out of nowhere.”
You nodded, turning to the map to let him show you where the stag was spotted. He went on for a while about that, explaining you the whole situation in details.
It wasn’t the only thing he wanted to discuss with you, though, and you knew it. You knew him to well to be fooled.
“So, what will you do about Alina?”
You noticed that he was tensing. You felt almost guilty for enjoying this sight of discomfort. But then again, he never tensed, not unintentionally, except in your presence. He could let his guard down with you, he trusted you enough for that.
“You know what I’ve been doing about Alina,” he deadpanned.
“I know. You’ve tried to seduce her.”
“And I am certain that you hate it.”
“You’re my husband. Of course, I hate,” you scoffed.
“It will not go as far as sex, if it is what worries you.”
“Have you kissed her?”
He intensely stared at you.
“Not yet.”
“You’re planning on going that far?”
“Maybe. I don’t know yet. We’ll see.”
Slowly, you nodded, and he hated that look on your face. A mix of rage, of pain, of an anger you tried to suppress because you knew why he was doing this, and you would have been ready to go that far too, without a hesitation.
Still, he understood your reaction. He would have killed the person you needed to seduce instead of letting you play that game.
But you were more rational than him, if not more patient. You wouldn’t strangle Alina in her sleep. Instead, you merely glowered at him.
“I don’t like it. It won’t work,” you mumbled.
“She’s falling for me, already.”
“How did you do it?”
“With the truth. That no one else she knows can understand her. That she will live a thousand lives and everyone else will wither and die. Except for me. I’m her only chance with eternity.”
“I see. Nicely done, I have to admit.”
“Well, thank you.”
“Do you think it will be enough to make her agree to all of this? To use the Fold against Ravka, Fjerda and Shu Han? To kill the king?”
“I don’t know yet. But I don’t see any other way to secure her power on our side. She must believe that she depends on me. Or else, why would she help us at all?”
“What if we told her the truth?”
“The truth?” he repeated, his tone mocking. “Since when are you so naïve?”
“I highly doubt Alina will agree to destroy entire villages, slaughter populations, and draw the world she knows into chaos just for your pretty eyes. Sorry for your charms, but a crush won’t be enough for that. She won’t accept to take over Ravka if she doesn’t realize that this is the only way for us to ensure that Grisha will find peace.”
“You overestimate her intelligence.”
“And you underestimate her stupidity. She is still naïve. She’s a child, Aleksander. At her age, did you believe something as terrifying as the Fold was the only way towards peace?”
He didn’t answer, he merely stared at you instead. You were right, of course. Like always. He knew it was the only way, but Alina didn’t. She had not suffered nearly enough for that. But the two of you?
You had so many years of practice with suffering…
“I have never played with pity, I will not start today,” he spoke with too much pride, and you both knew it.
“But breaking my heart by seducing a stupid girl is perfectly fine to your standards, I see…”
“Y/N…”
“I know that you’re doing this to reach our goal. I understand. It doesn’t mean I have to like it. It doesn’t mean I don’t want to rip her tongue out every time she talks about you.”
His gaze softened, and he held out his hand for you to take, palm up, inviting you into what you knew would turn into an embrace.
“My love, there was never anyone else for me,” he let out in a breath, a tender smile on his lips. “There will never be. But we need Alina Starkov, if we want to have this peaceful life we have always longed for.”
But you shook your head at that.
“You want power now. More than this quiet life we dreamed about at first.”
His hand trembled, faltered, but didn’t disappear. He kept his offering up, hoping you would take it, the way you had always taken it before.
“Maybe,” he admitted. “I’m too angry. I’ve lost too much to want more than revenge now. But beyond it, I still want this safe life with you. The one we have always dreamt about. I want all Grisha to have it too. I won’t deny I’m thirsty for power now, that I’ve left morality behind a long time ago. You know when I abandoned it. I abandoned it the day you died.”
“Almost…”
“You were dead, Y/N. No matter how you want to call it today, you died for several minutes that day. I will never forgive them for that. And I never want to have to feel this way again. If I need to do the most atrocious things to protect you, to protect us, then so be it. I am tired of depending on stupid kings, I want the throne. I want the throne so I can make my own rules and make sure that no one is stronger than me. That there is no one against whom I will not be able to protect you.”
There was also a selfish part of him that longed for power out of pure greed, you could see it in his burning gaze. But you also knew that he was earnest when he spoke such words. He was doing it for himself, but he was also doing it for you, and he was doing it for all Grisha too. There was a time when the Grisha were the most important element, then it was you, and now, maybe it was him. It didn’t really matter. The truth was that he would never act against the interest of the Grisha, and against your safety.
His soul had darkened along the years, like his shadows. But it was still him, looking out through these black irises. The same man you had always loved.
You slipped your hand in his, holding tight, and he reciprocated your gesture in a firm, certain squeeze. Steady. Infinite. A silent promise that he would do all that it would take.
“Seduce Alina, if you think it’s the best way to make her yield,” you spoke at last, holding his stare, your voice firm and decisive. “But don’t sleep with her.”
“It won’t go that far. I won’t need to.”
“Very well, then. Do what you have to.”
“Are you angry?”
“Yes.”
“Don’t be. You’ll have to leave in just a few minutes. And then, I don’t know when I’ll have a good excuse to talk to you alone again. I want to see my beloved wife smile one last time before she needs to leave…”
You snorted at that.
“I’m not Alina Starkov. I don’t fall for cheap lines like that.”
“What about the truth, then?”
He reached up with his free hand to cup your cheek, move his fingers across the soft skin, trace the outline of your jaw with his fingertips…
You could barely breathe at all, and neither could he. His gaze had grown softer, much softer. The way it used to be, a long time ago, when you were still naïve…
“I love you, Y/N,” he whispered, vulnerable and almost begging for safety. “I always will. There is only us. It will always be just us.”
You nodded, tears shining in your eyes, before you leaned up to kiss him, and he met you halfway. Your lips met and danced in movements you had repeated thousands of times, but they still felt the same. Passionate, reassuring, loving, dependant, desperate…
“I love you too, Aleks,” you whispered against his mouth, right before he leaned in again, deepening the kiss quickly this time.
You weren’t sure for how long you kept on kissing, safely held in his arms. None of you truly cared. All you knew was that when you pulled away at last, it was to whisper against his lips this promise you had made a long, long time ago. Vows that neither of you would ever break.
“Until we’re the last ones of Earth…”
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heliads · 1 year
Text
So, Before You Go Chapter One: First Call to Arms
Hellas is gone; so too is your life as a cartographer. You and the Darkling must quell Alina Starkov’s attempt at an uprising in order to protect the Grisha of Ravka. However, your gods are not as dead as they seem, and that which you have taken for granted will soon prove to be quite unpredictable indeed.
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Once, a very long time ago, a girl named Psyche wielded beauty as her power. Envious, the gods foretold that she would be exiled with a monster as her husband. Psyche feared the monster, but soon she realized that he was not the demon others claimed. Still, as he only visited at night when the shadows hid him from her, she was tormented by the idea that he truly was horrific. One night, Psyche spied upon his face as he lay sleeping. She broke his trust, and they were separated until Psyche could prove that she did love him, and wanted no shelter but him until the end.
You wake slowly, painfully, aware of what could have been a dream slipping away from you. For several minutes, you cannot entirely tell if you are still asleep or awake. The air is warm, a breeze blows lazy circles of air across your face. Tell me, child, when was the last time you felt enough peace to trust it was not an illusion?
Someone shifts by your side, and one glimpse of your lover’s face is all you need to know that this is no dream. For all your nightmare’s best attempts, they cannot perfectly replicate his image. Perhaps it is because he is not of their kind, the man you love, but a monster of his own creation. Your people and your spells can only do so much. They cannot fully recreate something of the Small Science, something like him. You would know. Absence made you try.
Aleksander opens his eyes slowly, dark pupils scanning the room until they land on you. Every time he wakes, you can see him start to tense until he sees you again. That is what you get for running so many times, you suppose, it makes him too knowledgeable of how easy it is to lose you.
You were never able to stay away forever, though. The longest the two of you were apart was centuries, and although those cut like a poisoned blade, they ended. You made your way to the Little Palace under the guise of Y/N Stassov, First Army cartographer and good friend of Alina Starkov, and from there on out, you were under his watch again.
In all honesty, some part of you had known from the moment your paths crossed the second time that you would not be able to leave him again without revealing yourself. Sure, your face had changed since you were the Hecari he knew in the past, but he was Aleksander and you were Y/N and you would never allow anything to part you for long. He had made mistakes, and you had tricked yourself into thinking that anyone with as many centuries under your belts as either of you could be perfectly blameless, but you were still the same couple you had always been.
In the end, the result is plain. You showed your hand and the two of you reconciled. Sure, part of that may have had to do with Alina Starkov attempting to murder you whereas Aleksander saved your life, but sometimes love needs a slight bit of motivation to pick up the pace.
The two of you are on much more solid footing now, though. If anything, you will always be united in your wrath, your protective spirit. Aleksander watches out for his Grisha, his people, and you mourn your Hellenids, your kin who have already slipped beneath the sands of time. There is no one like the two of you, and there never will be. Alina can try, but she is young, foolish, full of hopes that have yet to die. Only you and Aleksander understand how time dulls any blade. Only you and Aleksander will ever be able to complete each other.
That does not stop this whole situation from feeling somewhat impossible. You spent centuries running from him, after all, and suddenly waking up in the morning to find him sleeping next to you feels unusual. Good, but unusual. It’s what you’ve secretly been missing since the very moment you left him, but still something you never thought you would experience again.
This change in your day-to-day life could explain why you woke up so disoriented, but in truth, you fear that it might be more than that. It has been getting more difficult to tell what is real and what is fiction. Reality blends into myth into memory. What happens here and now is only a slim shade of an idea when compared to the vastness of past experience, both yours and that of your people, the Hellenids.
You had assumed that the whispering of your ghosts would trickle off into ash and nothingness when the Shadow Fold engulfed you whole, but no. If anything, it just made it worse. You were hesitating on the banks of the River Styx, so close to crossing over into the Underworld, and then Aleksander pulled you back from death and kept you there. You cannot tread that closely to your end without bringing a little part of it back with you.
You are not the only changed one. Aleksander, too, is not the same man as he was when he set out on that sandskiff. As you look at him now, you watch the early light of dawn play on the dark slices in his face, the scars from his time in the Shadow Fold after Alina Starkov abandoned both of you to die.
It had taken every ounce of your combined abilities to make it out, but both of you are changed forever now. You cannot go a moment of your day without hearing the whispering of your ancestors increased tenfold. Aleksander used merzost and is haunted by shadowy demons of his own creation.
You both had dark, deep wounds when you emerged from the Unsea, but when yours disappeared after your natural healing had run its course, Aleksander’s injuries stayed the same. You can sense how they hurt him constantly, even as he tries to hide the full extent of it from you in an attempt to maintain strength. You know him well enough to both guess that he would try to put on a brave face, and can read his body language enough to recognize the stiff movements for what they hide.
His physical appearance matters not to you. He is still yours, the man you loved centuries ago and the one you do now. If the shadows that usually billow inside of him have now decided to carve out a more visible place for themselves, so be it. You only wish that he would not have to suffer so in the process.
That is why the two of you have been scouring the Ravkan countryside in search of Grisha. The practitioners of the Small Science have been left in upheaval after the ill-fated attempt to take back control from the Lantsov king. There are few things in life you despise more than a failing, useless, greedy monarch, and not a day goes by in which you regret that the otkazat’sya fool was not already dead.
He does, however, provide you with a good opportunity to build your ranks again as the elder Lantsov son cracks down on Grisha. You and Aleksander launch venture after venture to save Heartrenders and Healers, Summoners and Durasts and everyone you can find. They’re all terribly grateful to not be dead, which only gives you more allies in this fight.
Of course this will end in a fight, how could it not? You have seen plots like this play out before. Every story runs the same course, even if the players themselves do not realize it until the end. To build a war, you must have soldiers who will die for you. Aleksander will sacrifice himself to save you, but he is one man. You want hundreds.
Until then, you have moments like this, slow glimpses of what could be a far more peaceful future if this all plays out the way you wish it. For now, you are alone with the man you love, and for this brief instance, there is nothing in this world that can bring you down.
Aleksander leans up slowly, carefully, disguising his slow hiss of pain with a question directed to you. “Did you sleep well?”
The question isn’t just a pleasant nothingness. You’ve been having nightmares as of late, snippets of what could either be memories or prophecy. If this keeps up, your mind will start to shatter. You can only hope that you’ll be able to stop that before it happens. Madness and witches do not well mix.
You sigh. “As well as could be expected. I’m still on edge from yesterday.”
Yesterday had almost gone quite badly. A group of two dozen or so Grisha had been chained in a long line and forced into the Shadow Fold at gunpoint by cowardly First Army soldiers. By the time you and Aleksander had gotten wind of what had happened, the volcra had arrived at the scene as well. 
You had fought them off, but such close proximity to the beasts had made you uneasy. Everything reminds you of what it had been like in the Shadow Fold when Alina’s light had left the two of you, how the darkness had come swooping in and left you bloody.
Aleksander had called for you to leave them, but you had insisted on saving who you could. You were jittery for the rest of the day, he could tell, but you had sworn you were fine. Perhaps he can see through you a little too well just like you with him.
Aleksander arches a brow now, likely thinking along the same lines. “So will you listen to me next time, my love? Will you let them go when it hurts you, or at least try not to disguise it from me?”
“I’ll make a deal with you,” you say as innocently as you can, “I will stop disguising my torments from you when you stop trying to pretend that those scars don’t hurt as much as they do.”
Aleksander smiles even as a fresh bout of pain turns the expression into a wince. “You drive a difficult bargain.”
“I’m known for being difficult,” you grin.
“Perhaps,” he admits, “but I like that best about you.”
It is easy, on mornings like this, to pretend that all might be well, that the two of you are not fighting a war that could be lost over something as simple as one Sun Summoner somewhere you cannot find. You have no idea if Alina Starkov has even survived, but if she did, you hope that for all the peace you wish to find with Aleksander, she will have none of it with Mal.
You and Aleksander leave your temporary shelter some time later that morning, leaving no trace that you’d been there except shadows in the corners of the rooms that fester slightly more than before. You’d heard rumors that the First Army outpost here was planning on making an example of some more Grisha near the boundary of the Shadow Fold, so that is where the two of you will be stopping first.
As dusk settles upon the area, you and Aleksander arrive upon the scene, lingering back so as not to draw unwanted attention. The two of you are technically still believed to be dead, although you doubt any smattering of soldiers could actually do so much as harm a hair on your heads. You keep your hoods up anyway. It would not do to be revealed now, not before your plan can fully come to fruition.
You narrow your eyes, straining to pick out the details in the dark night. The soldiers have put Grisha in cages, their hands bound so as to not use their abilities. The sight makes your stomach turn. Those blessed with magic should not have to die just because others are jealous of their power.
As your gaze roves from face to face, you see only weariness, fear, desolation. Aleksander had built a marvel of a world at the Little Palace, a place where all the Grisha could practice their gifts in safety. Alina claims she wants to make a better world for the Grisha, but look what she’s done. She ruined the best thing Ravkan Grisha had at peace.
You’ve almost finished scouring the captive Grisha when you notice one particular face stand out amongst the rest. It’s one you recognize, actually. It’s one you’ve been hoping to find for a while, both you and Aleksander.
You suck in a breath. “That’s– That’s Genya.”
Aleksander’s eyes harden. “It is.”
One stray glance his way and you already can guess at what he’s thinking. “We need to get her. Even if it costs us the rest. Genya can find David for us.”
Aleksander inclines his head once. “And David can fix me.”
You make a tsking sound in the back of your throat. “Men fix toys, not gods.”
He looks amused at that. “We are not gods, Y/N.”
“No,” you decide, “but we are the closest anyone will ever get to seeing them.”
Aleksander laughs, evidently pleased. “I missed your ferocity, my little soldier.”
You look at him askance. “You made me a member of your personal guard within two days of meeting me again, even before you knew it was me. I don’t know why you’re acting like this is the first time you’ve seen my ferocity in a while.”
You can just see the shadow of his smile under his hood. “And yet I still didn’t see enough of it. You left, as you might recall.”
“Yes,” you admit in a whisper, “but I came back.”
He takes your hand, interlacing your fingers with his. “I know. You always do.”
It is a statement spoken in complete calm, no trace of malice or accusation. In your eyes, it is the final proof that he has forgiven you, just as you have in turn forgiven him. Like calls to like. The two of you were never meant to be separate for long. 
Aleksander turns his gaze towards the captive Grisha once more. The First Army soldiers are watching the Shadow Fold rumble ever closer, and you can feel the terror of the Grisha prick upon your skin like needles.
“Shall we deliver them from harm, then? Shall we take back what is ours?” He asks.
You nod once. This is it, then. From this point forward, there is no going back. Everything in the past was temporary, a step in the right direction without making enough of a scene to commit to your cause. When you save these Grisha, you’ll have enough to start making real changes, to find the people you truly need and hunt down those who have betrayed you. The war will be reborn.
.Aleksander raises his arms in time with yours. Shadow monsters of merzost stalk out of the Shadow Fold, sending the First Army fleeing. Those that run are only met with spells of your creation, which pierce through their hearts like daggers. In her cage, Genya Safin fearfully raises her head, expression changing from immediate terror to slow, dense horror. She knows what the dying soldiers do not:  this is only the beginning.
series tag list: @britishbassett, @rogueanschel, @hotleaf-juice, @mxltifxnd0m, @kaqua, @nemesis729, @imma-too-many-fandoms, @cleverzonkwombatsludge, @yourabbymoore, @nemtodd-barnes1923, @heyyitsreign, @ponyboys-sunsets, @slytherinsssss, @fruitymoonbeams-blog, @lakeli, @darlinggbrekker, @rosesberose, @w1shes43, @fairyeunji, @cryinghotmess
grishaverse tag list: @deadreaderssociety, @cameronsails, @mxltifxnd0m, @story-scribbler, @retvenkos, @thatfangirl42, @amortensie, @gods-fools-heroes, @bl606dy, @auggie2000
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It genuinely frustrates me when people ship character’s with their abuser.
Particularly when the character’s entire storyline is about escaping an abusive relationship.
Particularly when the abusive relationship was founded on grooming.
Particular when the ship only exists because the reader thinks the abuser is hot, and is using the protagonist as a self-insert.
I don’t attack people over what they ship, I never have and I never will, you can ship those kind of fictional ships if you want, no, seriously, go ahead, I won’t stop or judge you, but I am asking you to be aware. Be aware that they’re unhealthy. Be aware that the ship you like was never going to be “endgame” by the author. Be aware that you have no right to bully or belittle anyone who doesn’t ship what you ship, particularly if it’s abusive. Just be aware. That’s all.
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aysegust · 1 year
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My Light In the Dark. - N.L
A/N: Okay, so this was a request and let me give you a warning... I haven't read Nikolai based books and stuff. I only read SoC and Crooked Kingdom due to something else... I want to read all of the books but It would be probably slowly in time. So this is based on S&B season 2... I hope you'll like my version of him. Have a nice reading! Request: you are having a nightmare in middle of night, you walks as you knock the door, you hear unlock it was nikolai, he was half naked, he seem concern about you, he might be worried as he comfort you as well. *fluffiness* Warnings: A bit angst at start but fluff in the end :) sobachka... Word Count: 1,6K
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You were running. As the moonlight caressed your cheek, you were running so fast like your whole life depended on it. 
 What you felt was so strong. You felt cold sweated fear so deeply as you ran to find him. You were too caught up in the idea that he was just laying on the ground with pale skin, and eyes that shine so brightly went just blank looking at the sky.  You were scared about the idea of losing him. 
So you ran, you ran to find him to help him. But you couldn’t find him in that damned forest of Ravka as you searched for him. Suddenly, you found yourself in the Little Palace. As you looked at your sides, you saw lights slowly numbed. You didn’t know that you held your breath. You’ve never felt that much fear before. As you searched through Little Palace, you instantly stopped by the dining hall.  
You held the doorknob as you pushed it aside as you entered the door. You saw floors covered in bloody footsteps. As you walked quickly inside, you saw a man laying on the floor. You felt your dry throat as you looked at him. 
 You were in pure shock as you froze at your place. You tried to go to him but something was blocking your way. Darkness flooded into the room, and as you turned behind, you saw Kirigan. “You…” You whispered with such full of rage. “You did this to him!” You yelled as you stepped closer to the boy you adored secretly, laying on the floor, without moving, without consciously. “He is not dead, but will be.” You heard Kirigan’s low but sharp voice. 
“As I told you earlier, you should’ve followed my order.” He sighed. “Instead, you betrayed me, to what?” He smirked. “To take sides with the Sun Summoner?” 
 You looked at him with disgust. “I’ll never follow you. You are the reason why all of us feel pain in this country!” You yelled at him. “You used Grisha’s! You used us.” You felt rage in your veins as you held your hands up to move them in a. sync way, you felt paralyzed. 
“You can’t kill me.” He said, then you hear a soft whimper. You turned your gaze to the floor as you saw him. Nikolai. Whispering your name sweetly but with pain. “No!” You screamed. 
 You wake up in a cold sweat. You looked around and you saw nothing but your room surrounding you. Nothing about darkness, just a soft candle lighting the room. You got up from the bed and you looked at yourself in the mirror. 
 It was just a dream. You thought. However, when you looked in the mirror in front of you, you felt pathetic. You slowly walked to your restroom to wash your face, you felt the uneasy feeling didn’t go away. So, you exited your room to wander into the palace to find him. 
 Nikolai and your relationship weren’t exclusive. Well, you weren’t a thing. You were under his command so many years as you knew him as Sturmhond first. You were a Grisha with Corporalki powers. When you were young, they came and took you from your parents. They tested you and found out as you were a Heartrender. You didn’t want to be apart from your parents but they took you away.
 Your parents didn’t want you to be tested. However, they were late to figure out your powers. They wanted to hide you from ruthless people, from demanding Grisha’s… But when you grew enough to find a way to escape the Little Palace you took it and then your journey to earning money and finding a place to stay was on his side. He accepted you, into his crew as you found yourself in his ship, improving your skills with Tamar and Tolya, and felt accepted by him. 
 He wasn’t demanding, or he wasn’t cruel and greedy to you. He was anything opposite what your parents told you about the Lantsov family. He was genuine, sweet, boyishly handsome, and brave but so flirtatious. 
 In the meantime, as you were in his crew, you liked him through the years as you get to know him. However, you learned he has a flirtatious side, of course. So you didn’t let loose him over your misunderstanding crush on him. So, you stayed silent. 
 The rest was history. 
 As you felt yourself deep in thought, you didn’t encounter the idea that you were standing in front of his bedroom door. It was the middle of the night, so if someone would see you it would be probably some servant or guard. 
 You lightly knocked on the door, with shaky hands. When you didn’t hear something from the inside, you slowly turned away as you sighed. 
 When you heard a click from the door, you instantly turned around and saw him. He was confused to see you, and when you looked at him, you saw his shirtless body. You immediately turned your gaze onto the floor embarrassed about not respecting his privacy in the middle of the night. 
 Nikolai sweetly, smirked at you when you lowered your gaze and your blushed cheeks in the dim light. He broke the silence as you looked at him again. “Are you okay?” He asked. Finally, seeing circles under your eyes and when he looked at your eyes, he saw it was glossy and red. 
 He felt scared as he saw you like that. He immediately held your wrist as you were frightened. “Hey, hey… Y/N look at me.” He whispered and he was slowly pulling you inside his room to not be seen on the outside. You didn’t speak as he talked. “What happened? Are you hurt?” He checked you for a visible wound but he couldn’t find any. “No, I’m okay.” Your voice came out weaker than you expected. 
 You felt his warm and soft hand stroke your cheek, as you slowly closed your eyes. You felt his worried gaze towards you. “I,” you sighed. “I was having a nightmare.” You finally admitted as you opened your eyes and met with his caring eyes. You felt so safe around him.  
“It’s okay, you are safe now.” He said as he leaned forward to you. “Nothing can harm you, I’m here.” You suddenly hugged him as he whispered those words to you. He smiled to himself. “Of course, you don’t need someone to protect you, you are the strongest person that I’ve ever seen, darling.” He said with a genuine concern for you. 
 You stayed still in his arms, feeling better and loved because of him. His presence always calmed your chaos. And he was the light of your life. He was shinier than the Sun Summoner. 
 But it wasn’t only you, he thought about it like that too. Nikolai always adored you. In his eyes, you were shining so bright than Alina. You were his light, his sun as you always made him feel appreciated, alright, and safe. He deeply knew he felt something more about you. 
 You were always in his mind. Sometimes you were whispering sweet things to him or you were bickering about a silly plan he made and well, he enjoyed thinking about you. More than that, he was glad that he found you. With you, he could be himself, more than just a boyishly handsome ‘sobachka’ prince of Ravka. or brave Sturmhond. He could be himself around you… He was in love with you. 
 He slowly caressed your hair to calm you. “Do you feel better, milaya?” You nodded your head onto his neck. You leaned away from him as you met his gaze. “I saw you.” You paused. “In my nightmare.” You looked deeply into his confused glances. “You were… You were bleeding and,” You closed your eyes as you relived the nightmare. 
 He held your hands immediately. “Y/N, it’s not real, I’m here.” You didn’t open your eyes. However, you heard his heartbeats. It was calming your nerves. You continued without opening your eyes. “You were laying on the floor and I tried to help you, but… I saw Darkling.” As you opened your eyes to meet his gaze you saw his confused gaze turn into anger. “Did he- come to you? Like how?” He was pissed off about hearing Kirigan destroying your night. 
“No, he can’t… I don’t know.” You looked at him again. “We don’t have any connection.” He felt relieved. “I’m here and I’m not interested in going away anywhere from you.” He smiled at you. You looked at him in disbelief. 
 He smirked at your shocked glances. “You know, I am not this intense with anyone, right?” He asked you as you gave him a confused glance. He put the hair that was touching your face with his hand behind your ear. “I adore you, Y/N.” He said with a precious smile. “And I want my days to be filled with you.” He paused. “You are the reason that I’m still fighting. You are my hope to be a better king. My heart to be a better person and I…” You squeezed his hand. “I love you.” He said as he leaned toward you. 
“Nikolai…” You smiled into his mouth. “I have always loved you, and I always will.” He kissed you then. With a kiss that held so much passion and love. You heard his quickened heartbeat as he kissed you so deeply, so sweetly and so gorgeously. 
Oh, you love Nikolai Lantsov. You love every little detail about him. His fragile but strong nature… His amazing heart and his gorgeous soul… You adore his jokes and his braveness. 
 Nikolai meant everything to you. He meant home, he meant you. 
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binbonsescape · 1 year
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Songs for You | The Bowery Ballroom - New York (February 10, 2023)
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rainingriversofyou · 2 months
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Shadow And Bone - Artist: vinc_ry
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omgkatherine01 · 1 year
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Creatures of the Night - Masterlist
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Summary: Running away from the orphanage home you grew up since you were a baby, you wanted to search your place in the big world. But at a rainy stormy night you found yourself pulled into a different universe. You were found by a local gang, who decided to help you get back to your world, only to discover you were apart of the world you were pulled into.
The discovery of powers you didn't knew you had all your life and to find out you were part of their universe had pulled a change in the plans quickly. You were dragged into a plan of kidnapping a target of theirs and on the way, you will be returned to your real family.
However, during your journey through the Fold, you found yourself developing some feelings to the gang's con-artist leader who was suffering from haphephobia.
Pairing: Kaz Brekker x female reader
Masterlist (requests are currently open for now)
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Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11 coming soon
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