The Shadow Summoner

Alina

The man who had seen my powers the day before rushed onto the training grounds and ordered a medik for Alina. He whirled on the squaller and whisper-yelled at her.

He was so distracted, I doubted he would notice, much less recognize me.

The dark-haired squaller's face went 3 shades of red.

The medik finally arrived and they loaded Alina onto a stretcher and carried her toward the castle, the tall man following swiftly behind.

I decided it was best to approach the squaller later, when she was calmer.

Botkin dismissed the class for the day, and as the students began clearing the training grounds, I eavesdrop on the conversation between the people next to me. 

"I heard Baghra is having trouble with the Sun Summoner, apparently she can't even summon without an enhancer."

"How did you even find that out?"

"I have my ways," the student replied mischievously to their friend. 

I suppress a giggle. My sister can't even use her power on her own? embarrassing.

I finally find Armis, and she looks distraught.

"Armis, are you okay?"

She looks up, startled, "Y-yeah I'm fine."

I raise my eyebrows," No you aren't, please, you know, you can tell me anything."

"It's just, I was hoping to find my sister here, but after the attack my father had her sent back home. She wasn't even supposed to come at first, but she begged my father."

"Oh, that's unfortunate, maybe you can send her a letter? Or a postcard?"

Armis nods," Yeah, that sounds nice actually."

She sends a servant to get stationary, and I help her to write a letter to her sister. I offer to write it down for her because her hands are shaking, but she declines and tells me," I want to write it in Zemini, she has trouble reading Ravkan." 

I smile softly at that, I miss being that close to my sister.

Me and Armis sleep in her room, apparently talk of a sun summoner has brought a lot of delegates from the other countries to Ravka. Meaning that there was no room for me to stay in, and Armis didn't feel comfortable with me being too far away from her.

A few weeks pass this way, I notice Alina glowing like every Grisha does after using their power, so I assume she must be getting better at controlling it. I completely forget about talking to the squaller, who I notice is called Zoya.

One morning as I leave the cafeteria, I run straight into Mal. Oh shit I hope he doesn't recognize me.

He apologizes quickly and continues walking down the hallway.

The curious person I am, I follow him.

If he notices I'm following him, he doesn't say anything. Eventually I start to recognize some of the decor, from the first day I was here. Ahead of me, Mal opens a large door, revealing a war room that I vaguely remember, and sitting at the head of the large table, is the man I saw on my first day at the palace, the man who had been staring at my shadows was now staring at me. In my daze, I had forgotten the part about sneaking, and I was now standing in the doorway.

***********

So one chapter a day is a lot easier for me so that's what I'm gonna do.

I hope I'm not the only one who is mad that in the show The Darkling just said his name so nonchalantly like- in the book it was a big deal. Anyway thanks for reading <3

:)