My Name Is Adela Kirigan (A Shadow and Bone Season 1 Fanfiction)

Chapter 7: Don't You Wanna Know If You're Grisha?

Several years ago (the orphanage in Keramzin)... 

'Three of them,' the young man, Forich, said, as the younger children gathered around, listening to what would happen when the Grisha examiners came by to test the children. 'In special uniforms, all done up and regal. They put you in a line and they go one at a time.' 

'How many questions is it?' A young blonde-haired boy in the front asked Forich. 

'It's not that kind of test,' the older boy scoffed. 'And they've got this device. It's all special made, like. They prick your arm.' 

'Does it hurt?' a dark haired girl asked up in the back.

'Only for a bit. Then you find out if you're Grisha, and you go and live in the Little Palace and eat sweet melon and Kerch candies, wear special coats.' A younger Alina Starkov leaned at the door, watching Forich tell his tale to the younger children. 

'Has anyone from here been picked?' the same blonde haired boy asked. 

'Once. First year in. Lucian. The little pyro was an Inferni, of course.' 

'I want to be a Tidemaker,' the girl up back said. 

'I bet I'm a Squaller,' the boy said cockily. 

'You break wind, you don't make it,' the older boy said. The small gathering of children laughed. 

'How does the test work?' Mal Oretsev asked, coming up behind Alina, cradling an injured hand. She looked at it. 

'For you?' the older boy scoffed. 'For you, it won't. They don't do the test if you're sick or injured. Thanks to your little scrap with dinner, you're gonna have to skip this year, mutt.' Just then the headmistress came in, wrapping her apron and tying it, a nervous look on her face. 

'Children, visitors.' Each child filed out of the room quietly, with Forich taking up the back. Before the matronly woman could see Alina and Mal, though, the young girl grabbed the hand of her best friend and they took off to the meadow just outside of the orphanage. Lying on their bellies, they watched the silent house of the orphanage, just in case anyone came to try and find them. Someone like the headmistress. 

'She didn't see us,' Alina said. 'We're safe.' The two laid in the grass, panting from their running, keeping a close eye on the house. Mal turned to her. 

'Don't you wanna know if you're Grisha?' the boy asked. She slowly looked at him, brown eyes meeting brown. 

'Not if we can't go together.' The matronly woman walked out of the building, and the two children ducked below the tall grass. 

'Mal! Alina!' Then it was silent. The two children flopped onto their backs, and after a quiet moment, their eyes met, and Mal's hand enclosed Alina's in a gentle grip. 

Present time... 

Mal's eyes barely opened as they met Alina's sleeping face as she lay unconscious on the deck of the skiff next to him. He reached for her hand, but was lifted up onto a stretcher just as his hand skimmed hers. Zoya, another of the Grisha, walked up to Alina's unconscious body. 

'Healer!' she called. A woman in a red coat knelt by Alina's feet. 

'How many more of us?' the Healer asked.