ECLIPSE, grishaverse

vi. showtime

                    YELENA STARTED TRAINING WITH Baghra at nights, she guessed the old woman didn't want to offend the Darkling so they would meet when no one else was around. If she was honest, the blonde woman was a pain in her side, but she was good at her job and Yelena seemed to work her best when she was under pressure or angry.

"You have potential, girl, not only in matters of power. But you have to be aware of greedy people." she said one of those nights after they finished training.

"What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men." she quoted from one of the many book she'd read that week.

"Very well. You have the wits, but keep your eyes wide open at night."

Baghra's warning gave her chills and she suddenly felt cold. She was about to ask what that meant but the old one was already heading back to her hut. That night, Yelena locked her door.

With the awakening of her powers came back her appetite and the sleepless nights finally caught up with her. She was now healthier than ever. She even started having breakfast at the hall, sometimes with Fedyor, other times with her sister and Etherealki friends who now seemed to like her. Yelena hung out a lot with David too, well it isn't hanging out if we are both quiet, is it? But that changed when the man in purple clothes started sharing his experiments with her.

"These are for you." he said and gave her a pair of fingerless black leather gloves with silver designs, they were lined with little mirrors -the ones she saw him work with the first night in the pavilion. "They would make it easier to split one beam into two."

With a flick of her wrist and summoning, she could redirect the light and make different forms or flashes. Not that she needed them because she was getting better every day, but she was still so deeply grateful.

"Thank you, David." she said before putting them in the table again, besides the book she was reading. Yelena leaned in closer to the man to look at his journal and what he was currently working on. "May I ask what's that?"

"This? Oh, it's a rare chemical. If you mixed it with this other one you can make.." he started rambling and explaining Fabrikator things she thought she would find boring but that wasn't the case, it was rather amazing how fast and meticulous David's mind and hands worked, never missing a detail, creating something unexpected, unique, always in the move, almost like hers but with smart things and without the dark thoughts. He even showed Yelena his journal, and she felt incredibly blessed to be trusted like that.

The end of the season was getting closer, so was the winter fête. Genya said it was the most lavish party of all, every noble family and high court officer would attend, along with military heroes, foreign dignitaries, and the tsarevitch, the eldest son of the King, the Crown Prince Vasily. Yelena remembered seeing him riding a white horse around the Palace, but she didn't know much of him. Besides that he was more-or-less handsome, but he was still too much like the King.

"Probably drunk, he devotes his time to hunting, horses and imbibing. Drives the Queen mad." Genya said.

"Makes sense. Ravka is at war, he should probably be more concern about with matters of state." her sister said.

"Oh, she doesn't care about that. She just wants him to find a bride instead of spending mounds of gold in ponies."

"What about the younger one?" Yelena asked while holding her cup of tea.

"Sobachka?"

"You can't call a royal prince 'puppy'." Alina said, laughing.

"That's what everyone calls him." the red-head lowered her voice, her gossip swift now on. "And there are rumors that he isn't strictly royal."