Sound Your Name (Oh, My Darling)

16. Interlude - Ivan

Ivan was one of the Grisha who came to the Little Palace as an older child, he was nearly eleven.

His family had hid him in the cellar of their small estate, provided by the Lantsovs for their services to the Crown, everytime the examiners came by. For him to be Grisha was a shame upon his family's name, and yet all his family had died fighting a never-ending war leaving him behind with nothing when his mother passed.

When the examiners came to a nearby village, he broke out of the cellar once more where his visiting uncle had placed him. He stole rags off a pauper's clothes line, leaving behind his own and went forward to present himself with the middle name only his mother called him.

Only the friend, Fedyor, he met in the carriage on the way to the Little Palace and the General would know that there was one remaining member of his hereditary family alive.

As the years passed though, Ivan would come to look toward the General as a pillar growing up in the Little Palace. Those who had grown up in the walls of the Little Palace might have looked upon him as a father figure, but Ivan viewed him as a role model of the man he'd like to become. Stalwart in his determination to help his people, with a single minded focus that couldn't be distracted by anything else.

As Ivan grew stronger and gained more responsibilities many looked upon him warily but his friend Fedyor stuck faithfully at his side. Even when it seemed his friend nearly took a different approach to their Corporalki training his respect toward Ivan didn't falter.

Fedyor was someone Ivan could always rely on. A deep-seated fear would keep him awake some nights, as he began to fear he'd lose all he'd come to care for. There were always numerous fair-weather friends, and the others just didn't seem to stick by his side. Fedyor did.

When they found out about soulmates, the two Corporalki would speak about the possibilities of their own. Ivan found himself even able to tease Fedyor about the kind of person that could put up with his happy-go-lucky attitudes every day of the week. While Fedyor would laugh in turn and tell how he was sure Ivan's soulmate would be able to make syrinki like his mother used to make.

He was fifteen when it happened.

Ivan had dreamed of two girls running through a field laughing, then marveling at the evening stars but by morning there were only flames and screams. A horrible ache echoing in his chest and when he woke his cheeks were wet with tears. He had pushed it to the back of his mind, even when he was called to the General's quarters that day. Fedyor was already within them a frown upon his features, a hand massaging his chest as if he felt the same ache Ivan had felt.

The ache would always be there for their tethers broke with their soulmates deaths, but in its place a new bond formed. A gift the twin sisters somehow had bestowed upon the soulmates they left behind, two brothers in everything but blood.

After that fateful day, Ivan would turn his admiration into a fierce obsession of his own.

He decided he would become unmovable like the General.

It wasn't until Ivan became the General's personal Heartrender that he saw a bit beneath the veneer, a veneer he found to not be as thick as some might think. Beneath the emotionless facade was a passionate man who held great value in each life in his hands.

Ivan would watch his General pace, within the privacy of his own tent, in front of his desk laden with maps and letters from their spies. He would watch as he saw the General break when a mission went awry and lives were lost, when lives could not be saved. It was then he learned the true reason the Shadow Summoner had a personal Heartrender.