The twins - A grishaverse Darklina fanfic

Chapter 11

The twins sat solemnly on two chairs that were in their fathers tent, not daring to make a noise after the lecture they had received for disobeying him, each of them staring at the floor, not moving a muscle. They had been sat in silence like this for the last hour and a half, not sparing so much as a glance at each other afraid they would make noise and anger their father further. 

The twins noticed the walls of the tent begin to darken, only slightly but the change in atmosphere was still very much noticeable. The Darkling however, did not seem to realize he was doing this. Kyra looked up to see her father scribbling away at something, it was clear he was frustrated, the only sound they could hear was his quill scratching at the paper with much force, indicating to her, he was irritated, which must be why the shadows seemed to swirl around the tent. Kyra then moved her gaze over to her sister, who was already looking back at her.

Aelia noticed the question in her sisters eyes, and simply shrugged her shoulders, she didn't know what to do either. 

The twins went back to staring at the floor in silence, they did not want to say anything about the shadows to their father, scared he would discipline them again, but the darkness wasn't too bad, the shadows were simply swirling around on the floor, they had not made the tent much darker.

That changed however, as time passed.

The Darkling seemed to grow more and more irritated at his work, and as his frustration grew, so did the darkness of the tent. The shadows started moving upwards on the walls, circling the furniture, circling the twins. In another scenario maybe the shadows would have looked protective circling the young girls, but the twins felt nothing but fear. Almost threatened by the ribbons of darkness flowing around them.

Finally, out of pure terror, Kyra had the confidence to break the silence. "Papa?" was all she said, uncharacteristically quiet, it was as if she was scared of her father hearing her, but more scared of her father not hearing her.

"What did I tell you about wanting silence?" The Darkling answered, his tone icy. "I told you what would happen if I was disturbed, and last I checked you were not in dang-" The last part of his sentence died out as he turned to see his daughters holding their knees into their chests, cowering and hiding away from the tendrils of darkness swirling around them. 

Automatically he called back the shadows, allowing light to once again return to the tent. Slowly the twins unfurled from their previous position, and this time it was Aelia who spoke.

"We sorry Papa, we no want make noise, but dark scary." The young summoner stated, head hung low, eyes looking down at the floor, she seemed almost ashamed that she had disappointed her father. Kyra holding the same stance as her sister.

When the twins were like this, it was hard, even for the darkling to tell them apart. With their heads down, and they way they were holding themselves, it was difficult to feel like one was not seeing double.

The Darkling move forward and crouched down Infront of his daughters, he lifted their heads up with his fingers and made them look him in the eyes. "Listen to me," he started, "I never ever want either of you to feel afraid of me, if something is bothering or scaring you, tell me so I may fix it. I do not enjoy being harsh and having to punish you, but what you did today was not acceptable. I need you to learn to listen to me because I know what's best for you. Now, I still want you two to stay here with me, but that does not mean you are not allowed to do anything. I will allow you two to talk to each other, but quietly, and if you wish, you may summon, now I must get back to my work."

After that the darkling moved back to his desk to continue his work whilst the girls went off to the back of the tent and began to talk amongst themselves.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour had passed, and not much had changed, until The Darkling stood up and went outside of the tent. The twins could see the shadow of his silhouette through the tent door and could also hear him murmuring to one of the Oprichniki outside the tent flap. The twins decided to move closer to hear better, until they were right in front of the entrance, ears pressed against the tent flap and still they could only hear snippets of what their father was telling the guard.

"Alexi... heartrender... Oprichniki... Leonid and Dima" they heard the low voice of their father say.

Not a second later he walked back in to the tent, not giving the twins a chance to get away from the opening, this caused the twins to fall over when their father entered the tent.

"Care to tell me what you were doing? From where I am standing it looks to me as if you were spying, correct me if I'm wrong?" The Darkling said, hovering over his daughters, an amused grin gracing his face.

The twins stared up at him, eyes wide, mouths gaping. They said absolutely nothing. The Darkling let out a low chuckle, clearly amused at their reactions to getting caught.

"It's alright, I am not upset with you, its natural for children to be curious. However, I want you both to convince me why you were not in the wrong, and why you should not be in trouble because I caught you." 

There was a reason and a calculated move behind everything the Darkling does. And the Darkling was not doing this because he thought it would be a fun game for the twins and felt he needed a laugh. He was doing this because he wanted not only to train the twins with their power from a young age, but train them with everything else as well. If everything went according to his plan, he would be King of Ravka soon, and they would be princesses, who would grow up in court. 

They needed to start learning everything from a young age, including how to twist things to their advantage and get out of difficult situations, especially since they would no doubt be cornered by some duke or count in the future, no matter how hard he would try to keep that away from them.

A minute passed of the twins thinking before Kyra finally broke the silence.

"We not do anything wrong." She began, her voice slightly wavery as she started but it steadied as she continued. "Papa never said we not 'lowed go to door."

 Catching on to what her sister was saying, Aelia continued. "Ya Ya, Papa only said not 'lowed go out of tent, and we never go out tent."

"You not 'lowed say we in trouble cause we do nothing wrong!" Kyra finished, and with that, the twins stood up and stared at him defiantly.

"Very well, you are correct, you did not do anything wrong so I will not do anything to punish you, however, you need not spy on me, if there is something I feel you need to know, I will tell you." The Darkling finished, looking at his daughter with a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

Not one minute after, a Heartrender and two Oprichniki walked into the tent.