Witching Hour, Nikolai Lantsov

frequent comments/questions (or: a little q&a)

I really hope that I don't come off as rude or condescending in this, that's honestly not my intention! But since my anxiety has told my that it might after publishing this: here's a little q&a thingy of frequent comments/questions in this fic!

Q: OMG! Does her last name (Alekson) come from Aleksander?

So, this one is a bit on me I suppose since I wrote this fanfic universe for the book canon and even though I know the whole "Alek-son" idea could come up, I thought it would be obvious, but thanks to the show it's not so much anymore. Aside from the fact that the origin of Vera's made up/new last name has been addressed in a flashback (I think in chapter 10 but no promises) ... not to be rude but how?

Because in book-canon literally nobody but Baghra (and much later Alina) know his name. The Darkling is known ONLY as the Darkling. The name Aleksander will not once be known to Vera in connection to the Darkling. The name Alekson has nothing to do with him - especially since Vera chose it within five minutes of ever being in contact with the Darkling/the Second Army/Ravka.

Q: Is Vera THE princess of Fjerda??

I'm always careful in how I word anything regarding Vera's background and Fjerda in the fic since sometimes my readers take the wrong things as foreshadowing and run with it 😅 but since a lot of people are commenting this I really wanna address this (much more vaguely than the other questions but still).

I know I am changing and adjusting a lot of Fjerdan culture, etc and I will continue to do so more the further we get into the fic. For one, I started planning this long before RoW came out and even before I read KoS. So, I knew from the beginning I could either change my plans or adjust the canon Fjerdan stuff to fit my fic. I chose the latter. So, stuff from the books WILL change but I'm still trying my best to keep the skeleton of the whole thing established.

Since a lot of people have repeatedly asked if Vera's father is the king of Fjerda (making her the princess of Fjerda), let's fact check stuff that is canon to both the books and this fic:

- the Fjerdan royal family has the family name Grimjer
- the king is unnamed but the Queen's name is Agathe and their son's name is Rasmus (rip to that second son that popped out of nowhere but he doesn't exist in this fic). Also, it's made very clear that they had trouble conceiving and birthing a living child. Rasmus' only made it so far because they had a Grisha Healer help the Queen during her pregnancy with him. This is also one of the reasons why I thought it odd to find out that there was another son but I digress!

In contrast:
- Vera's family name by birth is Kvalheim, which she gets from her father
- she originally had four siblings. That's five children her mother has birthed and raised. They've also all been named already and not a single one of them is called Rasmus
- it's repeatedly mentioned that her father is a Drüskelle commander and also alluded to being a higher-up in Fjerda and that's why Vera was so afraid of him once she found out she was a Grisha

I'll leave you all with that information💕

Q: Who's gonna tell Fedyor about Ivan???

✨nobody️✨️

As I've mentioned many times before - this fic is canon to ONLY the books. Not the show. And as much as I adore Fedyor/Ivan and they will 100% be there if I ever write an AU of this based on the show - they're not in here. That's mostly because I absolutely detest book!Ivan and also because Vera would not have killed Fedyor's boyfriend no matter how much she can't stand him??

Like, idk if I should be impressed or worried thar so many of you all just accepted that she would, but she would not. If Ivan dies in the show (it's never shown I think so there's a chance? idk) it won't be by Vera's hand.

But since they're not together in the fic Vera had no issues going all stabby and killing him!

That's all for now <3 If I see any other repeating questions/comments I might add to this!