Deadly Obsession (The Darking x Oc)

Chapter 3: Powers In Practice

A.N: There is a more significant time jump here. It has now been five years since Karina joined the Grisha in Os Alta, meaning it has been four years since the previous chapter. Karina is now thirteen, and Feydor is sixteen.

'Dear Alina, and Mal,

It has been a crazy few weeks, so sorry I haven't been able to respond to you quicker than I have. I'm glad to hear that the two of you will be getting out of the orphanage soon, even if you will be joining the first army. I'm getting much more efficient at healing though now. I can now sense someone's injury from up to twenty paces away, and I'm getting better at healing infections and illnesses. I spent most of my time last week patching up etherealki who were injured while preparing for the upcoming festival. The General asked some of the students to perform for those attending.

I'm almost glad that Healers don't have to perform, although one of my teachers did say that it would be beneficial if I could watch the show, to see how the healers deal with injuries quickly, in more serious cases, but I'm not sure. Maybe I will go, as long as I don't have to interact with any of the officials there.

I keep hearing rumours that the war with Shu Han is getting worse by the day, and more and more troops leave the Little Palace every day. It makes me wonder what it's going to be like out there. I'm glad to know that you'll be training as a cartographer, hopefully you'll be safer than if you were a soldier. Let me know how Mal's getting on with everything, and be safe out there.

Much Love, Karina.'

I sighed, signing off my letter to my best friends. I had been so excited all those years ago, when I had learned that I could communicate with my former best friends. But it was much more difficult to keep up a strong relationship with someone when you hadn't seen them in almost five years. We still sent letters to each other as regularly as possible, but even I was noticing that the letters had become less and less frequent. I wasn't sure if this was due to us both becoming more and more busy with studies, or simply because our friendship bond wasn't as strong as it had been when I left.

I still loved my two friends, and I knew what they vaguely looked like, thanks to Alina's rough sketches she sometimes sent along with the letters. I, however, had no way of informing the pair of how I looked, never having been a particularly good artist. I knew that once they were fifteen, they would be carted off to the closest training grounds, before having to join the first army when they turned sixteen, as every orphan from Keramzin did. It was oddly calming knowing that I would be graduating at the same time that they would be joining the army, it gave us something in common.

Things had been going really well in the Little Palace, and I had come out of my shell quite a lot, making me unsure if Mal and Alina would recognise me if we ever found each other again. I was much more confident now, and many of the grisha looked up to me, even though I was still quite young. All of my teachers had commented on how naturally talented I appeared to be, and I worked as hard as I could to be the best student in my year.

Surprisingly, this made me even more popular, and many students often asked me for help on their exams, or simply if they needed a book recommendation. And it wasn't simply corporalki who were asking me for advice. Seeing as I had read books on both summoners and fabrikators, I often had students in blue and purple jackets asking me questions if they were struggling. This was especially prudent in the younger and newer students, as my knowledge wasn't as helpful as that from someone who shared their special powers, but they all claimed that I was nicer and much more helpful than anyone else in the school.

However, I was very glad to state that Feydor and I were still the best of friends. Our close, almost sibling-like bond had grown so much stronger over the years, and we often did work together, taking similar subjects, seeing as we belonged to the same order. Our friend groups also managed to merge, with some people his age joining us, as well as a few members of my class. It was very exciting, but also scary, as he would be graduating soon, at the end of this year, and he told me that his teachers thought he would be well suited for field work.