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Everyone gone. You hear them, but you can't see them. Yes. Stop it! I cannot. It happens to me, too. It's happening right now.

1. The fact that the blood exchanges between them during their past love affair helped to seed it, and like any seed, it just grew over time to the full bloom it is at now, long before Daniel was turned, and

2. Armand's status as one of the most skilled Mind Gift users among vampires on the planet. I think a part of it is a manifestation of Armand's will and desire to be alone with Daniel. To be with him alone, and no one else in the world. And on Daniel's end of it, that is what Armand became for him in the books during their romance, which was Daniel's whole world.

I don't care if they both think it's fucked, I think it's beautiful. 😭

IN THE SUMMER, they endured long hours of chores followed by even longer hours of lessons in stifling classrooms.

<<…>>

In the winter, the Duke left for his city house in Os Alta, and as the days grew shorter and colder, the teachers grew lax in their duties, preferring to sit by the fire and play cards or drink kvas.

<<…>>

“There are just the two this year, then?” said a woman’s low voice. They peered through the railing of the balcony to the room below. Two of the Grisha sat by the fire: a handsome man in blue and a woman in red robes with a haughty, refined air. The third, a young blond man, ambled about the room, stretching his legs. “Yes,” said Ana Kuya. “A boy and a girl, the youngest here by quite a bit. Both around eight, we think.”

/Shadow and Bone, Before/

As I walked, I took in the green and gold smells of the autumn wood, the soft breeze at my back.

<<…>>

When we’d first started our military service a year ago, Mal had visited me almost every night. But he hadn’t come by in months.

<<…>>

We’d spent more than ten years of our lives in Keramzin, but usually I got the impression that Mal wanted to forget everything about the place, maybe even me.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 1/

The Corporalnik reached out a hand to stop him. “This is a waste of time. We should proceed immediately to—” “Take your hand off me, bloodletter,” the captain snapped and shook his arm free. For a moment, the Corporalnik stared at him, her eyes dangerous, then she smiled coldly and bowed. “Da, kapitan.” I felt the hair on my arms rise. The captain disappeared inside the tent. We waited. I glanced nervously at the Corporalnik, who had apparently forgotten her feud with the captain and was scrutinizing me once again. She was young, maybe even younger than I was, but that hadn’t stopped her from confronting a superior officer. Why would it? She could kill the captain where he stood without ever raising a weapon. I rubbed my arms, trying to shake the chill that had settled over me.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 3/

“My amplifier,” Ivan said with pride. “The claws from the forepaw of a Sherborn bear. I killed it myself when I left school and joined the Darkling’s service.” He leaned back in his seat and tucked the chain into his collar.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 4/

When we entered the huge domed hall, it was crowded with Grisha in robes of crimson, purple, and darkest blue. Most of them looked to be around my age, but a few older Grisha were gathered in a corner. Despite the silver in their hair and their lined faces, they were strikingly attractive. In fact, everyone in the room was unnervingly good-looking.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 6/

“A school?” I asked. Genya nodded. “When a Grisha’s talent is discovered, the child is brought here for training. It’s where nearly all of us learned the Small Science.”

<<…>>

I looked back across the water to the school. “What happens when they finish?” “They become members of the Second Army. Many are sent to the great houses to serve with noble families, or they’re sent to serve with the First Army on the northern or southern front, or near the Fold. The best are chosen to remain at the Little Palace, to finish their education and join the Darkling’s service.”

<<…>>

I’d lived at Keramzin for most of my life, but I’d never felt I belonged there. And even after a year, the same had been true for the King’s Army.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 8/

While I suffered with Baghra, the other Grisha were studying advanced theory, languages, military strategy. Apparently, this was all to prepare for when they left the Little Palace next summer. Most of them would travel to the Fold or to the northern or southern front to assume command positions in the Second Army. But the greatest honor was to be asked to travel with the Darkling as Ivan did.

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 9/

I was sitting at breakfast in the domed hall when the main doors blew open and a group of unfamiliar Grisha entered. I didn’t pay them much attention. Grisha in the Darkling’s service were always coming and going at the Little Palace, sometimes to recover from injuries received at the northern or southern front, sometimes on leave from other assignments.

<<…>>

“Zoya,” muttered Marie. “She was a year ahead of us at school and she’s horrible.”

<<…>>

I took in the silver embroidery on Zoya’s cuffs, the glossy perfection of her black hair, the big blue eyes fringed by impossibly dark lashes. She was almost as beautiful as Genya. I thought of Mal and felt a pang of pure jealousy shoot through me. But then I realized that Zoya had been stationed at the Fold. If she and Mal had… well, she might know if he was there, if he was all right. I pushed my plate away. The prospect of asking Zoya about Mal made me a little nauseated.

<<…>>

“I missed you, too,” Zoya said. “It’s so good to be back at the Little Palace. You can’t imagine how busy the Darkling’s kept me. But I’m being rude. I don’t think I’ve met your friend.”

/Shadow and Bone, Chapter 11/

So…

The otkazats'ya drafted in (early) autumn, the Grisha — in (early) summer. Zoya's lying about the Darkling's attention (of course) because she just had been stationed at the Fold, while Grisha in the Darkling's service traveling directly with him/on his orders.

Most interesting part is the Corporalnik girl, who's guessed to be younger than Alina but still escorted her, while Grisha in the officer training and Zoya guessed to be around her age (since opposite isn't stated) and this is an assumption for a gap in whole year of active service.

And nothing wants to add up here!

Because if regular Grisha and otkazats'ya are drafted at the same age, then the Corporalnik girl would be the same age as Sergei, Marie, Nadia & co, which is wrong ❌

If regular Grisha drafted a year younger than otkazats'ya, and the officer training lasted 2 years, then the Corporalnik girl is younger than both Alina and Sergei, Marie, Nadia & co ✅

We can start from Alina- that one's clearest.

Arrived to Keramzin around 8, because Grisha visit every year, spent 10+ years there. Served for a year. That makes her 19 at least (Wasting sickness aside- she should be older as a malnourished child guessed to be eight.).

(I've always wondered if they count training to service? Or how long does basic training take? You can't obviously use a bunch of disorganized peasants, so when are they considered soldiers?)

The Corporalnik is just an ordinary Grisha under 19, already actively serving. Most of other Grisha serving at the Fold are young.

Officer trained Grisha are assumed to be around Alina's age.

Zoya is a year older than officer-trained Grisha still studying, which would make her freshly out of the same level of education.

(BUT do we have a confirmation she WAS an officer before her duology? Does she need to be one to blow a skiff in certain direction? Being the main Squaller isn't the same as being in charge, it could just mean she's the strongest as an amplified blowhard.)

How did we get to that year gap between Grisha and normies?

If regular Grisha are drafted at Alina's age- which is nineteen plus here (So much to Nikolai defending fourteen y/os from draft in S&S, and both him and Zoya starting their service at fifteen.)-, the Corporalnik could be serving only a few months, couldn't she? And she'd still be younger by a year.

We don't have any textual evidence that the Darkling was that root. What we have is the intrinsic view of the narrative from the heroes, which is in of itself heavily biased.

If anything, we have a continuous cycle of being proven that the Darkling was right to expect the worst of the Otkazat'sya. Because it only took three-something years of the Shadow Fold and the Darkling being gone for the Grisha to face the worst of humankind.

Another point I would like to raise while we're at it, is this perspective of some short-sighted readers that "the Darkling had gone about it the wrong way."

As if turning the other cheek had stopped wars at any time in history? It also implies that he had only gone about it in a violent, destructive way.

Did we honestly read the same books? He had talked multiple times about knowing humanity. About knowing that peace is only a pitstop in the unending cycle of war, not a destination. Peace had never been acquired indefinitely. The only way you will understand that about humanity is if you had once gone about it the "right" way, the undestructive, heavily naive way.

No amount of kindness has ever and will ever kill bigotry.