#sunsummoncd

nikolai finally made it out into the COURTYARD and away from people - any breathing creature with a body heat seemed troubling at this point, he just wanted to plunge into the icy river and RELAX.

although the SOOTHING presence of the sun summoner was something that he can’t find himself to complain about. “my cheekbones are getting exhausted with all that smiling for portraits.” truth is, he can’t really last being in solitude for so long - mouth easily parched with less or no talking even for a small fraction of his day.  and thus, the invitation. “would you like to get out of here?” his head jerked towards the servants’ lodge so they can grab enough peasant robes for their little ESCAPADE into the open city.

@sunsummoncd // alina.

“it depends. am i going to face HARSH judgement?”

this was exactly why he didn’t want her involved. they’d already cut those strings off her, and now she was tied - woven back into it, especially with the unexpected turn of events.

“in all fairness, i didn’t have much choice when our common old acquaintance left remnants of his edginess within me.” nikolai laughed, abrupt and instantly faded into a harder clench of his jaw.

“initially, it was HARMLESS. simply brought nightmares and flashbacks of my unwarranted nichevoya days, scars that can easily be covered by fashionable gloves with truths swept under the rug and replaced by semi-truths that made me a hero and subsequently, a deserving monarch.”

his eyes remained steady but the rest of his expression GRADUALLY turned grim, “but then it eventually escalated to something that required the strongest tonics, fabrikator-made chains, and tempestous control - respectively - of my trusted TRIUMVIRATE.”

then his grin returned, dissolving any hint of gloom from his confirmation of this revelation as he tugged one of his chains that kept him bound to his own bed.

@sunsummoncd // alina.

          “EXACTLY.” tamar sighed, dropping one of her axes on the ground as she leaned back against the tree, surrendering to the exhaustion she felt after hours and hours of walking. “they don’t give a shit on whatever i decide on myself, which is why i’m not the SAINT here, YOU ARE.”

@sunsummoncd // alina.

       “isn’t that for the better?” nikolai raised a brow - though he wasn’t nikolai today. he was STURMHOND - the privateer, the fox-like features once again perfected by his trusted TAILOR. even the tone of his voice was completely different from the reigning KING, or the FIRST ARMY soldier, or his other NECESSARY facets he donned for every occasion.

@sunsummoncd​ // alina.

       “your naivety is INSUFFERABLE.”

       baghra huffed, couldn’t bear another second to hear the rest of that story. and if there was a part of her that REMEMBERED - the past rearing its ugly head out to sympathise - it was immediately drowned back into the shadows where it perpetually belonged.

       “i’m already withering, girl. don’t hasten it with your dumb infatuations.”

guess who i love???

    “SANKTA STARKOV.” It could be a joke. A snide jab at the peasants of the outer villages which revere her like any of their other saints. But there is a guarded sort of seriousness in his eyes, like Grisha steel tucked into the safety of a leather sheath. Just because a knife is hidden away does not mean it lacks the ability to cut.

    “I BELIEVE in you. Alina. I have more faith in you and your abilities than I’ve had in anything for a long time. Perhaps ever. I know you fear inadequacy, think you will disappoint... But I would not have come this far with you was I anything but certain you are the key to our salvation.”