sankta | IC Contact.

[ Koroleva was the same. Once she knew her mate was out there she couldn't be held back. She went straight for Korol and sat next to him in the snow before leaning on him, pushing him over to lay on.

There's a sigh of relief from Alina as he says that. ]

I did. From Ghost.

You spoke with Neheda, then?

[ For once, Korol shows no resistance. He lays down, letting Koroleva curl on him, and closing his eyes again.

Nikolai ignores them, and nods. ]

I did. She asked me not to talk about it, except to you. [ Smile widening, briefly. ] To my partner. I rather think we made an impression.

[ He reaches up, tugging his earpiece out, and holding it up for her to see. He'd left his device back in his own rover, after he'd sent the text telling her to meet him. ]

I know it's late and we have an early start. But it may be a while before we get the chance, so. Would you give me the pleasure of your company? [ He holds out his arm, hoping she'll take the hint. ] Just for a little while.

[ And it looks like they're both done with this conversation as they cuddle each other to sleep. Too bad they didn't get to sleep together more often.

Alina's cheeks go red. Even the instructors have noticed? To what extent did they know? At least they told him he could, though. She wanted desperately to tell him everything and hated when they were ordered not to.

Then he takes out the earpiece and her eyes go a bit wide. She reaches up, though, and takes out her earpiece before taking his arm. ]

That sounds good to me. We should leave Korol and Koroleva, I think they're done with us for tonight.

I can't blame them.

[ Nikolai takes her earpiece as well, and moves to leave them between Korol's paws. ]

They can take care of these for us. Shall we?

[ Taking her arm, he leads her a distance away from camp, saying nothing further until they reach the edge of the trees. Even then, his tone is still conversational and easy. ]

I'm not bringing Korol this time. He's too tired for it, he needs the rest. I'm leaving him with Athos. A couple of days shouldn't be so bad.

Good. [ She nods as they start to leave the camp for the tress. What does he have to say that he leaves the earpieces behind for? ]

It'll be easier for me to leave Koroleva behind that way. She's pretty exhausted herself. I think she can spend this mission at home.

I'll see if d'Artagnan can take her.

[ A pause. He knows that name. ]

Athos' young friend. Yes, that's a plan.

[ They're in the trees now. Nikolai walks deeper inside, following pathways that he knows well thanks to the number of hours he's spent hunting with Korol. ]

I wasn't expecting to leave camp again so soon. Something must have happened. Presumably something distinct from what Dagger was talking about that.

[ He glances at her, another smile showing itself. It feels good to speak in plain Ravkan, for once. ]

Hilariously, I thought I'd leave that to the others. Get some rest. Avoid looking at those chimera ever again, but it would seem I spoke too soon.

[ It's almost strange to be speaking in their native language, again. But it's a relief too. It feels the closes to home being in this snowy forest with him speaking their same language.

She hadn't realized she was homesick, actually. Maybe she's just tired. ]

I was thinking the same. We set up the transceivers, then helped with the animals, then the mission in sector R which was a lot more than I expected... [ she lets out a heavy sigh. ]

Ghost said I was his first pick to help. I know he asked me to help, but I didn't think I was first pick, either.

Either way, I'm glad to keep helping. The more successful we are the better for all of us.

[ Not even surprised by that, Nikolai nods. ]

You’d be mine as well. Ghost has good taste. One of these days, Alina, you’ll believe in yourself as much as everybody else does, and then perhaps it won’t surprise you anymore.

[ They keep walking, deeper into the forest. It would be easy to get lost here, but Nikolai’s footing is sure. He waits until the noise of camp is far behind them, and even then his voice drops very low. He keeps walking, but his expression turns serious. No more pretence. ]

We need to talk about what happened in Sector R, and about what keeps happening, here. Alina, did anything about that mission seem strange to you? I don’t mean unusual.

[ He means suspicious. He’s felt this way from the very start, when they were dropped so far away from camp into a multitude of dangers. Felt it again during the avalanche that had buried the second wave of recruits, felt it every time a mission went wrong at exactly the wrong moment. Felt it particularly, when the chimera were attacking. Alina is the only person here that he trusts completely, without reserve. She is the only person he can talk to about this. A little less luck and they both could have died in Sector R. The elephant in the room here keeps growing bigger and bigger in his eyes, and he can’t pretend it’s not there. Not with her. ]

[ She wants to argue with him, and he knows she does too. It does take her by surprise. She's led the Grisha, but even just barely so. And that was a small number and people she knew. These are all strangers and somehow they've trusted her from the start and she's done a lot here.

But thinking about here in general... they cut to the heart of why they're out there while their earpieces rest in Korol's paws.

She keeps her voice low, still speaking in Ravkan only. ]

Like the Chimera? [ She says straight-up, her voice dropping even more at 'chimera.' They have no other word for chimera but the word itself. ]

They appeared right when the puzzle started and left fast. We didn't have any trace of them until that moment.

They also breathed fire and... nothing about them seemed to match with the rest of the animals here.

Like the Chimera.

[ Sturmhond smiles at the word. Clearly he wasn’t the only one to have heard it. He’s glad she started with that, because the name in itself is something worth mentioning. ]

Barnaby told me what they were. Some sort of Earth legend, I believe, which makes me wonder how they could have gotten here. It doesn’t surprise me to find alien creatures on an alien planet, but that they’d be familiar to some of us, even as a legend – that’s interesting.

[ He says interesting, but he means worrying. It makes him think that the Chimera weren’t from Ajna. And if he’s right about that suspicion, where could they have come from? More importantly, who could have brought them here? ]

Almost as much as their timing. It wasn’t just when they arrived, Alina. Did you notice when they disappeared? Not until Ghost finished working with the machine. They came right as we started the real task of using it, and disappeared when we finished. Perhaps that’s just a coincidence. [ His eyes slide to her. ] But I don’t tend to believe in that.

[ Alina shrugs. ]

I don't know too much about it. But the landsharks are similar to real sharks in our world. I don't know if the Chimera are entirely like Earth Chimera, or only very similar to. [ So are they otherworldly or did they belong to Ajna?

Or was there a third option? ]

Of course I noticed. You'd have to be blind not to notice the timing.

It wasn't coincidence. I don't know what it was, but that timing was too precise.

It was. And if that was not coincidence, Alina, then it must be that the Chimera were connected, somehow, to the device.

I thought at first that it may simply have disturbed them. But it drew no other creatures to us, and I have seen nothing like the Chimera in any other sector we've explored.

[ Which makes him think they're not from here, and their apparent connection to the device makes him think that they may have been sent deliberately, to attempt to stop the mission from succeeding.

It's possible he's paranoid. Nikolai tends towards some paranoia, because he's used to thinking in terms of threats and allegiances, of war and strategy. In his experience it's a bad idea to overlook coincidence.

But if it was not coincidence, then that implies the Chimera appearance was planned, by someone. He can't help but start to think about who that might be. ]

I'll be honest, Alina. I wondered at first if the Instructors knew it would happen. If it was another of their tests. There have been many. The drop zones that were so far from camp, though not so far we couldn't walk through a very specific field of danger. The avalanche that swallowed the second batch of recruits. This is not the first coincidence. I wish it were.

At first?

[ She knows the Instructors care about the recruits and want to keep them safe. She's had this conversation before with Ghost. But that doesn't mean that the Chimera still couldn't have been intentional by them. A test of their power. Though, they've put them all through a lot of training and tests. Nothing was as intense as fighting the Chimera.

What will sector R hold from them this time? ]

It might have been a test of us. But this didn't feel like at training mission. Or a time to test us.

[ Nikolai's quiet for a moment, letting it sink in. Then he turns back to the forest and keeps walking, nonchalant but careful. ]

I spoke to Neheda about it. She was upset about what happened, and worried about us.

I don't believe this was her doing. Or any of their doing. Which does not overly settle me, I'm afraid. I still can't imagine that the appearance of the chimera was a coincidence. I only feel assured that it was not planned by our Instructors.

All it does is make me wonder who was behind, it, if not them.

[ They didn't know about the Chimera. At least, not that they'd be attacking them like that. It's a breath of relief. She didn't want to think they'd be put purposely in danger like that.

But that makes her question other things now, too.

The Chimera were too precise to be coincidental or a random animal attack. Not to mention, they weren't reported as being in the area. Or reported anywhere as being a native species of this planet. ]

It was planned by someone. It was too perfect not to be.

The Chimera aren't native, either. Or at least, no one's reported them as a native species.

That was my thought, as well.

[ And something he'd raised with Neheda, though his questioning on that front hadn't gotten him very far.

He turns to look at her, choosing his words carefully. He's aware that even privacy such as they've found here is not true privacy. ]

Neheda didn't know where they'd come from, though I got the impression that this was not the first time the Instructors had seen them.

Barnaby knew what they were called. I would very much like to know how mythical creatures from Earth's history found their way to a planet like Ajna. I don't have an answer for that, yet.

[ She sighs and shakes her head. ]

I'm just glad to hear the Instructors weren't the ones that orchestrated it. I was concerned.

Do you trust them, Nikolai? [ Because they're just taking their word for it at this point. So far, Alina has trusted the Instructors. She'd still like to. But she worries about her trust in them. The Darkling was a good liar too. He convinced her of a lot of things. Part of her fears it all over again. ]

[ There it is. That's the question, isn't it? Does he trust them.

So often, people ask him that. And so often, he brushes it aside, or dodges it, or straight up lies. He's not doing any of those things now. He's going to be frank with Alina. That's the point of this.

Smiling, he looks at her. ]

Not the way I trust you.

But then how can I? I believe that we are on the same side, and that so long as we obey them, and do our duty, we'll be safe.

I also believe that if we became an inconvenience, they'd be quick to move against us. That's only to be expected. They have their own orders to follow, and I don't hold that against them. The only person I trust completely here is the one standing in front of me. That's the simplest truth.

[ Well. That's a lot to take in. Not only did he answer his questions about the Instructors, but he put a lot on her at the same time.

Alina hated to say it, but she didn't think he was wrong entirely about the Instructors. She felt like she could almost call some of them friends right now. And they seemed to genuinely care about them. But what if Alina and Nikolai didn't play along so well? What if they'd been like half the reds? Like Clary?

So what would happen if ever there was a day when they had to disagree? Would they be allowed to? Or would they not be so safe anymore?

Alina frowned at that thought. It was all easier to process, though, than his heavy trust in her.

But she nods her head all the same. ]

I think we should be careful of that. [ She said with a heavy heart. ] I like them, but I think we need to look out for each other first. As much as I like them, that may not be enough some day.

[ Nikolai nods. The set of his jaw is the best indicator that he’s not happy about this, but he’s otherwise not showing it on his face. He both likes and respects the Instructors. Gliese, in particular, but also Ghost, Neheda, and Armada. Every one of them has tried to help him, in their own way. That doesn’t change the truth of what he said to Alina, though. He likes them, trusts them to an extent. But he wouldn’t blame them for having their own agenda. In fact, he expects it. He and Alina may not always have their favour, and in that case, they need to be relying on each other. ]

I agree, and we will. Alina, you have to know there’s no one so important to me here as you. If anything happens to me here, I have to know that you’ll go on, that you’ll go back to Ravka and save it from the Darkling. For all that we do here, we cannot forget who we are or what we’re fighting for.

That’s what matters. We are Ravkan before we are anything else, and so must we always be.

text message	audio message	voice mail
<span style="font-family:courier;"> <b>SUBJECT:</B> TEXT <b>SENT:</B> DAY #, HOUR <b>FROM:</B> SURNAME.NAME@cdc.org <b>TO:</b> SURNAME.NAME@cdc.org [[200 max character message here]]</span>	<span style="font-family:courier;><b>SENT:</B> DAY#, HOUR <B>CALL ID:</B> CDC ID</span> [[3 minute max message here]]	<span style="font-family:courier;"><b>SENT:</B> DAY #, HOUR <B>( 1 ) VOICEMAIL</B> LAST NAME, FIRST NAME [[3 minute max message here]]</span>

IC Contact.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject