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[sunmon]

Comments

[morozova]

You'll be able to do it.
Perhaps not for some time, but eventually.

I suppose that depends on how you feel about tentacled rats and acid rain.

[sunmon]

What, that's not your idea of a vacation?

[morozova]

I'd prefer a nice dacha in the North.
Possibly adjacent to a vineyard.

[sunmon]

As I said: hard to picture you climbing.

How can you be so sure that I'll be able to do it? What do you know that I don't?

[morozova]

I have more than earned my retirement.

Because you would not be here, not now, without good reason.

[sunmon]

Is that what I'm here for? To help you retire?

[ if it were only that, she might forgive him. but no one wants to retire so badly they turn a girl into a slave and the fold into a weapon, do they? that's someone who wants power. ]

I lied, before.
Well, not completely.
I've never actively imagined what it will be like after the Fold is gone, but I think it's because I felt like it'd be more like what we had.

The Little Palace. And training and parties and you and I.

I'd grown to like it.

[morozova]

Are you sure it's the life you've developed a taste for and not the grand destiny that accompanies it?

[sunmon]

Positive.

You think it's freedom, being the sun summoner. But I feel like I'm being crushed.

Everyone wants something from me. There's no way of knowing when someone's taken with me if it's just because of my power.

And if I fail, they'll turn around just as quickly.

If I were destined to be grisha, why couldn't I be something simple like a squaller? 😩

[morozova]

I would have thought Materialki, given your temperament.

[sunmon]

Hey!

[ alina may like them well enough, but everyone knows that no one takes the materialki seriously. they vastly prefer to be left alone, anyway. ]

You didn't answer my question.

[morozova]

What.
They're some of the greatest artists we have.

Which question?

[sunmon]

Am I just your key to retirement?

[morozova]

No.
Like as said before, you're my balance.

[sunmon]

I see.
Aleksander, how did you know I was a good artist?

[ the missing pages from her journal. the sketches of the stag. baghra's warning. she would have thought it was sweet, a month ago. she would have thought he'd noticed her. she feels sick now. ]

[morozova]

You mean beyond checking with the former head of your regiment?

( which he had done, of course. )

Genya mentioned your sketches.
Apparently you have a taste for wild life.

[sunmon]

I don't suppose when she mentioned them, she had them in hand?
A few went missing from my journal.

[morozova]

You're angry.

[sunmon]

I'm confused.
Why didn't you just ask?

[morozova]

I wasn't exactly looking for them.
But Genya was asked to keep an eye out for anything unusual.
Drawing a mystical herd from legend certainly fits the bill.
Unless you have a taste for fairy tales?

[sunmon]

You've been spying on me.
You've had Genya spying on me?

[morozova]

Monitoring.
Given her particular skills, Genya is better equipped to most threats than many believe.

[sunmon]

I'm not a threat!
You let me believe she was my friend.

[morozova]

No, but there are plenty of people who are a threat to you in some form or another.
Oh, she is. Which is precisely why she takes her job so seriously.

[sunmon]

[ her chest aches. she feels dizzy and confused because there's some part of her that glows with this reassurance, especially after hearing what happened to marie. he wouldn't let anything happen to alina. he cares about her. she desperately wants to believe that, but it doesn't add up. it doesn't make sense. ]

My drawings of fairytales don't have anything to do with threats on my life.

[morozova]

No.
But you do know what the stag is, yes?
What it can do?