𝖘𝖆𝖑𝖙𝖇𝖚𝖗𝖓𝖙 𝖎𝖓𝖇𝖔𝖝.

[abyssale]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

USERNAME:
LEXI

text ❖ audio ❖ video

Comments

text / un: solnishka

[peasant]

What do you do if you're trapped inside all day?
Aside from preening and gawking at yourself in the mirror.

[abyssale]

that does take up the largest portion of the daylight....

but i spend a lot of time in the library. i genuinely like to learn about new things, like i asked on the network. the library is the most straightforward, but i do try to visit the other rooms in the house to see what else is on offer from time to time.

[peasant]

I'm surprised you look away from your reflection long enough for that.
Koby hasn't exiled you from the library yet?

[abyssale]

you're very stuck on how nicely i make myself look. enjoying the results?

and how would he ever enforce that? he's tiny. and frail.

[peasant]

I'm not all that impressed, truthfully.

( she said, like a liar. )

Appearances aren't everything.
Besides, it doesn't take that much strength to open a window in the library. That would do the trick.

[abyssale]

that's a lie. ( it's not that he knows this; his ego is just that big. )

there's plenty of spaces in a corner where the light from windows doesn't reach. :) that's usually where i like to set up.

and appearances are a good portion of it.

[peasant]

You don't have to be defensive. I'm sure you're impressive to someone.

( choke on that ego. )

Oh, so you perch. Like a gargoyle.

[abyssale]

i know i am :)

i rest like a gargoyle. far nicer.

[peasant]

Note "to someone".
I'm not that someone.

What riveting material is the gargoyle reading today?

[abyssale]

so you insist.

about artemis and apollo. dani mentioned them to me. i think someone else must have directed him to them.

have you heard of them? twin gods of the moon and sun?

[peasant]

( twin gods. moon and sun, dark and light — dualities that can't exist without one another, despite how destined they are to snuff the other out, in order to take to their rightful throne in the sky. alina's stomach lurches, kneejerk, with the same unpleasant surprise that comes with missing a step on a staircase. some foreboding sense that, already, she won't like where this story is going. )

It might have been somewhere in the pile I ( stole ) loaned to him, but I hadn't gotten to it myself.
I can't say it sounds familiar. My country doesn't worship gods the way others do.

[abyssale]

mine doesn't either. we may have, but our gods are believed to be all did if they ever did exist. no one worships the dead.

how does your country worship?
... what is your country called?

[peasant]

Ravka. Our people worship saints, though I can't say I've cared to put much stock in them.

They're all dead, too, if you were wondering. It's an unfortunate requirement for saints. They don't get to be worshiped until they've given their life for the same people who wished them dead in the first place.

[abyssale]

that's macabre.

why would you want someone dead who could do good for your world? shouldn't you want them to live longer?

[peasant]

Because the saints weren't saints when they were alive, Alexei. They were Grisha. What your world would call witches.
They loathed them for not suffering as the common folk did. They resented what they had.
People might hunger for miracles, but they'll always fear the power that makes them possible.

[abyssale]

( he should be more surprised, but he knows what human pride can do to humans. he didn't see it in his own time, but he was taught it well. )

when our sun and moon vanished from our skies, humans fell into chaos. everyone was out to protect themselves. thousands died in those first decades.

i know of the capacity for people to put their own fear and greed before the good of others.

it sounds as if your Grisha could do wonders for your world. for the people. and the people bite the hands that feed them.

[peasant]

It's not that simple.

There are Grisha who have let themselves be ruled by their own fear and greed. Whose ambitions they put before the safety of their own kind. Whose mistakes have cast a shadow over our country for centuries.

So have our kings. So have our people. So have Shu Han and Fjerda.
There will always be men who choose power over the good of the people, whether they're born Grisha or not.

[abyssale]

you're right. i don't disagree with that sentiment. such as my own usurpers. they'll say they've done it for the good of our people. but will they really have?

do you have no hope for your people?

[peasant]

I do. Ravka isn't beyond saving.

( for all that their country is a shambling corpse on its last legs, the answer is immediate, certain. whether she's the one capable of restoring it, brimming with new life, is another question entirely. )

I have to believe that there's a better future for all of us.
One where Grisha aren't prisoners chained to the whims of a hateful king.
Where Ravkan children aren't forced to put a rifle in their hands and march to their deaths.

[abyssale]

is that what happened to you? pressed into an army as a child?

[peasant]

( annoyingly perceptive. that's traditional of a prince, she supposes — never mind a prince aware of the machinations of his court, readying himself for the pecking of the vultures that had swiped his crown. alina still falters into a pause, discomforted by his easy observation. )

We're all drafted when we come of age. Even royal children are expected to serve.
I was a mapmaker, before I was anything else. Assistant cartographer, Royal Corps of Surveyors.

[abyssale]

you must be a talented artist.

i am still sorry to hear you have a government that doesn't take proper care of it's people.

you talked of a prince before. Nikolai, i believe? do you stand with him?

[peasant]

I was handier with a pencil than a rifle. I'm not sure you could call it a skill, so much as a necessity.

( self-deprecation alina starkov hours, as usual. )

Considering I helped him take the crown, I would say so.
Are you going to call me a usurper?

[abyssale]

would you draw me something some time? i'd like to see myself.

it's what you are.

i won't deny that dethroning kings can be necessary. it just wasn't necessary in my instance. ( is that bias? it can be hard to tell. but either way, he'll die believing it. )

[peasant]

And you're a prick, but you don't see me throwing around names, do you?

( but more's the point: )

I know why Nikolai wanted the crown.
Why do you want yours returned?