Alina did not say goodbye to Aleksander before she left at noon the next day. She did, however, go to the townhouse early in the morning to wish her mother, Misha and little Demetra well.

Her mother was tearful, sat at the kitchen table whilst Alina stood nearby. "While you're swanning around in Kerch or Fjerda or gods know where, your sister will grow up without even knowing your face," She sniffed, reproachful, wiping her eyes with a new silk handkerchief.

Alina bit back her intial response to that. "I won't be gone for long. A year, perhaps two. She won't even remember me being away," Demetra was in her arms, and she was distracting the baby with tendrils of light, having learned from Aleksander that this worked. Sure enough, the little girl was delighted, cooing and grabbing at the tendrils, oblivious to the mood of the room.

"And how long before you're off again?" Her mother accused.

"I couldn't tell you," She snapped. "I've not planned out the next few decades, funnily enough,"

"Leave it, Mother," Misha said, weary. "You're not making her want to come back any time soon, being like this,"

If Alina had said that, her mother would have been furious, or burst into dramatic tears. But it seemed her son could get away with things her daughter could not, because Saran Starkova stiffened momentarily, pursing her lips, before speaking in a grudgingly more gracious tone.

"Fine. Stay safe on your travels, Alina. Write as much as you can, so we know you're not dead in a ditch in Novyi Zem,"

She supposed that was as good as she was going to get. "Goodbye Mother," She leaned down to give the woman a half-hearted, one-armed hug, passing Demetra back into her arms. "Misha," She turned to her brother, whose embrace was much more earnest, murmuring into his ear. "If anything goes wrong and you need me here, just write. Send any letters through Genya, she'll have forward addresses for everywhere I go,"

"I will," He drew back. "We really will be fine. I can't say I'd enjoy the trials of travelling myself  - Temgora to Os Alta was enough for me - but I know you will, so enjoy yourself, Alina,"

She smiled, suddenly very grateful for her brother. "Thank you. I can't wait,"

*

Alina, for reasons she did not care to examine, decided to pay Baghra a visit on the way back to the Little Palace from her mother's townhouse in the city. Approaching the dark little hut on the edge of the forest, she wondered with some small amusement if the primitive nature of the place made the ancient woman feel more at home. Saying that, the ramshackle building wasn't too different from where Alina herself had spent her early years, albeit smaller and better maintained. Life for peasants had not changed that much in the last seven hundred years.

"Well, you're finally getting what you've wanted for years," She said to announce herself. "Me gone from Os Alta,"

"Shut the door - you're letting all the heat out," Baghra said irritably from where she sat by the fire. "And it's too late now. You already put him on the throne," Yes, and stopped him being too much of a monster in the process.

She smirked. "Please tell me you say it like that when you're talking to him,"

The woman snorted. "Of course I do. He owes you near everything he has gained in recent years,"

"And I owe him very little. Least of all my presence here,"

Something like respect passed through Baghra's expression. Only for a fleeting second, however. "You're less stupid than you look. Be warned, though - you may have, by some miracle, convinced him to let you go for now, but Aleksander's claws won't stay away forever. It's a fine line you walk, girl. You make a habit of crossing lines - I would advise against pushing this one too far. My son cares for you, deeply, which is a dangerous thing,"

"I am well aware," She said, abruptly changing the subject from matters she did not want to even think about. "Send for me, if things here go... downhill. I'll be writing to Genya Safina from my most recent locations, and I'll give a follow-up address. He won't listen much to either of us, of course, but between us we should be strong enough to do something," She paused. "Don't be too vile to Darya. Saints knows she won't receive any kindness from him,"

"Who?"

"You know full well who. Were you even at the wedding?"

"What do you think, girl? Did you see me there?"

"I was too busy being a drunken nuisance to even think about you. I stole the show, in fact - you'd have found it amusing. We should have come in together. You being in the front row beside me would have been the final straw for him, I think,"

The woman actually cackled. "Of all the people to join us in eternity, I can't say I'm displeased that it's you. Obnoxious little wretch that you are,"

That was shockingly complimentary from the disagreeable old hag. "I won't live for eternity," She voiced a thought that had been in the back of her mind for a while now. "Not if I have any say in the matter. I don't know when, but one day, when all my friends are dead and there is no longer any pleasure in things I once loved, I will have had my fill of life,"

Baghra Morozova smiled a cold smile. "Yes, I suppose that's fitting. A fleeting blaze of sunlight to light up the dark expanse. But Alina," A rare use of her given name, rather than 'girl'. "You know that when you die, you will have to take Aleksander with you,"

That, she had not even considered. Her mouth dropped open slightly as she realised the terrible truth of the woman's words, pronouncing her own son's death sentence. He could not remain unchecked forever. Of course he couldn't, particularly alone, both of them gone. And no one but her was going to do that; no one but her would have a chance. Alina could not even formulate a reply as Baghra continued, her tone harsh.

"Why do you think I have held on all these years? I'm sure you, of all people, understand,"

She slowly nodded, the thought settling like a weight in the pit of her stomach. "Yes. I do,"

"And no more messing with merzost. My father's madness, and his workshop of horrors, instilled the value of that advice, however unintentionally,"

That statement hung heavy in the air. Alina gave in to her curiosity, which had been on her mind since her mother's tale about the Firebird.

"Where did your powers come from, if your father was a Fabrikator?"

"He wasn't just a Fabrikator, girl. The barriers were more blurred then, particularly his. He had little skill with Summoning, if I remember, but was nearly as good a Corporalki as he was a Durast. How do you think he made the amplifiers? He worked both animate and inanimate matter, with an unhealthy amount of merzost thrown in for bad measure," 

"Interesting though that is, it doesn't answer my question," Alina loved turning Baghra's own bluntness back on her.

"Do you need it spelled out for you? Merzost. I was the result of one of his experiments. He made one daughter a Shadow Summoner, and the other - " She broke off abruptly. 

"You had a sister?" Alina was not going to let that slide. "What happened to her,"

Baghra smiled a humourless, nasty smile. "I killed her. What, nothing to say to that, girl? I remember loving her - despite the fact she was otkazat'sya and thus favoured by our mother. Our mother, who feared me as an unnatural, demon child,"

"Then why kill her?" She was not going to pass judgement just yet.

"We argued once over a doll, as sisters do. I lashed out in childish anger. That was the first time I used the Cut. I hadn't realised I could, before then,"

Alina somehow had not been expecting an accident. Even imagining Baghra as a child was almost impossible. "I'm sorry," She didn't have it in her to make a sharp jibe to that.

"She was fine," Baghra waved her off. What? "Svetlana was the one living thing my father cared about, you see. He knitted her back together with merzost and his own finger bone, saving her life. But someone saw and tattled, and the villagers tried to drown them both in the river for witchcraft - they succeeded with my father, all those chains weighing him down, but from what I found out later, my sister survived. She had a husband and children, became Svetlana Kameneva instead of Svetlana Morozova. An ordinary life and an ordinary death,"

"That's - " That story was uncomfortably familiar. "Your father was Sankt Ilya in Chains?"

"The man was no saint, any more than you are. Less so, in fact. You might be vicious and wild, but he was a true monster. They built a church, over where our house was," She made a noise of derision. "They'd have done better salting the earth,"

"The shrine of Sankt Ilya? That's in Dva Stolba - only a few villages over from Temgora. You can't have been born far from where I was, you never said. Saints, if your sister survived to have children then you and I most likely share a distant ancestor," It was an isolated area, of course, and only so many bloodlines could exist without crossing every now and again. That was a nasty thought, that she might be related (however many countless generations ago) to Aleksander. "Well, not so distant an ancestor for you, perhaps,"

"It never mattered, and doesn't matter now," Baghra said. "My father deserves no church. He does not deserve to be remembered in the worship of fools and sycophants. He was a powerful Grisha, but a terrible man. There's a reason he was called the Bonesmith, girl. Mostly animals suffered under his experiments, but the odd traveller would go missing every now and again. He would sit me in that workshop to study me, and I screwed my eyes up tight every time so I did not have to see,"

"Hells," Alina pulled a face. "Do you have any pleasant memories? No wonder Aleksander is the way he is, if this kind of thing was what you used as a bedtime story,"

"My father saw me as one of his experiments. My mother saw me as something to be scorned, a demon, whilst she showered care and affection on my sister. When we were driven from the village after my father and sister supposedly drowned, that woman just lay down in grief in the middle of the forest and refused to move, refused to help us. I went for help instead, cold and hungry, but I never found her again. The pathetic child I was, crippled with sadness and rejection, died quickly. So I brought up Aleksander with pride and ambition. I taught him to be strong, to rely on no one but himself, and to value power over love,"

Alina was silent for a moment. "That, you certainly did,"

Leaving the smoky, dim light of Baghra's hut and emerging into the bright morning sunlight, she thought of a lost little girl with tears streaking down her dirty face, dark-haired and dark-eyed, stumbling through the forest towards the glow of a village in the hope of saving herself and the mother who scorned her. All those hundreds of years ago. That same girl, now a woman, hardened and proud, teaching her dark-haired son everything that would have helped her, so he did not have to suffer like she had done. Never mind everyone else who suffered for him.

Part of her wanted to go to him, then. To do what, she didn't know. Give him a hug, her absurd subconscious suggested, unbidden. Ultimately she stayed away, because what on earth would she say, but there was still so much of him she did not know. He fascinated her still. But they had an eternity together, and Aleksander could wait a year or two for her.

*

After that disconcerting conversation, and the previous draining one with her mother, saying goodbye to Genya was the hardest of all.

"The red and blue kefta suits you," Alina said, hugging her friend, who was no longer a servant, but a respected member of the Second Army. "As does happiness. Don't think I haven't been noticing you sneak off with David Kostyk. Interesting choice, I must say, but who am I to judge?"

"Oh, hush," Genya swatted at her arm. "David is very sweet when you get to know him,"

"You deserve sweet," She grinned. "Well, think of me roughing it every now and again, whilst you're here living in romantic bliss,"

"Only if you think of me," Her friend said with an audible smile. "I know you know this already, but it will be so good for you, to get out from under his shadow. Not that you don't outshine him here," She added quickly at Alina's raised eyebrow. "That's a bad way of putting it. But being away from him will take a weight off your shoulders. You'll be able to learn what you're like away from his influence, in places where the Darkling is just a whispered tale from a far-off land,"

The thought was tantalising, yet painful all at once. "I intend to," She said, stepping out of Genya's arms. "I will write to you whenever I get the chance. And I will be back. I don't know when, but I will. If you need me - "

" - I'll let you know," Her friend finished. "Here," She reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange, small device. Two, in fact. "David made them for us. I don't know how, but he's brilliant. They're connected, somehow - if you press down this part so the metal pad underneath touches the other pad, the other one makes a sound for however long you've held it for. He hasn't had the chance to test them at a very long distance, but they're supposed to work across hundreds of leagues - they're meant for the army, you see. There's a code he's come up with - dots and dashes that spell out letters. If they work, I can talk to you without having to write. And if you're needed here - "

"I can come back!" Alina exclaimed, grabbing the device eagerly. "This is genius!" She pressed down the device and, sure enough, Genya's one made a beeping sound until she released her finger. "Oh, I could kiss David Kostyk for this,"

"Don't," Her friend glared without any seriousness to it. "Oh! I almost forgot - your horrible request came back from the Fabrikators. David also gave it to me to give to you, and I don't want it in my pocket any longer,"

"It did?" Alina took the small velvet bag Genya offered her, tipping out the contents onto her hand. She was silent for a moment. "They did a good job. It's beautiful,"

It was a ring. The thick band was formed of white bone - no joint or seam to be found, characteristic of Durast work - and carved with an intricate pattern. She slipped it onto the thumb of her left hand, admiring how it looked. Admiring the irony.

"It's macabre," Genya said with some distaste. "Though less so than when it was floating in a jar on your mantlepiece. I suppose now at least I don't have to look at it every day,"

She grinned. "Now it's almost back to wear it should be,"

"Is that why you wanted the bones of your severed finger turned into a ring? So you could stick it back on your hand and make unfunny jokes?"

"Precisely,"

*

Alina was in high spirits by the time she and her friends set off north beyond the city walls, on the road to Chernast. Leaving Os Alta - the crowds who screamed her name, the court who scrutinised her every move, and the dark figure at the window watching her go - for the open road was like a breath of fresh air. She would return, at some point, but for now she had nothing to do except enjoy herself with her friends.

There were eight of them in total. She rode at the front with Mal, laughing like children, catching each other up on all the time they had spent apart; amusing tales from the Little Palace, Temgora and the First Army. Nikolai and Zoya were behind them, already bickering, as they seemed to always be doing lately. Viktor was loudly regaling Kasper with a wild, likely exaggerated story, to which the latter was rolling his eyes but smirking, whilst at the back Nina and Katya seemed to in the middle of a ridiculous debate.

"But if you didn't know they were Druskelle, and they didn't know you were Grisha?"

"That would never happen,"

"Humour me, Katya, just answer the question!"

"It wouldn't! I'd sense the evil coming off them a mile away,"

"Say that you couldn't sense anything, and neither could they. All you know is that you meet a charming blonde stranger in a tavern - he's very handsome, strong and respectful towards you. You can't tell me you wouldn't,"

"Well I don't speak Fjerdan and most of them don't speak Ravkan, so it would just be an admiring glance. Even then, I'm not that fond of men to begin with,"

"A female Druskelle, then. Pretend they exist. She's tall, blonde, with muscled arms, short hair, a beautiful smile and the bluest eyes you ever saw," Katya hesitated, which Nina leapt upon eagerly. "There, see! You can't act all high-and-mighty when you'd do exactly the same as I would,"

"No I wouldn't, because female Druskelle don't exist!"

Alina had to smile to herself at the absurd conversation, turning her attention back to the road.

This time, they were not on the run from the Darkling or their superiors. They were not even deserting; the Second Army still existed, of course, as did the First, but leave was much easier to come by now they were no longer fighting two wars on two fronts, or any war at all. As a result, they could stick to the main roads instead of going cross-country, and could stay in taverns and inns instead of sleeping rough. The money they had was pooled from various sources; mainly their salary from being part of the Second Army, or jobs such as Healing or Fabrikating offered to otkazat'sya since the Lantsovs were ousted. Alina's large contribution was the money she had made by selling a fraction of the former queen's vast collection of ugly jewels to an eager Zemeni collector. The argument could have been made that the jewels weren't hers to sell; that argument probably would have been made, in fact, if she hadn't been so discrete about stealing and selling them. Few could track an invisible thief, after all.

Nonetheless, they did not advertise that they were Grisha, let alone that Alina was the Sun Summoner. Their keftas had been left behind at the Little Palace, traded for corecloth leggings and vests under their outer clothes. All that made them stand out was Alina's Shu features - though the hate and suspicion was not so poisonous this far from Ravka's southern border - and the fact that the women in their group wore trousers rather than skirts. They could easily have been a party of young First Army soldiers, returning home after being released from the draft.

Alina enjoyed the anonymity that came from being this far away from Os Alta. Many villages had constructed shrines to Sankta Alina in thanks for freeing their sons and daughters from compulsory army service - which had certainly not been her alone - and for carving through the Fold. She would much rather put up with suspicious looks at being a stranger with the face of the enemy than be mobbed by adoring worshippers.

She dreamed of the Stag every night, with increasing vividity the further north they got.

"What will you do when we find this mythical creature, if you do not wish to fuse its antlers to your bones?" Nikolai asked one night as they all sat around a table in the common room of an inn, finishing a meal of stew and hardbread. "Though I can't even begin to imagine why that doesn't sound appealing," The last sentence dripped with sarcasm.

"You're not Grisha," Zoya snapped at him, more likely for the excuse to start an argument with the former prince than because she was actually offended. "So don't criticise Grisha customs like you know anything about them," The tiger amplifier around her wrist, which rested on the table holding her eating knife, was plain for all to see.

He turned to her with a saccharine smile. "My apologies, Nazyalenskaya. How ignorant of me. It sounds perfectly delightful to kill a large deer, carve out its bones and have them permanently attached to your body,"

That earned a snort of laughter from around the table, as Zoya glowered, about to deliver another cutting barb.

Alina quickly stepped in. "The Darkling has the journals of the man who turned the Stag into an amplifier - Ilya Morozov, the Bonesmith,"

"The Bonesmith?" Mal pulled a face. "He sounds like a monster from a folk tale,"

"The man was a raving lunatic," Alina agreed. "Deciphering his writing is enough to trigger a migraine, but he is the ultimate authority on amplifiers, especially this one. From what I gathered, Morozov seemed to think that unlike other creatures, you wouldn't have to kill the Stag if it deemed you worthy enough to wield its power. Seeing as I've been dreaming about the Stag for over a year now, surely that's a sign?" She grimaced. "However, after reading the same journals, the Darkling still thought that's impossible, so it's open to interpretation,"

"Do you know his name, Alina, or do you call him the Darkling in private?" Viktor asked conversationally, oblivious to derailing the conversation.

"Yes, I know his name, and no, I won't tell you," Alina said, cutting off his next question with a snort. "I feel like saying it aloud would summon him here,"

"Whatever his name is," Katya put them back on track. "I hate to say it, Alina, but I'm inclined to believe him. It goes against every rule of amplifiers, and the Small Science. There must be a transfer of energy, which cannot happen unless the creature is dead,"

"But Morozov was also well versed in merzost," Alina said. "It's so unpredictable that surely it's possible the usual rules don't apply?"

Nina pulled a face. "Can anyone be well-versed in merzost?"

"It's unpredictable to the point of being suicidal even to try," Kasper said.

"I'm sure you did not intend to make the Scar, or even use that kind of power at all," Zoya agreed. "Was Morozov so accomplished that he managed to tame the untameable?"

"You never know," Alina shrugged. "Even if he wasn't, it doesn't matter. Either the Stag somehow gives up its power, or we leave without it. I don't want it enough to kill it,"

"Your attitude has changed," Katya noted, her tone not at all accusatory, though Alina fought to stop herself becoming defensive. "It's not a criticism - all Grisha want amplifiers - but you were so dead set against it, before..."

"Before the Darkling took the throne," Nikolai finished with a wry smile, seeing right through her.

Alina took a breath, considering her words. "It was a point of pride before. I didn't need any help catching up to his strength - I'd do it on my own, in time. And I'd be a hypocrite if I was willing to steal something elses' bones for my own gain," She twisted the white ring on her thumb. "Now... I'd be stupid not to, if it's given willingly. Just in case," She forced a grin. "And he is an amplifier himself. He's got a natural advantage, so this wouldn't be cheating, really,"

They were all respectful enough to not say much else on the matter, and the conversation soon picked up. But later on, in the room she shared with Nina, Zoya and Katya - two of them to a bed - Nina broached the question.

"We never had time to ask you how it started. With you and him, I mean. Zoya and Viktor found out from your empty bed in an army camp, and the rest of us didn't know until we met up with them again, when we were shipped off out of the Little Palace whilst you were trapped in court,"

"Katya knew the day after," Alina said helpfully, dodging the question.

Both Zoya and Nina turned to glare at their friend. "You kept that quiet,"

"Only because you were all too thick to see through her after the winter fete, the first time she came back from the front," Katya was unconcerned.

"My point is," Nina pushed. "I never got to ask how you really felt about it all. The man practically raised you, always held a hideous power advantage over almost everyone - including you, for most of the time you've known him - and has now married another woman when you refused to be trapped in his gilded cage forever,"

"Saints, tell it like it is," Alina had to snort in laughter at her own sorry expense. "It's refreshing being around you lot again - no one humbles me quite as well,"

"My pleasure," Nina said, amused. "But go on. Surely you knew he wanted you, for years before? Everyone else did,"

"I thought it wasn't real at first," She shrugged. "I thought he was trying to unfoot me, embarrass me, in another failed attempt to make me easier to control - or that he was mocking me, because why would he ever want the irritating, half-feral child I was? It was only when I was... sixteen or so, I started to slowly realise it was real - soon after we got back from Fjerda, I think,"

"You were thinking like that when you were younger than sixteen?" Katya's eyes widened.

"Of course I was, he was a manipulative prick! If I wasn't so suspicious from the start, I'd have been an adoring little doll trailing after him, a poor deluded weapon for him to wield. He's not a kind man, even if he was willing to act like one to endear himself to a child - that girl would've been eaten alive, eventually, when he was feeling angry, cruel, or particularly ambitious,"

"He might be manipulative, cruel and ambitious, but I could not see him harming his precious Sun Summoner, surely?" Nina frowned.

"Harm? Physically, no. But he does not reliquish control easily. The reason why he lets me onto his war councils, why he listens to me when I tell him not to murder Ravkan civilians, why he's even letting me leave Os Alta without too much of a fight, is that I have clawed respect out of him. He knows now that it's better to have me on his side than against him. He also knows that any attempts to restrict me will turn me whole-heartedly against him, and isn't entirely sure that he'd win, if it came to it,"

"Which is why you want the Stag," Zoya realised with a sharp look her way. "It's not just about having to step in if he goes too far as Tsar - it's if he goes too far with you,"

Alina hadn't even consciously thought of it like that herself, but knew that Zoya was right. "Something clicked after the royal wedding," She said. "Mal couldn't have come at a better time. I've always insisted to the Tsar that he needs to treat me like an equal, whilst not believing that I am his equal in power myself. This will truly make us equals in every sense of the word. So if he has a change of heart whilst I'm away, once he's bored of his little queen and sends people after me, it won't matter. I love him, but I'm not letting anyone have that much power over me again,"

"Why, though?" Nina pushed. "He's beautiful, I'll give you that, and he gives the impression of being incredible in bed?" She raised an eyebrow; Alina just nodded, huffing a laugh, and she continued. "But he goes against everything you stand for. You've always riled against him so much, you hate being controlled. When I first heard, I could never imagine you... giving in like that,"

"He'd be like that regardless of if I slept with him or not," She said. "Might as well have some fun at the same time. Honestly, though, I don't know what it is. Like calls to like I suppose," She smiled wryly, none of them knowing the significance of that. He'll be here when all of you are dead. "I enjoy his company. I get a thrill out of provoking him. Now, at least, I can handle the rest. Have handled the rest - I'm here, aren't I? If I was out of my depth, I'd be locked up in Os Alta. And there's something about being looked at like you're the only thing someone cares about in the entire world, more precious than the kingdom he rules, the shadow he wields... no matter how twisted the motivations for that might be. Especially when I know I've never looked at him quite the same way,"

Her friends were silent for a moment. 

"He does look at you like that," Zoya admitted. "Sometimes. When he thinks no one's looking,"

"Strange," Alina said. "I thought it was just when I was on top of him,"

That broke the seriousness of the discussion, and they all descended into fits of giggles like a bunch of children. Which, she supposed, they were not that long ago.

*

As it had before, on her journeys to Tsibeya and to Fjerda, the countryside got wilder the further north they got, and towns and villages became more rare, even on the main roads. It was the height of summer, and the land was verdant green, alive with wild animals and warmed by sunshine. The green became deeper, less bright, as they neared the Permafrost. Mountains covered in ancient pine forests, the ground covered in spongy moss; moss also hung from the trees, like thick, ethereal cobwebs. It was vastly different to how the landscape looked in the sparse silence of winter, blanketed in snow and ice. A different kind of beauty.

The further they went, Mal became more and more certain they were nearing the Stag.

"It wasn't far from here we found it before," He said.

"That was weeks ago," Nina pointed out, but sounded curious at the same time. "If not months. How do you know it hasn't moved?"

"I just do," He shrugged. "I found it before - I can find it again,"

"Mal can find anything," Alina chimed in. "It's weird, and I've no idea how he does it, but we could be lost miles into the woods and he'd get us out again. I could hide wherever I wanted as a game and he'd always know where,"

"Maybe you were just terrible at hide-and-seek," Zoya sniffed but made no objection, pretending not to see Nikolai hastily stifling a laugh.

They came across the Stag at sunset, having pushed on despite needing to make camp for the night amid the growing darkness, trusting Mal when he insisted they were close by. The hillside forest was lit by a golden glow, as the creature emerged from between the pines, antlers framing the setting sun. All of them stopped dead, frozen at the arresting sight.

The Stag was even more magnificent in person than it was in her dreams. Enormous antlers stretched far wider and taller than was natural, tines forming a near-circle, and the huge creature gave off a presence that only drew her closer. Surety, certaintly, warmth. Alina was suddenly overwhelmed by the desire to touch it.

The others clearly did not share that desire, keeping back, wary.

"Careful, Alina," Kasper warned. "Those antlers could impale you,"

"You're beautiful," She ignored him, speaking to the Stag in a murmur so it did not bolt, creeping closer. "Who could even dream of killing you?" The creature stamped its hoof and snorted into the evening air. "It's alright," She said. "I'm not like the others who came looking for you. I've got all the power I could ever want, and then some. But you know that already. I just wanted to see you for myself - you don't have to haunt my dreams anymore. You were around long before the Bonesmith, weren't you? A myth even before he made you the world's strongest amplifier,"

The way it looked at her, with a human level of intelligence, was entrancing. Alina reached out a hand and placed it on the nose of the Stag, who had been a mythical being even before Ilya Morozova had turned it into a living amplifier. The Stag leaned into her touch, and a current of energy ran through her, that sense of surety even stronger now; there was not a bone of doubt in her body. She got the sense of a burden carried for many years, unwanted but closely guarded, something to be rid of but only given to the right person.

Then, the magnificent creature stepped back, lowering its head with a shake, before galloping off into the snowy wilderness. In its wake, it left a shedded antler, which pulsed with the same energy that the Stag itself had done.

"Is that what I think it is?" Mal moved forward, peering down at the antler.

"It can't be," Zoya said, though did not sound entirely certain. "The Stag is not dead - it can't give its life force,"

"It wasn't born an ampifier," Alina said. "It existed long before Morozov. That power was only a burden to it,"

"How do you know?" Katya asked, not taking her eyes off of the antler.

"It... showed me is the wrong word. More like a feeling, when I touched it,"

"Well, it definitely isn't just an antler," Viktor said, slightly awed. "You can all feel it too, right?"

All the Grisha present nodded; as did, surprisingly, Mal. 

"Why can you feel it and I can't?" Nikolai gave him an odd look. "You're not Grisha. To me, it might as well be any old piece of bone,"

"I'm an amplifier," Mal shrugged. "Might have something to do with it,"

Alina would have questioned that further, if her attention wasn't too enraptured by the antler on the ground.

"It feels like my tiger claw," Zoya admitted. "But much stronger,"

"Who's going to touch it?" Viktor asked with a grin.

Katya corrected him. "Who's stupid enough to touch it?"

"There's an obvious answer," Nina said.

Alina was already reaching out to pick it up, pausing slightly to glare at her laughing friends, before grabbing the antler in her gloved hand. Nothing happened, as expected, though the call of it got stronger. "It won't do anything without skin contact," She said. "And given what happened last time my power got away from me, shouldn't someone less destructive touch it first? I don't want to kill everyone in a mile radius,"

"Again," Zoya muttered.

"That's unusually sensible of you, Alina," Nikolai said. 

She shot them both a rude gesture.

"Best not Viktor, Zoya or Nina either," Kasper pointed out. "Especially since Zoya already has an amplifer. And perhaps not me. I don't want to discover what happens when Healer powers get out of control,"

"So me, then," Katya snorted. "Fine," She took off her glove, and took a breath. Then she bent down and placed one bare finger on the antler. "It feels no different," She picked it up in her hand.

"Try and do something you couldn't normally do," Zoya said. "Something that's normally beyond your strength,"

Katya made a form with her other hand. Nothing happened. "It's not meant for me," She said, unsurprised. "The Stag gave its power to you, Alina, whether you want it or not,"

The sun was almost fully below the horizon now, the sky a vivid painting with splashes of orange, red, gold and deep dark blue. Unusually, Alina hesitated.

"You already wear your own bones on your finger," Nikolai pointed out. "This can hardly be worse than that,"

She smiled but it faded fast. "Would it have to be fused to me? Or is skin contact enough?"

"Won't know until you try it," Katya shrugged.

That was a good point. Not wanting to overthink it any longer, nor work herself into a state, Alina reached out a hand. "Cover your eyes," She said, to the others watching in silence. 

Her friend carefully handed her the antler.

The feeling was instantaneous. She gasped, her head flinging back, as a column of light speared through her, stretching up to the heavens. For a moment, it was as though the sun had risen once again. The hillside and forest were illuminated enough to turn night into day. It felt wonderful, but not like the dreamy, detached, dangerous and unstoppable force of merzost. This was focused, vivid, familiar, and so real, that she could not stop the smile spreading across her face. She could tear another tunnel through the Fold in seconds, shatter the walls of the Ice Court, Cut down half a forest. Or she could not; she could rein that power in whenever she chose. It was hers, and she controlled it; it did not control her.

The blazing column of golden light condensed into a burning sphere in her two palms, quivering with pure energy. Her head snapped back upright, and she laughed out of pure euphoria, as her friends turned back around. None of them had so much as a sunburn; she was stronger and could control it! Even if Aleksander had done as he'd threatened years ago and killed the Stag himself, she doubted he'd have been able to wrest this power away from her for very long.

"Saints," Nikolai breathed.

That broke the spell. "No," Alina extinguished the light in her hand, though her whole body was still racing from the excitement. "Not that! Never that,"

The former prince burst out laughing. "You know I did not mean it like that, Alina! It's a common expression, when one sees something that defies belief,"

"A miracle, if you will," Viktor added rather slyly, and she sent a burning sting of light his way, catching his hand and making him curse. "Alina, you prick! All that power and you still keep that old trick up,"

"You had it coming," Nina pointed out. "Do you feel as good as you look? Because I'm jealous that I didn't get one, now - you look incredible,"

"Grisha vitality," Kasper said. "At its most extreme," The same vitality that has sustained Aleksander and Baghra for centuries.

"It feels... wonderful," She moved on, not wanting to elaborate. "Katya, can you make me another ring? It clearly works through skin contact," Even if fusing it to her would increase the power of the amplifier - which there was no guarantee of - Alina did not want that. 

Her friend obliged, taking the small section of antler back - and with it, the rush of new power - and fashioning it easily into a ring that fit the first finger on her left hand perfectly.

"What happens if you touch me with that on?" Mal blurted out, only to flush as everyone looked at him with a raised eyebrow, replying defensively, "Well how else do I say it? Would I amplify you even more, or would that one dwarf me? Where's the limit?"

That silenced them all. A very good point, which she did not know how to answer.

"Grisha can only have one amplifier," Zoya said, as though reading straight from the textbook.

"So would Alina drop dead if she touched him while wearing that ring?" Nikolai asked, clearly not taking it seriously.

"Quite possibly!"

"What about if you touch the Darkling?" Nina's eyes widened. As did Alina's.

"He always wears gloves, that's nothing to worry about," Viktor, on the other hand, waved that one off.

"Alina most likely sees him without the gloves, idiot! Or I'd hope so, at least,"

"Either way, she's touching far more of him than his hands,"

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," He started to laugh like a schoolboy. "That would kill the mood. Quite literally, if you died the moment you reach for his - "

"Stop right there," Alina cut him off. "None of this is a problem if I can just take the ring off whenever I want,"

"We're still operating under the assumption that the reductive theory of 'Grisha can only have one amplifier' is correct," Nikolai said. "Is she really going to, I don't know, explode if she touches another one?"

"Reductive theory?" Zoya bristled. "It's not a theory, it's a fact, otkazat'sya. It is taught in our first lessons in the Small Science, and reiterated throughout our schooling. There are countless examples of Grisha who got hungry for power and tried more than one. In the mildest cases, their first amplifier simply broke and fell off - undoubtedly painful - and the second one refused to bond. In the worst cases, yes, human combustion has been observed,"

Nikolai rose to the challenge beautifully, always loving a chance to debate (or bicker, in this case). "You are failing to take into account several novel factors," He said, keeping his vaguely amused air in the face of Zoya's obvious irritation. "One, this is no ordinary amplifier - it is a mythical stag of legend that no one was able to track until now. No one knows how it will behave, or if it will follow standard rules. Two, on a similar vein, Alina is no ordinary Grisha. Three, living amplifiers exist - Mal and the Darkling - which shows power can be temporarily transferred through skin contact without fusing their bones to your own. That stag is very much alive, and yet its antler can still transfer power to Alina when she touches it,"

"Perhaps, but there's only one way to find out," Zoya snapped. "And that's for Alina to touch Mal now. That's a hell of a gamble to make, when she can just take the ring off. Not only does she die and we all lose a close friend, but none of will ever be able to return to this country again once the Tsar hears we let her kill herself. Never mind what will happen to Ravka when he realises she's gone forever, the only one who has the hope of challenging him?"

"Intelligence versus common sense," Kasper muttered to Alina as the argument between the two continued. "Who will win?"

"They've both got a point," She said quietly back. "But I'm going to have to give the win to Zoya this time. I can just take the ring off. Even I'm not stupid enough to risk the consequences when the solution is so easy," She grinned to lighten the mood, talking over the bickering. "Katya, if I'd asked, would you have made me an amplifier in the form of two antlers fused to my head?" 

Her friend snorted, even as Zoya continued to glare at Nikolai. "If you truly wanted that, Alina, then by all means,"

*

I'm baaackkk!!!  I hope this was a nice surprise for everyone, I'm glad to be publishing on this story again, especially considering it focuses on Alina and her friends again. I have almost finished every chapter on Alina's travels (NOT the whole story, bear in mind that after this series of 5ish chapters there will be another gap and it will be marked as completed again), and I will be releasing them every few days or so. Oh and yes, Genya and Alina's devices are morse code transmitters haha. Please let me know your thoughts on this chapter and thanks so much for reading!!