Anyway, since grisha typically live long lives and assuming how powerful a grisha is=how long their lifespan will be (since Zoya practically became the grishaverse’s avatar) that means she’s gonna live years (maybe even decades) after Nik’s gone.
(please tap for higher quality and also to read my tiny handwriting :))) )
another snippet from chapter 6 cause it’s been hard to write lately, so enjoy Nikolai’s witty little sister Linnea as she enters the scene, more zoyalai banter and an exasperated Zoya. (and funny mentions of the Dregs)
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They reconvened in what looked like a study, except it was twice as big as Zoya’s sitting room in the Grand Palace and she doubted Kirigin had ever dedicated himself to paperwork. Nikolai and Tamar were sorting through reports while Zoya read the signed documents Nikolai had brought back from the Merchant Council, trying to soothe the brewing anger in her heart and the pulsing pain in her temples. Zoya lifted her head toward the door when she heard Nadia’s voice in the hallway, showing their guest the way. Nadia entered the room first, coming to sit beside her wife; behind her, a girl gracefully walked through the door, her steps light and her posture straight.
Linnea Opjer appeared older than her twenty-two years of age, with a knowing smile dancing constantly on her lips, her look quickly scanning every place she entered and studying every person she met. The analytical intensity of her gaze was eavened out by the soft quality of her voice and movements. Linnea was made of inconsistencies that weirdly fitted perfectly together; the lethal quiet with which she swayed through the world rivaled the ravenous chaos of the gears constantly turning in her mind. She looked the spitting image of Nikolai, to the point of absurdity considering they were only half-related; her golden curls were messily held at the top of her head by a pencil she kept adjusting with ink stained fingers. Some strands fell on her face, framed by a sharp jaw and a slightly crooked nose that only added to the memorability of her features. The handsomeness clearly ran in the family; the only difference between them were Linnea’s clear eyes, azure like a river caught by the summer sun. The gleam of brilliance and cunning in them, though, that was all too Nikolai’s not to be noticed. Linnea crutsied in Zoya’s direction.
“Your Highness,” she greeted. Zoya glared muderously at Nikolai, who cautiously averted his gaze.
“Did your brother not advise you that there is no need to do that?”
“He probably did,” Linnea admitted, joining her hands behind her back. Her look kept darting to every corner, lingering on details, as if she was assessing something. “Then again, as I am sure you are aware, my brother tends to provide an excessive amount of talking. I usually tune out the things I consider unnecessary.”
She locked eyes on Zoya’s, a corner of her mouth twisting in a comradely smirk. Her tone was affectionate; even knowing each other for such a brief time, she and Nikolai were already growing very fond of each other. Zoya liked Linnea. She was quieter than Nikolai, more practical, but she had the same creative and restless energy, the same optimistic outcome on life and a convolutive mind. This would be her last year at Ketterdam’s university before graduating in naval engineering. Linnea, like Nikolai, was an inventor though; engineering was just one of her many talents. A small wishful part of Zoya had wanted Linnea to like her too, from the first time they met.
“You’d have to ignore roughly half the things he says.”
“At least,” Linnea shrugged her shoulders. “Sometimes more.”
Tamar laughed, bobbing her chin at the girl. “I like her,” she stated.
“I told you,” remarked Nadia, casting a fond smile at Linnea. Nadia had given her an extended tour of the lab when the girl had visited Os Alta, cushioning her from the incessant enthusiasm Nikolai was showering her with. Linnea had gracefully taken it. Zoya distinctively remembered the night the three of them spent discussing the cooling system for the newest model of flying ship’s engines, while she had drifted to sleep lulled by their muffled excited voices in the sitting room.
“I am standing right here,” came Nikolai’s retort, his tone slightly offended. “And I feel the need to remind you that everything I say has a purpose.”
Zoya would have preferred to entertain this light banter, to grab some lunch on the docks with Linnea and Nikolai, to hear the girl tell them about her university days, about a life Zoya and Nikolai never knew. Ravka demanded everything but lightness, though. She gestured for Linnea to take a seat, ringing for some coffee; Linnea enjoyed it bitter and strong. The girl strode to a chair, taking off her refined wool coat. Underneath, she wore a loose blouse and practical pants and boots; despite her casual attire, she glowed with confidence and surety. Every inch Nikolai’s sister.
“Why has your brother dragged you away from your studies?”
Linnea downed her coffee, adjusting the pencil in her hair. “I asked to come, actually. I knew he would be in town, and I jumped at the chance to update him on some interesting discoveries I made.”
Zoya arched her brow in Nikolai’s direction. Whatever had the fool pulled his sister into? She reminded herself not to underestimate Linnea. The smug sparkle in her look suggested she was not an innocent girl being deceived into action.
“Is it something we need to worry about?”
“Part of it, not anymore. The rest, maybe.” Linnea grabbed a leather briefcase in front of her, pulling out some files. She extended them to Tamar, who began sorting through the papers, growing more worried with every turn of the page. An uncomfortable feeling creeped in Zoya’s stomach. More trouble brewing.
“Tell Zoya what happened, Linnea.” Zoya peered at Nikolai: he was practically beaming with pride, shifting in his seat, barely restraining himself from unleashing an avalanche of words on them.
“Please Linnea, do, before your brother steals the spotlight and doom falls upon us.”
At least Linnea could be a bit more concise than Nikolai and cut straight to the point. The girl straightened her spine and held her chin high. You could witness her clever brain at work, disguised under her sheer beauty. She flicked the pencil from her curls, leaving them to unfurl on her neck. While she talked, her hands scribbled mindlessly on a piece of paper, sketching as if she needed a practical way to soothe her energy and focus.
“As you know, I work at the university. Some laboratories are located in the older buildings, outside the chaos of the city. I used to go there to…experiment with some inventions.” Experiment with some inventions was clearly an elegant way to refer to fiddling with dangerous mechanical devices that could explode. Zoya was sure she was not imagining the envious look on Nikolai’s face. Then again, he had been the one to drop his studies and travel the world as a damn privateer. “One of my colleagues is an expert chemist with a big mouth. She let it slip that they were experimenting on parem.”
A bolt of renewed fear and anger shot through Zoya’s chest. Flames of rage ignited in her lungs, cutting the air short, as her power began stirring. Parem. Her mind drifted back to the stocks hidden in the warehouse. Both West Ravka and Kerch dallying in parem could not just be a horrific coincidence. She felt Nikolai’s hand discreetly brushing her thigh under the table, a reassuring touch to prevent her from summoning another storm inside the room.
“They were trying to make the drug more bearable for Grisha. More serviceable, marketable. The quantities were small, the remnants of a previous stock held in the basement under the laboratories. It was supposed to be shipped here, to Os Kervo.”
Her temper was barely controlled now. Every word Linnea spoke felt like a thorn breaking the skin. More suffering for Grisha at the hand of their people. Linnea sent a reassuring smile her way, no doubt noticing the way her knuckles turned white on the wooden table.
“It’s not a problem anymore,” she declared, firm and confident. Zoya shot her a confused look, sweeping her gaze from her to Nikolai.
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s just say someone might have stolen it.” Nikolai was not able to contain himself anymore. “And destroyed it.”
“With the help of some very expert thieves.” Linnea added.
Zoya’s eyes widened in shock, and her disbelieving gaze snapped to Nikolai. “You let her associate herself with those reprobates? Your younger sister ?” she seethed, utterly stunned. “Are you out of your mind to involve her in this?” Nikolai held his hands up in a surrendering gesture and outright laughed in Zoya’s face.
“You assume I have any kind of influence on what she does. Or that I even knew what she was planning on achieving.” Zoya could not decide which of the two siblings deserved her glare more right now. Perhaps it would be better to disguise the faint admiration for Linnea’s venture and rely on the common annoyance that came along with Nikolai’s recklessness. Yet she really admired what Linnea had accomplished.
“You did this on your own?”
Linnea shrugged her shoulders again. “One needs to know how to navigate the perilous waters of Ketterdam. It was not particularly challenging to find the Dregs, nor to understand which one of them you associated with. Pleasant fellow, I have to say.”
The opinion was given with a satisfied nod, leaving no room for considering its honesty. If there was even the hint of a doubt about Nikolai and Linnea’s parentage, it would be very well swept away by their mutual liking of that disrespectful Brekker individual. Only someone with Nikolai’s same blood and twisted brain could find the thief pleasant.
“Besides, it was threatening my brother’s fianceè’s rule. Could not ignore it.”
Zoya rolled her eyes, anticipating Tamar’s overly amused comment. “Not his fianceè.”
Linnea arched a brow in Nikolai’s direction. “Have you not asked her yet?”
“Just drop it”, suggested Tamar again, throwing the files on the table. “Nikolai is stubborn like hell and Zoya is getting impatient. But you won’t get this out of them.” Zoya clicked her tongue, refusing to admit how accurately Tamar grasped the absurd situation.
“I have to say I’m feeling cornered to justify myself, but I am courting her.”
“You are such an idiot.”
“I kindly suggest romantic.”
“Are you sure we’re related?”
“Can we go back to the business at hand?”
Linnea shot him a look that clearly read they would be resuming this conversation. She turned thoughtful, keeping her attention on him. “The sharpshooter kept asking about your flying ships. I revealed to him I knew Sturmhond just for the sake of seeing him squirm with excitement.”
Thrill sparked on Nikolai’s face. Nothing like a boost to his ego to raise his mood even more. “I know. I already promised I would take him for a ride, before we caught up with you.”
“Don’t bother.” The girl crumpled her sketch, twisting the pencil up in her hair once more. “I told him I could build him a small one.” Of course she could. Should Zoya even ask? “He practically proposed to me on the spot, much to his boyfriend’s amusement. Oh,” she seemed to remember Zoya’s presence, “you know he’s a Fabrikator, right? Not that good at hiding it, might I add.”
At this point, the queen was rendered speechless. Linnea smirked at Nikolai; she propped her elbows on the table and leaned her chin in her joined hands, in a pose that could pass as childish but looked nothing but mischievous. His brother grinned back with an eerily identical expression and winked at her.
Saints, Zoya realized with an exasperated grunt, there’s two of them.
I don’t know how to express this well but I really like how flowers and ribbons are motifs that Bardugo emphasizes especially in Kaz Brekker’s backstory and Nikolai’s life which I feel are sort of foils of each other. Both of them mask their feelings for their crush - Nikolai with humor and Kaz by not addressing them at all. While Nikolai came from wealth and Kaz from destitution, I feel they both desire the same simple things. To have their loved one safe and to maintain some sort of power but not abusing their power (Kaz taking Haskell down) (Nikolai trying to choose a rightful leader). They both have a sense of moral and justness that they cling to.
Kaz remembers the detail of Saskia’s red ribbon. It’s a symbol of his lost innocence, childhood, his love for life and others. I thought it stood out because this was a detail disclosed to us in a flashback but Kaz didn’t verbally share it with us , the readers. It is only when he repeats this detail to Pekka when we realize this red ribbon is personal to him and deeply affected him. Kaz is a deeply sentimental person at heart and he is still a child hurt by the loss of losing everything that made him happy. He lost the red ribbon. And you see why he is so deeply vengeful. He remembers everything he lost.
For Nikolai. he seems to have this sort of fetish . Well I don’t like fetish word. But obsession with Zoya’s ribbon. It’s Something that signals his crush on her throughout the book.
Geraniums, Inej’s mother’s favorite flower, comes up a lot. And right after Inej talks about Kaz and how he won’t give her flowers. But obviously Kaz is this man who is providing for her. He gives her a ship. He thinks of what she wants. We do get a flower moment in CK when Kaz dumps the geraniums into the canal and swoops a cloak around Inej like a phantom in the night. It’s sweeping. It’s romantic and over-the-top.
Not sure about other flower moments but it is mentioned quite a lot in the books like the blue irises for Alina as a symbol of the Darkling’s manipulation and Mal’s care for her.
I love how flowers symbolize the thought and care that the partner shows for the other. I guess that’s usually what most people use flowers for in books but I like how its mentioned consistently through different relationships in the books.
If there is one thing I AM going to do, it’s draw a bunch of pretty women from my silly little comfort series on my silly little day off for the good of my silly mental health, so jot that down
Copying@xan-drei ‘s caption because I can’t think of a better one
a zoyalai illustration for @nekonamicosplay‘s @grishaversebigbang fic, From Eden! def check out the other amazingly talented artists in my group: @strawberrylark @octopiconsortium @hakubasaguwu @xan-drei
and ofc a special thanks to the beta readers/editors: @forthegenuine @kestrel221!!! i had a lovely time working with all of you and i’m so glad we had another great GVBB!
“He would not beg Zoya to stay. It was not in his nature to plead with anyone, and that was not the pact they shared. They did not look to each other for comfort. They kept each other marching. They kept each other strong”
And here is my second fic for the @grishaversebigbang ! ZOYALINA BABIES! So much love to my wonderful gang, you are all so sweet and talented and supportive and it was a true joy working with you on this!!
Rating:Mature Relationships: Zoya Nazyalensky/Alina Starkov, David Kostyk/Genya Safin, Darkling has one-sided feelings for Alina, friendship trio Alina/Zoya/Genya, Malina (platonic) Additional Tags: Growing Up Together, Zoya PoV, Alina grows up at the Little Palace, (sort of — from the age of 13), Rivals to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, Angst, Pining, so much pining, 4 years of pining, Zoya “i won’t say i’m in love” Nazyalensky, Alina “i’m too dumb to see what’s right in front of me” Starkov, and now for the Darkling-related content warnings, cw: grooming, cw: ancient man has feelings for underage girl, just cw: darkling really, Coming of Age, Jealous Zoya, Getting Together, Slow Burn
Summary:
“Come on, please,” a little voice begged. “Please don’t die.”
Zoya struggled to flutter open her frozen lashes. “What…”
Above her leaned a girl with tears pearling from her eyes — and they were such beautiful eyes, dark as trees and oceans in the night. She looked Zoya’s age or thereabout, with silky black hair and a pale, delicate face.
And, impossibly, the girl was glowing.
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An AU in which Alina gets taken to the Little Palace at 13, and her relationship with Zoya ends up following a very different route.
The snow was black with blood. Zoya’s blood. Her back burnt against the frozen ground; the cold seeped into her wounds. The white tiger had pierced her kefta, her jumper, her skin, leaving her bleeding and exposed to the frost. The mythical beast’s body lied a few feet from her, sprawled against thick roots. Its spine was bent in half, broken. Zoya hadn’t intended to kill it when she’d summoned a desperate gust of wind. She hadn’t intended anything except to survive.
That impulse seemed very distant, now.
Is this how I die? Alone in the cold, my blood in the snow?
She was barely thirteen years old. There was so much more she’d wanted to do, so much more she had to prove, but the frostbites were spreading up her limbs. The Darkling’s grisha were sleeping, or they simply didn’t care. No one was coming to help her.
The tiger cubs were long gone. At least they would be free to grow as strong as their mother — not reduced to a greedy grisha’s trophy or a male tiger’s meal. The thought was strangely comforting. The cubs would live.
Then, Zoya felt sunlight.
Warm, gentle on her skin. It had to be death coming to claim her — why else would she feel the heat of the sun in the middle of this winter night? Even during the day the sun wasn’t this warm, this close to the Permafrost.
This is a nice way to go, she thought. Zoya had always been more suited for warm weather.
“Come on, please,” a little voice begged. “Please don’t die.”
Zoya struggled to flutter open her frozen lashes. “What…”
Above her leaned a girl with tears pearling from her eyes — and they were such beautiful eyes, dark as trees and oceans in the night. She looked Zoya’s age or thereabout, with silky black hair and a pale, delicate face.
And, impossibly, the girl was glowing.
“Oh thank the Saints, you’re awake,” she said with a laugh that shuddered in relief. “Y-you’ve lost a lot of blood, but it’s going to be okay, alright? You’re going to be okay, I promise. Mal went to get some bandages—”
Zoya could barely hear any of her words. She was glowing. Her light was bright and warm, as though the sun was trapped under her skin. Zoya had been around grisha power for years, surrounded by every prowess of the Small Science, and she had never seen anything like this.
“Why are you…” But Zoya’s voice trailed off, weak. Even with the soothing warmth, it hurt. It hurt so much.
The girl said something else, something that sounded panicked, but suddenly, she stopped. Silence engulfed the clearing. The sounds of the forest vanished, all at once — even the wind quieted, even the distant howls of animals.
At the edge of her vision, Zoya noticed the Darkling.
The girl’s sunlight died like a snuffed candle, throwing the world back in darkness, and just as quickly she was bolting out of the clearing into the thick of the forest. The Darkling shouted something, his shadows thrusting outward, chasing after the girl.
Dimly, Zoya hoped he wouldn’t catch her.
The thought was confusing, inexplicable, but she didn’t have the strength to examine it now.
All she could do was close her eyes, and lie in the snow.
my participation to the reverse minibang for @grishaversebigbang starring Zoya as a tattoo witch! Check out the companion piece with Alina by my team-mate @floriahart [x] and the lovely fic inspired by it by @wafflesandkruge[x]
