Chapter Text
“The Shu have named a new Empress.”
The Darkling took the report between two fingers, then paused. His eyes snapped up to meet Ivan’s, who had a knowing look on his face.
“Empress?”
Ivan nodded, and the Darkling hurriedly opened the slip of paper, which was maddeningly brief. The missive came from one of his spies installed near Bhez Ju. The words on the note were slightly smeared. His spy had written with such haste, they did not have time to let the ink dry.
“A young girl has been named Empress. Commoners worship her. She is called divine,” the Darkling read aloud. Stunned, he refolded the paper, tapping it against his lips in thought. “Is she not a daughter of the Taban family? Yet, they do not call her ‘Queen’…and she would be named if she were royal. How does a common girl topple the Shu monarchy?”
“There is something else, moi soverenyi,” Ivan said, his voice tight. “Something that was not safe to put on paper.”
It was a rare sight for the Darkling to see his personal aide look nervous. The heartrender was normally stoic and unflappable. “Speak.”
Ivan’s voice was hushed. His eyes wide with fear and awe.
“She is a Sun summoner.”
***
The arrival of the new Shu Empress was not kept secret for very long, and soon even the streets of East and West Ravka were abuzz with rumors. She was a long lost princess who had come to reclaim her throne. She was a peasant girl, chosen by divine gods to rule. The ruling Taban family had all been assassinated. Makhi Kir-Taban was still the queen and advising the young Empress.
The Empress could make light appear from darkness.
No matter how fanciful the stories that swirled around this girl, they all had something in common. She could light up the night and transform it into day. She could call down light until her very being shone like the sun in the sky.
She could destroy the Shadow Fold.
The Darkling immediately sent several regiments to establish a camp on the Ravkan and Shu Han border. Any traders that passed through the nearby regions were paid handsomely for any information they knew. The reports were confusing and contradictory, and for the first few months it was difficult to hear anything reliable. Shu Han was in an uproar, and the Darkling spent days in his war room, analyzing any piece of intel with the General of the First Army and the other commanders.
What they were able to glean was the Taban family was intact, but ousted from the palace. The capital, Ahmrat Jen, was in civil war. There were still many soldiers and other noble families that were loyal to the Tabans, and they were mounting assaults in the capital to try and win the palace back.
But the people clamored for their new Empress. She was called many things: the peasant queen, the Sun Empress, the young phoenix. The temples across the entire nation swore fealty to her, and the common people were swept up in a fever. They were revolting against the Tabans with sickle and stone, throwing every province in Shu Han to civil unrest.
“The religious order has decided to oust the Queens. This little empress of theirs is just a figurehead they’ve installed.” The General of the First Army scowled as he studied the map in the Darkling’s war room. “It wouldn’t be the first time the church has crowned their own King.”
“But would the Shu allow a grisha to rule them?” Prince Vasily asked.
The General scoffed. “She isn’t grisha. She’s a fairytale, to unite the common folk. What we should be more concerned with is whether this means a change in temperature to their relations with Ravka.”
The Darkling could feel the press of eyes upon him. Every member of the Second Army present in the war room, his grisha soldiers, were glancing at each other and then to him. All wondering the very thing that the General had so easily dismissed.
It pressed on the Darkling’s mind too, but he kept his silence for the moment. “If the Taban family has lost the hearts of the Shu people, then it is only a matter of time for the new regime to settle. We will see if they accept an envoy from King Alexander then.”
The General of the First Army sounded nervous. “And if they have a new banner to rally behind? To wage a holy war on Ravka?”
The Darkling simply said, “We will be ready.”
***
The Darkling looked at the clever contraption spun up by David Kostyk, one of his more talented fabrikators. There were small mirrors sewn into a pair of gloves. A lantern housed in the chest of the kefta. By making certain gestures with his arms and hands, he could reflect the light, flickering beams seemingly shooting from his fingertips.
“You see the problem, don’t you?” David said, making firelight dance on the wall.
The Darkling did. “There must still be an external source of light.”
“An Inferni can summon a flame that is more discreet, but the problem remains the same. And this cannot increase the power of the light, only redirect it.”
The Darkling thanked the fabrikator, eyes narrowing at the paltry light show on the wall. He had asked David to come up with any device or parlor trick that would allow someone to appear as if they could summon light. But it was as he suspected, it looked like stage craft. Nothing more.
The King was stupid enough to believe that the Shu people would be taken in by such a cheap demonstration. The Darkling knew you could not arrest the hearts of an entire nation off a simple trick.
But then, what was the truth?
The Darkling found himself stepping into Baghra’s hut, wordlessly finding a seat across from her cook fire. She gave him no greeting, as if she had expected his presence already.
“Is she?” he asked.
His mother shot him a look across the weak flames. As if he was asking a stupid question.
“It’s impossible,” he insisted, unwilling to believe.
“You would question what is possible?” Baghra asked, a dry and mirthless laughter underlining her words. “You’re afraid. You should be.”
“Why should I be afraid?” he asked, eyes glittering in the firelight, “if she really is a sun summoner, then it puts the world in my grasp.”
The shadows on the hut wall began to grow taller, creeping outwards until they covered every surface. Baghra’s shadow lengthened, reached forward and snuffed out the cook fire so that they were both plunged into a darkness so thick, he could only see the gleam of her eyes.
“You are afraid, because you’ve never met your equal.”