Dishonorable discharge. That was how her father had thought to treat the man who'd saved countless lives with his desertion. Olenna tried to remind herself to be grateful. He hadn't ordered both Mal and Alina's public executions for defying his orders. They yet lived, and Alina was appointed General. It was lenient, but it was still unjust. It didn't matter why they defied The King, only that they had. These were the only moments she found herself vying for the throne and the power it would grant her.

Olenna clenched her teeth so hard to keep from scoffing that she felt the beginning of a migraine bloom behind her eyes. Her blood boiled as the courtiers shuffled out of the throne room like an ostentation of brightly feathered peacocks. When the King finally dismissed them, Alina stormed from the throne room, and if Olenna hadn't known better, she'd have thought the light shining through the domed skylight grew clouded with darkness.

Alina already had a small court of her own with the addition of Tamar, Tolya, and Mal, who followed her blazed trail almost as swiftly. Olenna stood as still as the marble statues lining the throne room. The Queen sighed heavily, her shoulders sinking beneath her draped gown.

"Your Father must rest now. It's been quite the morning. We will see you all at Nikolai's banquet tonight. I expect you to be on your very best behavior." She eyed each one of them sharply. "We must convince the Nobles that we are as united as ever." Even if they were anything but.

Nikolai stepped forward to place a tender kiss on his mother's forehead. Tatiana smiled and caressed her son's cheek with the palm of her hand before turning to help The King from his throne.

Vasily turned on his heels and tipped his head sharply to his siblings. "Welcome back, little brother." There was no mistaking the emphasis on little. Vasily didn't wait for a response before he absconded from the throne room with two servants scurrying behind.

Let the games begin.

Olenna and Nikolai stood to the side as their parents made a slow procession back towards the doors of the king's private quarters. When the doors closed behind the last of their kin, Nikolai sighed deeply and turned to his sister. His dashing grin remade into one as dazzling as the Lantsov emeralds.

"Well, considering no one was beheaded, I'll count that as a success." The golden tassels of his epaulets swayed as he spoke in animated tones. Olenna's fists bunched in the fabric of her skirts. Her lips tensed as the silence set in and the restraints of court abated. Nikolai's smile slid from his face like rain off a tin roof as he took her in. Olenna didn't dare look directly at him. She could already feel the heat rising in her blood and the foreboding pinpricks at the backs of her eyes.

"Olenna?" Nikolai took half a step towards her. Was he truly so clueless? Olenna studied him from her periphery, the crease of his brow, the small gap of shock between his lips. Her ribs expanded against her corset with a hot breath into her lungs. Olenna's words scraped off her tongue like a blade striking a flint.

"All this time, this is what you were doing?" Nikolai's neck pulled back as if he'd been smacked, his mouth agape. Their mother would've said, "You'll catch flies, not suitors like that." For half a moment, Nikolai was devoid of wit and charm. Then he seemed to collect himself, and once again he was as rugged as a swashbuckling sailor -- Pirate. Olenna wanted to scream.

"Well, you don't need to make it sound like I've accomplished nothing." Nikolai clutched his heart theatrically and feigned hurt. "I'll have you know I am a very well-respected Privateer."

Olenna continued to stare at him. Did he truly have no idea? Did he even think about how this would affect her? And now he spoke to her as he would anyone else with his charming facade. "This is what you were doing?" She repeated, her volume rising just enough to wipe the smirk from her brother's lips and twist them into a frown. "Galavanting about playing pirate?"

"Privateer-"

"All of it-" Olenna flourished a hand to stop him. She was shouting now. "-while I was here, trapped beneath the thumb of our father, being groomed for marriage by our mother?" Olenna's voice built like the rushing flames of a wildfire. "That is what you are telling me?" Nikolai's brows furrowed, and he took a step, reaching out.

"Lena," Olenna drew back as if he'd lunged at her with a hot poker.

"Do not, 'Lena me, Nikolai Lantsov!" Her words sliced through the air like a cut. Burning rage erupted within her gaze, scorching Nikolai where he stood. The nickname felt like a betrayal, a bald-faced lie from his lips. "I have endured years in this place without you. Did you not promise you would stay by my side? That we would face whatever the world threw at us as one? And yet you left."     

"I couldn't stay here. You know that. It was too much, I needed to find out who I was without all of this holding me back. I was drowning."Nikolai's voice went hoarse at the end, his neck muscles strained beneath the skin. The throne room went silent again, the words charging the air around them. Olenna swallowed hard, her body stone still as she stared into her brother's all too familiar eyes.

Olenna's words were so soft contrated with her furious accusations of before. "Did you ever think to take me with you? To, at the very least, tell me of your adventures in our letters so I could share a modicum of the freedoms you discovered?"

Nikolai shook his head. "I needed to keep up the pretense of my studies in Ketterdam--"

"To me?" The boy Olenna knew before wouldn't have kept anything from her. They only shared secrets. But neither of them were who they were before. That day changed both of them. Olenna didn't think it was for the better. "I thought you trusted me more than that."

Nikolai's voice seemed to stretch and strain as he fought to maintain an even tone. "It was not about trust, Olenna. I thought that hearing about my life would only make it worse for you."

"Nothing you say will change the fact that you left me for four years." Olenna felt the familiar lump in her throat expand and her expression softened. She wrapped her bare arms around her waist in a feeble attempt to comfort herself. "After Dominik--" Nikolai's eyes snapped to hers like the crack of a whip, his jaw twitched. He ground out a feral warning through clenched teeth.

"Don't bring him into this." Olenna's hackles rose in response. Olenna didn't care about the line she'd be crossing. Nikolai had already ripped it to shreds. Dominik was not just Nikolai's. His memory was hers to hold. The loss was one they shared. No one knew the wound in Nikolai's heart quite like Olenna. Her nostrils flared. All sympathy was gone as she ignored his orders for her to stop.

"When you returned without him, I respected that there were some things you may never be ready to share about your time with the First Army. But I had hoped we could face the future together, heal together. Instead, you went off to Ketterdam to --"broaden your horizons'-- and pacified me with letters detailing a false life. Did you even write them, or was I consorting with the boy you hired to play prince in your stead?"

"Of course, it was me!" Nikolai threw his hands up in exasperation. His voice echoed through the empty throne room like a booming thunderclap. "I wrote every letter. You know my handwriting as well as your own." It was true. Likely the only thing that was. Olenna did know the hand that wrote those letters belonged to her brother. She bit the inside of her cheek as Nikolai ran a rough hand down his face and groaned.

It was the first moment since his arrival that he looked less than perfect. Good. Olenna wanted to watch him unravel just as she had in his absence. "I may have kept my true destination from you, but I shared my heart. When I confided in you-- my sister-- about the struggles of being away from home, feeling out of my depth around people more skilled and talented. That was the truth."

Olenna's lower lip trembled with emotion. "It was just everything else you lied about." Nikolai took a step towards her. She flinched. Olenna focused on the marble face of the statue and ignored the pleading expression of her older brother in her periphery.

"I did what I thought was right." He whispered. Olenna spared him one last look and felt a sickly sweet rush of satisfaction at his flinch. Her gaze was as sharp as the sword at Nikolai's hip.

"And yet, you couldn't have been more wrong." Olenna sank into a bitter, mocking curtsey. "I will see you at the banquet, brother. Welcome home." She didn't turn back to see his reaction, and as the double doors parted to grant her exit, the tears finally came.

The sun had fallen below the horizon when Olenna made her way to fetch the new General. From the view of passing windows, she could tell that the party was already in swing. Carriages filled with nobles and dignitaries congested the grand drive. Footmen helped scores of women in voluminous gowns down from their arched carriages.

Olenna stood before Alina Starkov's quarters, cast in the warm light of the hall sconces, asessing the Shu girl's raven hair, woven into a braided crown atop her head. Fitting, a halo for the Sun Saint. She was unprepared to see Alina Starkov in the stunning blue and gold kefta. She knew Alina would be wearing it, but Olenna hadn't expected the concoction of conflicting emotions that burned up her throat like a potent glass of kvas.

The Princess gave the instructions herself for the Sun Summoner's uniform and other belongings to be brought to the Grand Palace. It would only be proper for the new General to be in the traditional kefta. It had been months since she'd seen anyone wear the colors of a Grisha within the palace walls. Today was a new day for Grisha and Otkazat'sya, a new hope for the war on the horizon.

"You look wonderful, Alina." Olenna meant it. Alina did look well put together, although not to the level of perfection that Genya could accomplish with tailoring. Alina sighed, not quite mustering a smile. Her hands wrung themselves together at her hips.

"It's nothing compared to you." The General's shoulders were tense beneath the golden weave of her kefta, the skin between her almond eyes pinched. Olenna's smile was sadder than she wanted it to be at the complement. She lifted an arm between them and tipped her chin suggestively.

"Walk with me." Alina took a visibly deep breath. Her gaze fixated on the Princess's finely draped sleeve. Olenna remained patient, waiting for the Grisha to gather her wits. Alina's arm snaked around hers, and she leveled her chin. A flash of pride coaxed a sincere smile onto Olenna's lips. Alina would soon learn to keep her thoughts from creeping onto her skin. It was a necessity in a court of foxes and snakes.

Olenna breezed down the hall with the grace of a swan, passing by endless empty rooms and portaits she was taught the names and history of as a child. She led them down the most direct route to the grand ball room. Had it just been Olenna, she would've avoided the hall of guilded mirrors entirely.

"Are your new quarters to your liking?" Olenna inquired, trying to keep her eyes on the Sun Summoner, not the reflection over her shoudler. "Had I known you were coming, I would've had it renovated to suit your tastes." They swept down the hallway at a measured pace. Not too slow to that it would be labeled aimless, but not fast enough to look in great haste. Olenna really wanted to break out in a sprint. The blooming freckles across her nose, the darkened roots overtaking golden blonde, the perfect princess was coming apart at the seams.

The woman in the mirror was a stranger to Olenna. For as long as she could remember, her body had benefited from the frequent alterations of an expert tailor. From the moment Olenna first bled, the vibrance of her golden locks dimmed to a muddy blonde, and her skin became pocked with marks, she'd been "corrected," as Queen Tatiana would put it. A girl with such common beauty would never inspire the love of her people and certainly never catch the eye of a wealthy suitor. And so the true Olenna was buried under layers of alterations and enhancements.

But now, with the Grisha scattered and Genya Safin wanted for attempted regicide, her true self was peaking out behind the peeling paint.

Alina mercifully drew Olenna's attention back by speaking. "Everything is perfect. You didn't need to do that for me, though. I would've been happy staying in my room at The Little Palace." Olenna knew it was the truth. From what she'd seen of Alina before the coup, the Sun Summoner was no stranger to getting her hands dirty. She'd been raised in the country, in a village Olenna's tutor hadn't bothered to teach her about beyond its name. Despite this, she wanted Alina to be as comfortable as possible. She was their savior, after all, and she'd been a friend to Genya. It was more than Olenna could say for the majority of the Grisha who turned their noses up at the tailor. Olenna tapped Alina's hand on her arm fondly.

"Nonsense, we can't have the Sun Summoner and General of the Second Army sleeping in a dormitory. The General's Quarters in the Little Palace are being renovated for you as we speak." Olenna had issued the order almost as soon as she'd received Nikolai's latest letter. The Little Palace had gone untouched in the months since The Darklings coo. It remained a mausoleum filled with the shadowed touch of the former General's regime. Olenna hadn't gone to see The Darkling's Quarters. She hadn't dared set foot in the place where that monster slept and lived for centuries before she was even conceived. The General's quarters would be stripped to the bone and reshaped for the Sun Summoner to do with as she pleased. Alina fixated on the floor, her lips drooping in a telltale frown. Their heels clacked against the parquet flooring and echoed down the hall like a couple of prancing show horses.

"Thank you, Your Highness," Alina said. Olenna tilted her head tp the faint bruise on the side of Alina's neck. A souveneir from The Darkling, no doubt. Olenna would wring that shadow man's pearly white neck given the chance. Alina tucked a whisp of raven hair behind her ear. These were the sort of nervous ticks that gave her away. They were the nervous ticks Olenna had beaten out of her by tutors before she'd learned to dance the waltz.

They passed a few paces in silence before Alina voiced her thoughts. "Before you do anything too permanent, would you mind if I went to see it? His things..." Alina seemed to be fighting her own tongue to say the words. "There may be something of use to us there." Olenna hesitated. She selfishly wished they could burn The Darkling's rooms to the ground, make ash of the centuries of trophies, books, and diaries he accumulated through murder and torture. But Alina was right. They needed every scrap of information on their enemy. Olenna nodded.

"Of course, it all belongs to you now, after all." Olenna corrected the subconscious way her shoulders curved inward at the thought of The Darkling still having some mark on Ravka-- Her Ravka. His shadows had ripped the world apart at the seams and seeped into the very soil of her kingdom. It would take a great power to pull it root and stem. Olenna kept a perfect breezy smile through it all. "It won't be ready for you to occupy for at least another month, but the Grisha are more than welcome to return to their dormitories now that you are General."

Alina nodded as she nibbled at her pink bottom lip. "Have Genya's Quarters been redone, too?"

"No, not yet. I haven't had the heart to. My father hasn't thought of requesting its removal yet. It's like he thought of her as some sprite who materialized whenever she was needed and ceased to exist beyond his sight. They ransacked the place when she left. Ripped apart the mattress and broke every bottle of oil or perfume they could find looking for the poison she used." It had taken all of Olenna's willpower to stand on the sidelines and watch her friend's life be disassembled and laid out bare for all to see. She cried through the night in the wake of their search. Olenna pressed her lips as the memory ran across her mind as fresh as a bleeding wound.

"I go there sometimes, you know, when I'm missing her. Her scent still lingers in the air. If you shut your eyes, you can almost imagine none of this ever happened." Music lilted down the hall towards them, a burst of laughter and the dull hum of lively conversation. Olenna reached into the hidden fold of a pocket within her lavender gown. Her fingers curled around the familiar cool metal of a key. Alina's brows furrowed as Olenna slid it from her pocket and discreetly into the General's palm. "This is the only remaining key to the room. I made sure of it."

"Why-" Alina glanced around the hall, eyeing the guards at each end. Olenna tugged her arm to keep their gait from faltering. The guards didn't appear to be watching them, but Olenna knew better than to assume any semblance of privacy. Speaking with such fondness of a Grisha wanted for regicide was borderline treasonous at best.

"I think she'd want you to have it." Olenna tugged her companion along, keeping a firm grip on Alina's arm when she stumbled. Olenna waited until they were a few paces beyond the next guard before she said, "I never saw her smile as much as she did when she was with you." Alina swallowed hard and rolled the key around her palm like a lucky penny. Olenna slowed their pace to a halt just before the doors to the grand hall.

She unwound her arm from Alina's to turn and squeezed her companions hands in hers. Olenna's blue eyes locked with the dark brown of Alina's. "Are you ready?" Alina scrunched her face in a grimace and groaned.

"Not even a little bit."

Olenna huffed a weak laugh and grimaced back. "Me either."

NOTE

Its been forever since I was last active and posting but I'm trying my best to get a couple chapters done this month. There hasn't been much of Tolya yet but I promise they will have their moment in the next chapter! let me know what you thought of Olenna's fight with Nikolai because that was so fun to write. Please like and comment, it goes a long way! Love y'all!