Revelations
Seeing her friend suddenly change into…into a Phoenix, something that should only be a myth, but wasn't, not anymore, with how her friend turned into one. Albeit a dark one, Alina knows any sane person should have felt frightened to be suddenly faced with such a thing in front of them, especially with the way it's gleaming and dark form circles its shadowy tendrils around the room. But no, Alina isn't frightened, because she knows those vibrant green eyes that are staring back at hers.
Those are her Valeria, her Ria's eyes.
She knows those eyes, the eyes that have only ever looked upon hers in warmth. Eyes that make her feel as though she belongs, eyes that feel like home.
Those eyes are Ria's, and she feels not afraid.
She feels safe.
She of course has some questions at the moment, more like a whole load of questions from since the moment she awoke. Which she's sure Ria will answer to the best of her knowledge.
Knowledge she knows, her friend has a lot of. Which always makes Alina remember the saying her friend would say every time she gave a lesson to Mal and herself; she would say to them with those enrapturing eyes of hers, that would always make the both of them focused on her, and only her, she would say this to them "Remember, Alina and Mal, knowledge, knowledge is power. Especially in the world we live in now. Never forget."
But anyways back to the matter at hand.
Those eyes are looking at hers now, awaiting her.
The whole world seemed to suddenly stop, their only focus was on one another. The shocked and frightened gasps of the rest of the inhabitants in the tent were muted.
It was only them in the room.
Taking a step forward, Alina reaches a hand to her friend's Phoenix form. Her wings gleam brightly to Alina in the dark, she can see different colours in its shine, all of the jewels in the world were brought to shame in that moment, in Alina's eyes.
Her friend was beautiful, and warm.
The shadowy tendrils seem to wrap around her protectively, hiding her from the world and all of the harm it could put her in.
Of course Alina would not be afraid.
Never.
Because she knew, she knew that Ria would always protect her.
Her friend then enveloped her in a swirl, her vision now is only filled with the colourful gleams of Valeria's wings.
And then they were gone.
"Saints!? Did you all see what I've just seen? A Phoenix. She changed into a Phoenix!" Was what a soldier whispered to his fellow soldier beside him in shock, but also in awe at the spectacle that just occured before them all.
He wasn't being quiet, not at all.
His whisper could even be heard from where the General stood, the General that came out of his stupor, and he now only felt rage coursing through his veins.
Turning to the soldiers behind him, his Grisha that have done nothing during the whole spectacle, and are still not doing anything after it.
'They all are such fools.' He sneers in his mind, not admitting to himself that he himself did nothing in that moment, that he let them go.
They were gone. And he did nothing. Nothing.
Feeling even more enraged, he finally turns towards the Grisha that spoke, and sneered in a calm tone.
"Yes, Ivanovich, we have all seen it. Now, go after them. ALL OF YOU!"
He finally barked, his shadows coming out of his being in response to his rage.
They all turned fearful of their General's rage, and slipped one after another out of the tent in a haste to do as they were told.
The only one remaining was the General and the Squaller, Zoya.
Who looked conflicted.
This made him even more annoyed, what is she standing there as a fool for, wasn't he clear with his command?
Although the girl had her uses outside of her duties, that did not make her special in any way. No.
Turning his gaze to her expectant one, he glowers, "Wasn't I very clear, Zoya?" and then continues while coming closer to her, his form bent over hers, in an intimidating way, with his nose almost touching hers. "GO AFTER THEM!"
The girl jumped in fright, and gave him a hurtful look.
Almost scoffing at the girl, the General turns his back to her and goes towards the table where his drink awaits him.
The girl then finally leaves the tent.
'Valeria Cherniak and Alina Starkov, you might have escaped now, but soon you will both be in my grasp. And I won't let you dare leave me again.' was the only thing he obsessed over at the moment while finally gulping his drink in one go.
Valeria is confused, very confused at the moment.
She turned into a bloody Phoenix, A PHOENIX?! Not one that is similar to the one she had known. Not like Fawkes. When she spotted her form in a mirror in the tent, she was horrified at what she saw, she was something other.
She only wanted to fly away like how Snape escaped during the war from the castle. She knows how to do it, it was the thing that came naturally to her, but why.
How did she turn into this creature? Was it her animagus form? If it were, shouldn’t she then have turned into a an animal like her patronus?
Not that she had tried before, turning into her animagus. She did not see the need in it at the time.
'Did the Fold play a part in it?' she suddenly wonders, while flying away with Alina in her grasp.
They were flying away to Mal (there aren't any people in sight, luckily),
she almost instinctively knows where to find him.
Because of her magic.
She shakes herself away from the thoughts that are still flying in her mind and turns towards the direction of where their friend is at.
He was in a tent.
Stopping before it and pushing her magic to release her from its Phoenix form, Valeria hears Alina gasp in wonder.
Turning towards the girl, Valeria sees her looking at her in awe.
Valeria is now flabbergasted, shouldn’t Alina feel even an ounce of fear to her, at what she just witnessed in front of her eyes?
The girl looks at her, at her whole body.
Confused, Valeria then looks down at herself and is shocked at what she sees.
Dark tendrils are encircling her form, healing her wounds.
She's definitely confused now.
'What in Merlin's name is happening to me?!'
Valeria then almost stumbles from the force of Alina's sudden hug, she then sees that the tendrils are gone.
Like they were never there to begin with.
And then the girl unfurls her arms away from her and then punches Valeria's arm suddenly.
What the..
"That was for not telling me!", she says with a pout and then continues, "I expect answers from you, Ria!"
Valeria then smiles at the girl, "Understood, but later. We did escape for a reason, didn't we?" She adds with a wink to the smaller girl.
The girl brightened up and looked towards the tent opening, before them both.
"Mal!"
"-al, Mal wake up. Wake up now or I'll dump water on you, mate." was the first thing Mal heard, waking up from his slumber.
"Ria, don't be mean!" was the other voice reprimanding the first one. He knows the voice, it's Alina's.
Well he knows both of the voices…but the voice of his Alina finally wakes him fully up from his groggy state.
Opening up his eyes, he sees 2 pairs of eyes looking at him, both of their noses almost touching his, might he add.
He then pushes their faces away from him in embarrassment, "Why are the both of you leaning so close to my face!"
"To check if you're alive." was Valeria's amused voice.
Before he could give her a look in irritation, Alina then clung to his neck.
"Mal!" She exclaimed, but then she pulled her face away from his neck, her arms still around them.
Mal hopes his ears aren't turning red, but with the way Valeria is smirking at him with a knowing look in her eyes from behind Alina, he almost groans in response.
"Mal, are you okay?" was Alina's voice bringing his attention back to her, she's looking at him with those baby deer eyes of hers in concern. He gulps before finally nodding his head in response.
"Good, because we need to go. Like, right now." Was Valeria's voice interrupting Mal and Alina from their intense staring at one another.
Mal is confused, but before he could ask why they needed to go, he was pulled away from his bed and then the tent he found himself in.
And before he knew it, a horse was in front of him.
Yes, Mal was very confused. But he still followed Valeria's lead with Alina before him, in his arms.
"Ria! Valeria, can we stop?" Was Alina's voice.
Looking around them, Valeria decided that they were safe enough away from the camp. She then nodded to the girl and got off her horse.
Taking her horse closer to her friends she then decided to let them camp for a bit, so they could rest.
"-nd that was when Valeria turned into a Phoenix and made it possible for us to escape the General. So here we are, now, camping, the three of us together. " Was Alina's cheery voice.
Mal is flabbergasted.
What. In. The. Saints..
But before he could even question them both, Valeria then turned to the both of them in seriousness. He knew that look and immediately closed his mouth.
"I have to tell the both of you something.."
And then Mal was even more flabbergasted, but now with Alina next to him.
'Witch. And a whole other world? What. And immortal?'
She then continues,"The world I left behind was not the same one I had known before. The wizarding world as I knew changed, and not for the better." she says, while looking into both of her friends' enraptured eyes at her tale, "Soon enough, the mundane world turned on us. The agreement the wizarding world had with the mundane was no more. They didn't listen to me in the beginning, if they had…I wonder how it would have turned out, still not good, I think. But we wouldn't have had many losses then."
"Valeria?" Was Alina's worried voice.
Staring at both of her friends, but her eyes were clouded by the memories that surfaced in her mind. Of all of the pain, she had endured, so much destruction…
"Fear, my dear friends. Fear is the most dangerous thing in the world.It can make people do bad things. It only leaves suffering in its wake. Just like here, how I see it. With how the Grisha before were treated, hunted because of what they are, only now it stopped. But for how long, I wonder?" she then focused fully on them both, the both of them horrified and saddened by what they're hearing out of their friend’s mouth, "Humans and their fear of the unknown will never change, and their greed. But that's a given. I only hope it won't turn out like how it turned out in my world, or this one in the past."
"It won't. " Alina then said firmly.
Mal only looked at her, while Valeria gave her smile, "Then let's hope it won't. ", but she didn't notice the look in Valeria's eyes.
Her eyes told another story.
It had gotten dark, so they decided to make a small fire, with Valeria making their little spot invisible to all but the three of them.
After they were done, they sat close to one another in silence for a while.
"Why didn’t you tell us before?"Alina then softly whispers, while looking into Valeria's eyes in sadness.
Mal, who was also curious, looked at Valeria as well.
Taking a deep breath, Valeria then exhaled before finally responding.
"I didn’t know how you'd react, seeing as the both of you abhor all things Grisha. Even though theirs is called Small Science, and not considered magic. Which I do agree on, seeing as it's not the same. Theirs is more like what we would perhaps call: elementals in my
world. Well, there were a few of them in that world…but back to the matter at hand, I had thought, like everyone else in this world, that you as well would not wish to be near me if I told you. And that you'd be horrified by me, that you would fear me." She finally darkly mutters at the end.
Shocked and also saddened, Alina and Mal opened their mouths to deny what she had said. That they wouldn't have.
But before they could say something, Valeria gave them a soft smile.
"Don't deny it, before you could've known of your powers, Alina. Would you have been as accepting as you are now? Or you, Mal…you don't like them, and are quite vocal about it, would you really have been accepting? I'm sorry for saying this, but I'm not really certain if you would have..." she finally says.
"RIA!" Was Alina's sudden scream in outburst, finally interrupting Valeria in her sudden spiel of doom.
Closing her mouth at the look on her friend's face, Valeria sees a hurt look on her face.
'Oh.'
The girl, while almost on the verge of crying, has an angry look on her face, "You don't get to decide on that, Ria. We do and we love you. For you, even if you have magic or no magic. You are Valeria, the one who looked out for us and also raised us." a tear finally rolls down her cheek, bewildered Valeria then reaches out to wipe the tear away from her face, but before she could do that, she suddenly found a crying mess of a girl in her arms. Alina's arms were tight around her, while she cried and buried her face in Valeria's coat.
"Alina.." Valeria mutters.
"She's right, Ria." Mal then says, sitting close to them.
Looking at the boy, she sees him smile sadly at her. "I understand why you hid it. But never think that." He then firmly says, while looking her straight in the eyes. "We would have accepted you either way, because we love you, Ria." He said while laying a hand on her shoulder and the other one on Alina's back.
Alina finally looks up from her hiding place against Valeria's chest, her cheeks and nose all ruddy. Her eyes are still teary, and her nose seems a bit runny as well. But she looked adorable while scrunching her nose at Valeria, who tried to wipe her tears away. "Never forget that, Ria. We love you very much."
Finally smiling at them both, Valeria then apologises and also thanks them.
They then decided to call it a night, and slept against one another in that position, with Valeria quickly putting some wards around their perimeter to alert her of any incomers.
Just in case.
The morning after
The two of them, Alina and Mal looked upon the girl in front of them in awe.
Magic was real!
'Not Small Science, but real magic!'
The both of them thought, while looking at the two silvery-white lights, their forms two animals in front of them. One a Stag and the other a Wolf, one is prancing around them, while the other is prowling after the other with its tail wagging in happiness.
Alina and Mal both feel warmth in their presences, they feel like Valeria.
They don't know how they know, but they just do.
"My father's Patronus and also Animagus was a Stag, while Sirius' was a black shaggy haired hound." She then continues in thought while watching both Patronuses with a sad smile. Mal and Alina then held her hand in each of their own in comfort.
Valeria presses their hands in thanks, "I should only have gotten a Stag for a Patronus, I don't even know how I have two now." She then continues, "But looking at them both, it feels as though I have both of my fathers with me."
She then suddenly laughs, while looking at her friends. "This isn't the time to be sad, let's talk about something else. Do you have any questions or requests for me?" She asks them with a soft smile and a wink.
While the both of them want to comfort her and tell her it's okay to feel sad, they understand why she wanted to change the subject, and complied.
"Can you…can you make us fly?" asked Mal with a boyish smile on his face, excited by the aspect of it truly happening.
Valeria only smirks in response, and suddenly the both of them are floating upwards, Alina shrieks in surprise but then laughs at Mal's antics.
"To Neverland!"
The both of them are then flying like the characters in the tale Valeria told them of when they were little.
Valeria only laughs at their joy. She's happy that they're having fun for once, and that they listened to her story and that they understood her.
And accept her.
She did not have to hide anymore, not in front of them.
Finally putting them both down for a break, that involves eating some fried rabbit, Alina then turns to Valeria.
"Did you know you could transform into a Phoenix?" was Alina's curious question.
Valeria shakes her head, "People in my world, Witches and Wizards, who can transform at will into an animal are called an Animagus. While the Patronus and the Animagus are the same, the form of the Animagus can change, seeing as it's determined by the person's personality and inner traits." Valeria then continues, while her audience is captivated by what they're hearing " I really thought mine would be the same as my Patronus, but I never really tried it. So this was also a shock for me."
"Why?" asks Mal in confusion, "Has there never been a person with a Phoenix as their form?"
Valeria shakes her head at that, "Not that I know of, it has never been mentioned before that it was possible to have it as one's form." Here, she paused, "I think it is because of how I came into this world, into the Fold. I think it may have a part in it."
The three of them are quiet after that, lost in their thoughts.
Until Alina finally breaks the silence, "Valeria, Mal?" she asks.
Her friends look at her in question.
Fiddling with her hands, she then stops and looks at both of her friends in determination.
"I want to know how to control it, this power in me. So I can protect both of you as well."
Mal and Valeria look at one another and then smile at Alina, in understanding.
"I'll teach you then, if you want?." Alina beams back at Valeria, but then frowns.
"What is it, why are you frowning?" Was Mal's concerned voice.
Looking down, Alina then finally says it. "And if I still can't, you said it yourself, your powers are not the same as those of a Grisha's. What if…" she then trails.
Valeria gives her a smile in understanding, "Then we'll let them teach you, but on your own terms." She then continues while giving Alina a frown, ignoring Mal's protests next to the both of them. "Don't let anyone push you, nor bully you into following their expectations of you. You are the only one that decides, do you hear me? And anyways, I'll always be there for you, Alina. Always."
Alina nods while looking into Ria's eyes, feeling relieved.
"Ahem, we both are, thank you very much." was Mal's indignant reply.
The three of them then laughed.
After their meal, Mal and Alina turn to their friend in concern.
Seeing as she's quiet all of a sudden and is fiddling with a pouch around her neck, not really a pouch.
But the beaded handbag in miniature form.
"Ria, are you alright?" was Alina's voice in concern. Their friend seemed to finally get out of her thoughts in a sudden confusion.
"What-Yes, yes I'm alright. Don't worry about me." which Mal scoffed at, "We'll never not worry about you, Ria. Just accept it."
Valeria then smiled at both of her friends while nodding, finally at ease for some reason.
"Guys, if, if we do get separated from one another, I want the both of you to have something." She says while calling for something in the bag with her magic, while she ignores their cries in protest.
Finally having two books in her hands, Valeria then gives it to them.
"Don't protest, believe me, it'll happen sooner or later, when you least expect it...So, I want the both of you to have this, if you're ever separated from one another. You can communicate with one another this way, so please shut up and take it."
Frowning, they noticed she didn't include herself.
Looking at the leather bound books in their hands, that are identical to one another, Mal then turns towards Valeria in sudden recognition, but also in sadness.
"But it's one of the last things you have of him. You should have it, Ria." Him being her dearest godfather, papa.
Alina nods and also gives Valeria a searching look, but Valeria only smiles.
"It's my decision to give them to you both, I want you to have them. For my sake, please take it." she then says with a pleading look in her eyes.
Another way Valeria wants to protect them both.
Finally nodding their heads in reply, the both of them comply with her request.
But before they could say anything, they all heard a distant noise a bit farther ahead of them.