Fated To Be

Feeling the presence of that man close to them, Valeria finally released her hold on her friends, and faced reality.

Back to the matter at hand.

Back to the one who'd dare take what is hers.

But shaking her head at the sudden  (very possessive) thought, she finally spots him.

Very near to them, might she add.

While he seemed to be immersed in his thoughts at the moment, with a familiar dagger in his hands, Valeria only automatically reacted.

To a threat, towards her friends. 

She immediately put her sword against his throat in warning.

While the man seemed surprised by it, not expecting it in the least,  he had a peculiar expression on his face to it all.

Towards her.

He looked at her in wonder.

'What a strange fellow, you know you have a sword against your throat, one that can kill you by just a nick…and you're the least bothered by it, by your life perhaps ending because of it.' Here she then remembers, what with the realization from before, 'Well if you were a normal human, that is. But even then…I’m  the only one with the antidote.' She thinks, while grimacing at the man’s look towards her, for that could not mean anything positive, she's certain…

She then continues to coldly look towards him. 

The both of them are ignoring the alarmed gasps from the people on both sides of them.

Being too immersed in each other's presences at the moment.

He heard his Grisha gasp at the action she just took to his person, well more Fedyor than Ivan, for the man did not audibly react to it as his lover did.

He heard one of them take a step forward towards his direction.

To try to defend him, he gathers it is his right hand then,  but it would be useless. 

For even a sting of the sword, would bring him immense pain. While he is certain, it won't kill him, because he himself is immune to all of the poisons he could find. Another person, that wasn't,  would have died on the spot.

They would have died a painful death, to be exact, as he had read from the countless of reports he could get his hands on about the woman, during all of the years she had spent fighting in the First Army.

And beside the sword, Alexander feels that even if his heartrenders would make a move to stop her, that it would be futile to do so. 

Because he feels in his being, that it would not stop her in the slightest. 

Not wanting to chance it, he then holds his hand up, for Ivan to stop.

All the while his eyes aren't leaving the enchanting ones of the woman in front of him, both of their eyes boring into each other.

He wonders if she sees him, just as he sees her.

He then continues to look at her in curiosity,  but also in awe.

While the  darkness within him is purring in delight.

In delight for the girl, no woman, for she is most definitely not a girl, with the way he sees the ancientness lurking within the depths of her eyes.

He recognises it, because he himself sees it whenever he spots his eyes within a mirror.

Like, as he would later understand, like calls to like.

His darkness delights in her defiance of him.

Valeria Cherniak, 'Valeria..' the darkness within him purrs at the woman in front of him.

He is now even more certain, while he obviously wants to obtain  the sun summoner for his plans… 

The darkness within him and himself, he will admit, revels in her presence. 

He wants her, he wants them both and will have them in his hold with whatever means necessary. 

Almost understanding his thoughts, the woman in front of him is glaring even harder at him.

"I'll say this again, General, I'm not handing her over to you. So desist in your folly now, for you won't be getting what you want."

The man only looks amused,  gazing at her with a sudden heated look in his eyes.

He then chuckles at her, all the while leaning even closer to her, with the poisonous sword now almost digging into his throat.

"I said I wanted the both of you to come with us, Miss Cherniak." he says, while lastly adding, "To protect the both of you. Because you are one of us." And then he glances at the sword that is still against his throat, while once more staring into her enchanting eyes.

"Now please remove your sword from my person. While I admit, I won't die from its poison, whatever  it may be…I still don't want to risk the consequences,  it would be such a hassle you know." He then gives her a smile at that, like a sly fox, which Valeria most definitely sees him as…the sly man. 

"Why don't we discuss this as  civilized individuals, without you know, threatening another's life and all. Even if it won't kill the individual in question." He silkily adds. And now he's giving her a look, one that was meant to be charming she gathers.

But it had the opposite effect.

"As I know the both of us can be, now miss Cherniak.  What will it be? Will you stop now with the running, and finally join us?" He  lastly says while opening his hand to hers, in comradeship.

Yes, Valeria definitely did not trust the man. 

She ignores his hand, in favor of glaring at the man. 

While also leaning closer to the man, both of their noses almost touching one another.

"How do you know it won't kill you? Have you ever been bitten by a Basilisk before, dearest General of the Second army?" She silkily says to the man, and then continues "A Basilisk's venom could kill someone within little more than a minute at best. It would at first, make the person drowsy in the beginning,  and then their vision would be blurry, until finally, they are dead." She then softly chuckles, making the man next to her suddenly rigid because of it, but she does not notice it and continues. 

"As you might have already deduced, or not. That sword against your throat. I killed one with it when I was younger, its blade is coated and will forever be coated with its venom because of it…And there  is no known antidote for its poison."

 'Well none that you know of, that is.' Valeria thinks in amusement. 

'For the antidote is my blood.'

She then continues.

"But well, besides that, the last bit, that decision is not for me, and especially not for you to decide,  is it? For the one who can decide on what shall happen from now onwards, is most definitely not the both of us." 

While at first enjoying the sudden closeness he found himself in to the woman, Alexander then frowns during her whole spiel at him,  at first in confusion,  but then his expression slowly started to darken.

While still keeping eye contact with the man, Valeria then addresses the one that would make the choice in all of this.

"Isn't that right, Alina?" 

Finally getting out of the shock she still found herself in, Alina then looks towards the both of them in alarm.

For the sudden situation she found herself in.

'A choice.  My choice?' She thinks, with her eyes still widened at the sight in front of her.

Of the two people that are close to one another, in what people could mistake of having been  a sight of two people, lovers (here her eye twitches at the sudden ridiculous thought in her mind) embracing one another in  a loving embrace, well, if it were not for the obvious sword against one's throat, and the obvious  vengeful look towards the man that Valeria is emitting, one even Alina could feel from here…

Here she feels a sudden chill climbing up her spine…because you definitely did not want to find yourself on Valeria's bad side…definitely not. And Alina pities the fool that would find themself there…

She then shakes her head at the thought, and gets back to the matter at hand…

The choice.

She had a choice to make,  it seemed.

Alina does not know how to feel about it. 

Because her decision could change everything…

But the question is,

would it be for the better, 

or for the worse?

And that frightened her.