Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

What bothers Alina the most about her mother’s disappearance, is that by the third year, she knows everyone stopped looking.

She was only nine at the time, when Garroth and Katelyn officially lost all hope. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out. They searched non-stop for three long years, and only gave up after finding absolutely nothing. By the time she was ten, Alina and Lilith had moved out of their home and into Garroth’s, leaving the Lord’s house officially abandoned. That was the moment it all really clicked into place. Her mother wasn’t coming back, and everything they ever knew was going to be thrown off kilter because of it.

The P-Alliance Capital and Phoenix Drop were left trying to pick up the broken pieces of what they once knew, and even at the age of ten, Alina knew they were absolutely failing to do so. Garroth tried to hide it from them, but both her and Lilith knew it was all going wrong. It was hard not to notice, with Malachi’s strained smiles and Levin’s unusual quietness– with Katelyn’s shaking hands, and Garroth’s tired face. They were all struggling. Their lord was important to them, and they were all showing it. Alina can't find it in herself to feel any different either, her mom was a wonderful person. Regardless of why she disappeared, Alina knew in her bones that it couldn’t have been on purpose. She refuses to think otherwise. Lady Aphmau was the best thing that ever happened to the people around her. She would never have left unless she wasn’t given a choice– and they all know it.

Now Alina is fourteen, and they have much larger problems to deal with than ever before. Things were rough after Aphmau’s disappearance for sure, but now the village has been posed with even a bigger threat, one they have zero control over.

Shadow knights.

Alina has never been more terrified of someone than she is of Gene. That is a fact. He has a way of getting under peoples’ skin in the worst ways possible— and if Alina was another person, maybe she would feel more angry about it. If she was a different person, maybe she’d stick up for herself, like Lilith does. But she is not that type of person. She will never be strong, or brave and courageous like the people around her.

She will never be her mom.

The thought of living up to the expectations Aphmau left her with will always seem impossible. She knows Garroth doesn’t expect much from her, but the way his face crumples whenever she does something too similar to her mom’s own actions will always leave a lump in her throat and knot in her stomach regardless.

Despite this, she knows she has other things to focus on. Less self deprecating things, like planning Garroth’s birthday party.

Lilith said she wanted to surprise him, and Alina definitely thinks it’s a good idea— if they can pull it off. Garroth is much smarter than them, so she’s a bit worried about him catching on too quickly. If not though, she has a feeling things will be fine, and they’ll have fun. Garroth needs that right now, at least.

So with a deep breath, she steps outside into the chilly morning air, and starts to make her way through town.

It’s nearing the start of winter, and the weather is still rather cold, so she’s wearing the thick winter coat Miss Zoey had gifted her a few years ago.

“Your father used to have one just like it.” the woman had said, a soft smile forming on her face. “It’s a little big, but I’m sure you’ll grow into it eventually.”

Alina did in fact grow into it. She wears it almost every day she can, whenever the weather isn’t too hot, that is. It’s a very comfortable coat, with black fabric and wolves’ fur as a lining— it keeps her warm, and she’s very thankful that Miss Zoey had given her such a thing. It was quite a thoughtful gift.

The streets are usually bare around this hour, with the sun still rising over the water and a morning fog coating the air— most people are usually asleep at this time, so it
gives her the perfect opportunity to sneak through town towards Brendan’s farms without being spotted.

Luckily, not many shadow knights are out during the early hours, the sun becoming too much for them at certain times, so she doesn’t have to worry about that either. She makes it to the berry patch rather quickly, and looks around for her sister.

Lilith is sitting on her knees in the grass, eyes scanning over a piece of worn paper with a confused look. Alina calls her name, and watches as the girl’s head snaps up, and that confused look turns warm.

“Alina! Hey!” she brightens, a smile forming on her face as Alina jogs up to her and sits down at her side. Their shoulders brush briefly in the process, and Alina leans against her for a better view of the paper.

“Hi Lilly.” she greets, already reading the list in front of her. It’s a recipe for a vanilla-blueberry cake, but it’s hard to figure out what the steps are. The writing is scratchy, and not very easy to decipher.

“Dante gave me this.” Lilith explains, squinting her eyes as if that would help. “I don’t think Mrs KC took her time writing it out for us though.”

Alina lets out a small laugh, and points to the fifth step down the list. “I’m pretty sure that says a half cup of something.”

Lilith hums, before eyeing the empty basket to her left. “Oh, Blueberries!”

She grabs the basket, before springing to her feet and letting Alina follow after her. They walk through the patch until they find the blueberry spot, working together to place the basket on the ground and start picking away.

They didn’t need very many, since the cake wasn’t meant to be that big. Just enough for them, Garroth, and Katelyn to enjoy—so picking the berries wouldn’t be too hard.

They chat for a while, talking about the cake recipe and how they plan on getting Miss Kiki to help them bake it, but as they talk, Alina feels something shift in the air- and suddenly her stomach is twisting slightly. Lilith seems completely unphased by whatever has passed over them, but the feeling is strong in Alina’s gut.

A gust of wind blows by, and goosebumps crawl up her arms. Something is wrong.

“Hmm. I never took you two as the type to pick blueberries at six in the morning.”

Alina whips around, her gaze locking on dark violet eyes, and her heart plummets in her chest.

“Oh.. Hi Sasha.”

Sasha looks down at their basket, and then back to them with a completely blank expression. “What are the blueberries for?”

Lilith Shoots up from her crouching position in the dirt, glaring at the woman in front of them.
“What do you want?”

Sasha’s mouth twitches up ever so slightly, and she hums again. She must find their distaste towards her amusing. “You’re just as bold as your mother, I see.”

In real time, Alina can see the way her sister’s face plummets, and she winces hard. Lilith’s hand curls tightly around the basket she was now holding, and for a second Alina thinks she might smack Sasha in the face with it. But yet, nothing happens.

“Shut up.” she grits out. Sasha laughs quietly, but they all know it’s fake.

She then goes to speak again, but to Alina’s surprise, another gust of wind blows by, and the feeling from before intensifies tremendously. She watches as Sasha’s words die in her throat, and she bites her tongue in order to not make any noise.

It’s completely silent for a moment, and it takes a minute for Alina to realize why. Sasha had gone quiet, looking almost startled– which means one of two things. Alina is either going crazy, or the shadow knight in front of her could feel the same sudden change in the air that she did. Which is.. Weird. What could that possibly mean?

“Alina, are you okay?” Lilith asks from behind her, reeling her back into the present before her spiraling could get any worse. She blinks rapidly, swallowing down the lump in her throat- and meets Sasha’s eyes again. The woman is watching her like she’s some sort of specimen to be studied– like she knows something Alina doesn’t. It’s incredibly eerie in a multitude of different ways, and it only makes her anxiety spike more.

Suddenly, Lilith grabs her arm, and she jumps, startling the both of them. She stares into her sister’s eyes for a second, before remembering she was asked a question.

“Yea… I’m fine.” is all she can say, unable to control the way her voice shakes slightly. She turns back towards Sasha, and watches as the woman gives her something close to a smile- causing Alina’s insides to twist uncomfortably.

“Interesting.” she hums, tilting her head in curiosity. “I wasn’t aware you could sense the same changes as us.”

Alina swallows thickly, still feeling sick. “..Changes?”

Sasha opens her mouth to speak again, but Lilith beats her to it, grabbing onto Alina’s hand quickly. “Alina, let’s just go. We need this cake to be done before sunset.”

She can tell her sister is almost just as spooked as her, if the uneasiness in her voice says anything, so she nods, and turns her back to Sasha without another word. “Yea, okay.”

Alina doesn't look back when Sasha bids them goodbye, and Lilith doesn’t either. They walk out of the berry patch and into town in silence, and only speak when they knock on Miss Kiki’s door. It takes them about five minutes to realize they forgot their blueberries, and then around two to walk outside and find the basket sitting on the front steps with no one in sight. Lilith picks it up and brings it inside with a confused look, leaving Alina to simply shrug and turn on her heel to follow her back inside.

They both miss the stray black feather laying on the grass in front of the house.

Chapter Text

By the time the cake is finished, it's around noon, and Alina is sitting on the steps of Miss Kiki’s porch with her eyes lingering over the little yellow flowers in the grass. Or well, they're not only flowers, actually. They’re weeds. Yip taught her that.

“Those are dandelions,” he had told her years ago, watching as she plucked them out of the ground and into a little basket with her small, six year old hands. She wanted to make a little bouquet for Mr Logan, since he gave her a free marigold from his shop a few days prior- but it was still only the very beginning of spring, and not many plants had started growing yet. Besides dandelions, of course. Being the age she was, Alina didn’t know any better than to think they were just flowers, so she was very much unphased by the older boy’s comment.

“They're pretty.” she said back, continuing to search through the grass with an eager little look. Everyone always said Mr Logan was mean, but she didn’t think so. Sure, he could be cranky at times, but he always smiled at her whenever she passed by his shop. He even gave her little treats sometimes when there was no one else nearby, so she really did like him.

Yip just snorted at her in response, shaking his head and unintentionally flashing his canines as he did so. Maybe if Alina was a little younger, it would’ve scared her– But she's very used to being around werewolves and meif’wa by now. Mrs KC and Nekoette had very pretty sharp teeth themselves, and they were some of the nicest people she’d ever met. Inhuman traits were such a common thing to her by then, so it was normal for her to be completely unbothered by them at that point. And she knew Yip appreciated her lack of flinching anyway.

“They’re weeds, little pup.” he said with a small grin, his voice softening at the last two words. Alina had only heard him speak like that a handful of times, but she liked it either way. He really was a softie under all his snarkiness.

Alina couldn’t help but frown at the new information though. How could the pretty yellow flowers be weeds? That makes no sense.

Yip must've noticed her disappointment though, because his hand finds her head, and he pats her gently. “Don’t worry Alina, my dad would love a basket of them from you. They actually make super good wine.”

Alina couldn’t help but hum at that, plopping down onto the grass with her basket sitting in her lap. “But why are they weeds? They don’t look like it.”

Yip simply shrugged, smile dimming a bit. “I dunno, I only remember they are ‘cause your dad mentioned it years ago. He was explaining it to Nekoette, I think. That kind of stuff sticks with ya, y’know?”

Alina nods then, dropping her gaze to the dirt quietly. She stares at the flowers in her lap, and then her soil covered fingers- eyes landing on the bandage wrapped around her right thumb. Lilith accidentally stepped on it a few days prior, and insisted on bandaging it despite the fact there wasn’t any bleeding. It must’ve just been because she felt bad, but the gesture was sweet nonetheless.

“Was he nice?” she asks suddenly, raising her head to meet the boy’s eyes again. Yip stares at her for a second, expression turning confused, so she tries again. “My papa, was he nice?”

Yip hesitates for a moment, swallowing nervously as he thinks the question over. “I’m.. honestly not the best person to ask, Alina. I didn’t know him as well as Lady Katelyn or anything.”

“But she doesn’t like to talk about him.” Alina says, picking up a dandelion and twirling it between her fingers. She lowers her voice to something quieter, as if she didn’t want anyone but Yip to hear it. “I think it makes her sad sometimes.”

It goes quiet for a moment then, before the werewolf clears his throat, and moves to ruffle her hair. His voice is strained when he speaks, but Alina tries not to focus on it. “Yea, pup. He was a good man. He would’ve loved you a lot.”

“You sure?”

Yip nods, standing up. He extends his hand to her, and she takes it. ”I’m positive. I barely knew him, but from what I saw, he was kind. He protected everyone from the shadow soul invasion when we needed it.”

“What’s a shadow soul?” she asks innocently, picking up her basket and hopping to her feet. Yip only laughs at the question, shaking his head.

“That's not a conversation we’re gonna’ have right now,” he extends his arm out in the direction of town, inviting. “Now c’mon, I’ll walk you back to my dad’s shop.”

A drop of water hits Alina’s hand, and she immediately blinks back into focus. She raises her head in confusion, watching as dark storm clouds start to slowly fill the sky above her. On any other day, she would be fine about it. She knows that for sure. If this was any other day, she’d be unbothered by the rain. But as it starts to drizzle, she can't help but feel even more thrown off than before. It’s just their luck that it rains the day they plan on throwing Garroth a party— and the day Sasha decides to give them the creeps. It’s almost funny how unlucky they can get.

She stands up, intending to head back inside- when her eyes catch on a black stripe laying in the grass. She quickly takes a step towards it, picking it up before rushing back under the awning as it starts to rain a bit harder. She holds this soft thing in her hand, and instantly realizes what it is. A feather. A black and auburn feather. The color is so dark it‘s almost hard to tell that it has any hints of brown at all, which is..strange. Sort of. She’s never seen any birds with feathers this color before. Or at least not around here. There's not a lot of distinct wildlife around Phoenix Drop, just deer and normal forest critters. There will occasionally be hawks every once in a while, she knows that because they keep snatching Brendan's chickens— but the hawks around here don't have feathers this color. Did Logan bring back feathers for his trade stall? And if he did, why would they be outside Miss Kiki's home? His stall is all the way on the other side of town. That doesn’t make any sense.

“Alina it’s raining! Get in here!” The front door swings open behind her, and she recognizes Lilith’s voice immediately. She turns around, swiftly tucking the feather away in her satchel, before letting her sister usher her back into the house.

Miss Kiki’s home is quite nice, Alina quickly realizes. It’s small, and warm. Perfect for her and Leona to live in. The smell of cake is still fresh in the air, along with the sound of a kettle boiling down the hall. Things are almost peaceful. Lilith leads her into the kitchen, where Alina meets Miss Kiki’s warm smile- and she does her best to smile back, hoping it looks genuine enough.

“I’m so happy you two are hosting this party,” The woman says, hovering over the tea kettle across the room. It starts to whistle, and steam flies out of the top, causing Alina to jump. Miss Kiki wafts the air with her hand until the steam has mostly disappeared, and switches the stove dial to off. “Garroth really deserves a break from everything, don’t you think?”

“Yea, he's been such a bum recently– he needs to relax.” Lilith responds, plopping herself down in a chair to their right. Alina hesitates briefly, before following the action. She sits right next to her sister, fidgeting with the strap of her satchel absentmindedly.

“Well I hope this cake meets his standards, then.” Miss Kiki grins, grabbing a few teacups out from a cabinet above her and placing them down onto the counter. “How do you two like your tea?”

“Ummm.. It’s fine, really–”

“Cream and sugar, please.”

Alina’s mouth snaps shut immediately. Despite how comforting this house is, her anxiety hasn’t simmered in the slightest. She must be ill or something. There's no other way to explain why she's so unreasonably nervous all of a sudden. It’s strange.

She knows deep down it has to do with her conversation with Sasha, but even then she should’ve calmed down by now, surely. It’s been hours at this point. She should be fine.

She’s been inside this home more times then she could count, but right now she feels like a complete stranger. It’s like something is pulling at her heart, making it cold- and withdrawn. She doesn’t like the feeling.

“You don’t want tea?” Lilith questions her, frowning in what Alina assumes is worry. Is it judgment, actually? No, it can’t be. Lilith never judges her for things like this. Why is that even a thought she’s having? That mere idea is ridiculous. Why is she thinking like this?

“No, no, I’ll have some. I’m fine.” she reassures quickly. Lilith looks at her warily, but nods along regardless- and she tells Miss Kiki her preference with a strained smile. It’s only a moment later that she has a teacup in front of her- no cream, just sugar, and is sipping from it slowly as the hours go by. Waiting. Hopefully the rain will stop soon.

· · ────── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ────── · ·

In the end, Garroth’s party ends up going fine. They actually manage to surprise him, with the help of Dante’s amazing distracting skills. ..Even though they actually weren't that great– it all worked out well enough in the end, and everyone seemed to have had a good time. It warmed Alina to her very core that Garroth actually laughed after they shouted ‘surprise!’ in his face. He had put a hand over his eyes as he did so, seemingly embarrassed at the amount of people surrounding him- but Alina could tell that he really was happy. She knew him well enough to pick up on the signs by now, and she could tell Lilith was excited too based on the little hand flaps she kept doing.

Dante ended up staying for cake despite the fact he needed to head back home- the sun setting would make it harder for him to get back, since shadow knights really like the dark. And the last thing they need is for Dante to run into Gene or something. That wouldn’t be a pretty sight. She knows the man’s been avoiding his older brother like the plague, but despite his attempts to stay out of Gene's business, there are always slip-ups. Dante is a guard after all, he's in charge of protecting the village in any way he can. But patrolling after dark usually ends with at least one encounter with a shadow knight. It would be Gene if they were unlucky, but he's been tending to other things these past few weeks it seems. What those things are, Alina doesn’t know. But she does know there's been a lack of bombarding as of recently, so maybe something’s up.

Or well- something definitely is up, they just don’t know what it is. Her encounter with Sasha is plaguing her mind, and she could feel her anxiety bubbling inside of her the entire time she was at the party. It was a miracle everything calmed down after only an hour, because she was really struggling to keep her focus on anything other than the weird feeling in her chest. Something was definitely wrong, she just couldn't figure out what that might be. It was bothering her more than she’d like to admit.

Right now though, she’s trying to focus on the fireflies littering the field she’s standing in. She’s not supposed to be out here right now, but that doesn’t really matter at this exact moment. The longer she stayed inside doing nothing the worse she was going to feel. At least out here she’s alone, and distracted. Lilith didn’t notice her sneak out either, so really it’s fine. She’ll head back in a few minutes anyway.

She cups her hands around the nearest firefly, and stares at the small glowing light in her palms. They’re such pretty bugs, she loves seeing them every once in a while.

Eventually she lets it go, and watches it fly away. It would be a good moment to leave right then, but as she turns back towards the village she spots a patch of lilies at her feet. It makes her frown. In all her years of living here, Alina has never really noticed them before. Why is she only seeing them now?

Out of pure curiosity she digs into her satchel, and pulls out a small match box. She doesn’t have any materials for a torch, so this is the next best thing. She lights the match in one quick swipe, and holds it out to get a better view of the flowers below her. The light isn’t as helpful as she was hoping, but she’s still able to see them better than before.

Her eyes widened in surprise, confusion washing over her. They’re… wilting. That’s so strange– all the other flowers around here have been growing fine as spring grows closer and closer. Why would…

“What are you doing out here little Miss?” someone calls from across the field, startling her so much she almost drops the match. Her fingers tighten around it in precaution as she goes completely still.

Regardless of the voice’s light tone, it's still unfamiliar. She doesn’t recognize it at all. Which means only one thing.

Shadow knight, her brain supplies. Get the fuck out of there.

She blows out the match as quickly as she can, but the stranger is already making his way over to her. She can see the red cracks in his skin glow brightly in the dark. Crap.

She takes a step back, unsure if she actually should run or not. That would cause a scene, surely. But she does not need to get stuck talking to a shadow knight for the next hour. They try to get you to spill secrets, even if you have no secrets to spill. They’re desperate without Shad around to control them.

She's frozen, stuck between running or talking her way out of this. The closer the man gets the easier it is to see his smile– and it makes her insides twist uncomfortably.

He opens his mouth to speak again, when miraculously, something falls out of the sky and hits him directly on the head. He curses, and Alina takes that as her opportunity to book it.

She rushes back through the forest, heart pounding in her ears as she runs. She does not miss the faint yell of the words, “STUPID BIRD!” as she leaves- and only stops when she's outside the front steps of her house. She pants for breath as she stares at the door in front of her- mind racing. How often does a rock randomly hit someone in the head like that? Definitely not often, that’s for sure! She would almost feel the urge to laugh if fear wasn’t still pulsing through her veins. How the hell did that just happen?

The sound of talons scraping against wood fills her ears, and she turns her head to see a falcon perched on the tree in her front yard. It’s simply just staring at her, cocking its head slightly. She lets out a winded breath and nods in its direction. It’s not hard to put the two pieces together.

“Thanks.” she breathes out clumsily, and climbs the steps into the house. The falcon doesn’t make another sound, but she feels its eyes on her the rest of the night anyway.