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, when she had first arrived in Kerch, Lianna's first night in Ketterdam was full of tears, sobs and weeping. She was unaware of the time passing, numb to the moon travelling on the horizon. Even the starlight illuminating her bedroom floor through the balcony window annoyed her – it had no right to be beautiful. Everything beautiful stayed behind, she left it all in Ravka, never to be seen again. Her body was exhausted but still shook rapidly with every let out cry, her throat sore, head dulled by pain.

Her homeland was on a brink of a civil war and she couldn't help it – only thirteen years old, not even allowed to fight. Staying could have been a death wish, for all she knew. But it still hurt to run away. Many people did, but did they all feel like traitors?

A knock was heard in the room and a second later the door was opened. With great struggle, Lianna sat up on the bed, fearful it might be mister Ford – he was a kind man, after all, as kind as a merchant from Kerch could be. She wouldn't want to seem ungrateful. When she turned around to check, she didn't see the middle-aged, short man, however. The person who entered her room uninvited was a tall, slim boy with blond hair and fair skin.

And that is how, on that cold, lonely night, her first in the city abandoned by gods and saints, she met Cassian Reyes for the first time.

"My name is Cassian." He sat on the edge of her bed. He spoke fluent kerch, without any trace of an accent, ravkan or another. His golden tresses were a mess, his smile brighter than the moon. He was no more than two years older than her. "What's yours?"

"Lianna," she answered. "Are you from Ravka?" He nodded. The next sentence she spoke in ravkan, an obvious tinge of resentment to it; "Then why are you talking to me in a language foreign to both of us?"

"Safety reasons." His tone was apologetic. "Mister Ford wants us to communicate in kerch. If we spoke ravkan, people might get suspicious." A pause. "A lot of bad things are happening in Ravka," he said, as if she needed it explained.

Good thing I actually listened when they taught us languages in the Little Palace, she thought bitterly. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "Are you a Grisha, too?"

Maybe that was a foolish question. She was instructed not to tell anybody, but that boy earned her trust immediately, somehow. Later on, as years have passed, she accepted the fact that's just how Cassian was – magnetic. People wanted to trust him and for him to trust them.

"Yeah." His smile grew wider, still equally gentle and compassionate. "I'm an Alkemi, although not very skilled. My parents sent me away to Kerch before I would be recruited into the Second Army. You're a Squaller, right?" She nodded as shw watched him shift on the bed. His expression stayed empathetic, but there was a change in the way his eyes shone. "See? We can't let people know, it wouldn't be safe. Everyone who arrives after you and I will be a ravkan Grisha, too. We'll have to set an example."

"That's... alright." What was there to say? She felt sorry for all those kids, as she did for herself. Her tear-stained cheeks began to itch and all she wanted was to finally go to sleep. Maybe not wake up the next morning.

Cassian shook his head.

"What I mean is, they will all be younger than us," he spoke seriously. "Ford was hesitant about taking you in, at first he only wanted kids ten years old or younger. I've been here since I was eleven, four years now, so I guess we're both exeptions from what's to come." Lianna smiled at that. He said it like they were in all of this together. "We will be the oldest, Lianna. You can always depend on me," he paused, "but you have to let them depend on you."

She didn't remember much more from their first encounter, but that single sentence stuck with her forever. You can always depend on me, but you have to let them depend on you.

Cassian Reyes was the kindest person she has ever met. And if she had to lie to him, for him about her trip to Fjerda, she had no objections. He'll find out eventually, that much was undeniable. But he can get mad at her all he wants as they're all on a ship to Ravka, four million kruge richer.

"What are you trying to pull, Lia?" he asked, as she gave him the letter prepared by Brekker.

When she looked at the document, it seemed flawless. The Dregs had moles everywhere, it probably was without a defect. So how did Cassian see right through it?

"Thomas Ford is a man of mystery, Cas. We've lived here long enough to know that." She shrugged.

Cassian didn't look convinced. His hair was as tousled as ever, golden locks kept falling onto his forehead as he read the letter time after time again.

He was pretty in the most elementary definition of the word. A golden boy, all sun-kissed hair and heavenly azure eyes touched by storm clouds, a smile so bright, so warm it felt like spring. Everyone loved him, his charm, his playfulness, his kind-hearted soul. Lianna could not count all of the times she saw him being a little too close to a boy or a girl, despite Thomas Ford's forbiddance. They weren't supposed to form meaningful relationships, but Cassian could never survive without his admirers. He was like the moon; existing to be adored. Ketterdam's most mesmerising flower, lovely and desired by all.

It got annoying at times.

"When did he even send this?" he questioned again.

"Probably instructed someone to write it right before heading off to Novyi Zem." She grabbed the letter away from the boy's hands. "What do you care, anyway? I'll go, get everything done and come back, possibly before he does."

And once I come back, we leave this dirty city for good, she thought. Ford doesn't even have to know where we got the money.

Cassian sighed and raised his hands defensively.

"You can go, I lack the power to stop you," he said, turning back to his interrupted work. "I'm just worried we won't endure that long without you."

Lianna exhaled a chuckle and rolled her eyes.

"You'll have to manage." She started walking towards the door. "I'll go tell the others." The boy only murmered something indistinctly as she closed the door behind her.

Walking down that corridor was always pleasant – the walls were decorated with paintings, some centuries old, some from as far away as The Wandering Isle, some were replicas, some originals worth possibly more than the mansion itself, but they were all equally beautiful. Although Lianna was far from an artist, she liked looking at them, anyway. It was a contrast to the simple yet elegant halls in which their rooms were located.

Three months after Lianna moved to Ketterdam, Thomas Ford came home with two children – twin brothers Anton and Andrei Kalashnik, six years younger than her, both Corpolarki. A year later, Milana Syomin, a six-year-old Etherealki, arrived on a ship which dropped an anchor in Kerch under the ravkan flag. They were all children, scared to death and longing for their parents' embrace – parents who might as well have died in the civil war already. Adjusting to Ketterdam took them a while. Cassian was right from the very beginning – those kids needed to rely on him and Lianna. She didn't even want to wonder about how they would have ended up without him.

Even before entering the room, she could hear that the kids weren't working, which proved to be true as soon as she opened the door. Andrei and Anton were, in fact, busy with jumping on their beds, the heavy, leather-bound books which they were instructed to read when mister Ford was abroad lying untouched on their desks.

It was nine o'clock. Lianna has already managed to sneak out to the Barrel, argue with Kaz Brekker, take the letter from him and come back to argue with Cassian Reyes on top of that, meanwhile the twins weren't even dressed yet. The boys only stopped bouncing once she cleared her throat loudly, but when they noticed it was her, their smiles only grew.

"Lia, look!" Andrei yelled, cheeks tinted by pink with excitement, as he jumped up, trying out some new antics, only to stumble off the bed, landing on the floor with a loud, raspy groan. Anton fell over, too, but he was laughing, clutching his sides desperately.

Lianna ignored their actions, choosing to walk over to sit at the table in the corner of the room. Only then did she notice little Milana, her ebony hair and caramel skin, scribbling something in one of her notebooks. If Andrei was born of fire, restless and unpredictable, and Anton was his water, composed and alert but still lively, then Milana was a child of the moon. She had stardust in her lungs, forever a lone ranger, a curious wanderer.

She gave the little girl a gentle nudge. "What are you drawing, Milana?" she asked, as the boys ran over to her.

"The ocean," Milana answered, looking up with her shiny doe eyes. "Can we go for a walk to see the ocean? Can we go anywhere at all? I'm bored here."

"No," said Andrei, only for the sake of being mean, as a ten years old boy would. Anton smacked him on the head, so he returned the favour by hitting Anton under the ribs with his elbow.

Lianna rolled her eyes at their shenanigans. A devious smirk grew on her face, however, as she moved her hand slightly and Andrei was blown away by the slightest blast of air, letting out a distraught hey! as he staggered a couple of steps backwards.

"Don't interrupt me," she said and he sticked his tounge out at that. "We can't go, but..."

"That's what I said!"

She looked at him with raised eyebrows, only to see his dazzling beam. Andrei was always the first to show his emotions, easy to annoy and equally quick to amusement, but he has always been free of anger. A sweet summer child with untamed flames in his amber eyes.

"We can't go, but I'll have to," she exclaimed finally. "Alone. I must leave for a couple of days."

A wave of protests. She was bombarded with questions like, where are you going? are you sure you'll come back? why are you leaving us alone with Cassian? and no opportunity given to respond. Lying was never hard, but keeping the truth from people she cared about will not be pleasant, either.

"Don't you dare tell anyone the truth," that's what Kaz told her that morning. After a guy named Muzzen broke into the mansion, after she sneaked out with him to the Barrel. All that trouble and this was the kind of conversation she had with Brekker. Don't you dare say the truth, such helpful advice.

"I have to take care of something for mister Ford." That was all she could say. "There were troubles with some jurda shipments. He can't take care of that himself, but it was a huge investment, so somebody has to."

With each word, something thightened around her stomach, an invisible knot waiting, seething to break her spine. It's been long since she's last had to defy guilt, but it was blooming inside her stomach again, permeating her bones.

"When are you leaving?" Anton spoke up at last.

"I don't know." Meet me at Fifth Habour at midnight was the only instruction given to her so far. What for was unknown, how long they'd be gone was unknown, too. Her own second thoughts started to annoy her. "But this isn't a goodbye yet, so don't worry."

"I won't listen to Cassian," declared Andrei.

"It's not like you listen to me, either," she retorted.

The boy grinned widely, squinting his eyes. He was lacking one of his front teeth, lost it in the garden when Lia throwed him into the air with a blast, but didn't manage to catch him. She expected the boy to curl up and start crying then, but he only got up, spit the tooth out, smiled widely and started yelling Once again! Do it again! She would never admit it, but perhaps she loved Andrei a little more than the others.

She looked at them, Milana still frowning and pouting, Andrei playing with his own fingers, bending them in all ways possible and Anton calm as ever, looking at her with bothered eyes. They were anxious, but they have been through a lot already. They'll be fine. Two or three weeks without her, then she comes back and they all can leave for good. The civil war in Ravka was long over. They would return to their families and visit each other often, and never look back on Ketterdam ever again.

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the character driven chapter is here 🥴🥴 i love cassian SO MUCH. i love them all but he has my entire heart lol. and if someone needed it confirmed, yes he is bisexual!! and spoilers kinda but so is lianna 🥰 my babies