"-It's Svetlana. Um. My name. I'm Svetlana. My friends call me Svetka."

"Are we friends, then, Svetka?"

Blush!!!

"...We've been talking and you haven't tried to kill me yet?" Except indirectly through heart palpitations.

"Do new acquaintances often try to kill you, Svetka?"

"...I look Suli. So, sometimes."

Her hands tighten on Svetka's waist.

"I protect what's mine," she says. "And you are one of my grisha now - anyone else who thinks that is an appropriate response to one like you will not live to have such thoughts a second time."

Shiver. (Strangely, not a bad kind of shiver.)

"-Thanks."

"You're welcome, Svetka."

"And... you may call me Senka in private. As friends."

"Senka." She tries out the taste of the name.

Oh Saints the Darkling is Senka what is Svetka's life coming to.

"Very few know that name," she murmurs. "It seems to ruin my aura of mystique to have a mortal name."

"It's a good name, I think. But General Senka doesn't quite seem- commanding."

"It's short for Ksenija, which is somewhat better," she says, wryly. "But I'm widely known as the Captain General or the Darkling for a reason."

"More mysterious," she nods. "Spookier."

"A monster in the shadows."

"A terror to Ravka's enemies."

"And identifying those enemies isn't always simple, sadly."

"I'm okay with starting with the ones who are trying to axe murder me."

"I as well."

"It's a pity, almost, that we didn't have the slack to capture them. But I'm sure the outpost will put their heads on pikes and burn their bodies, at least, and the Fjerdans find that upsetting for some reason."

She's not gonna say they don't deserve that, because they kind of do, in her opinion.

"I'd prefer not having to wait until the axe is right there though, next time."

"The Drüskelle are not ones to fear easily."

One of her hands slips from Svetka's waist, takes her hand. "But they fear me, and I will keep you close until even the rumor of you makes them cower like dogs."

"I don't- know how to be a Grisha, though."

"No one does at first. That is what training is for."

"...What if I can't do it again?"

"Do you desire to do it again?"

"I can't remember doing it the first time. I only know I did because Val said so."