"Did she protect you?"

"He protected her."

Hum.

She drags her hand through her hair - and it melts back into her, leaving her with her normal shorn haircut. 

"Kielo referenced it earlier - eight years ago, she got found out as a grisha." That'd make her ten at the time; only very slightly precocious for manifesting. "She healed a badly injured dog she found."

"She was dragged before the king; Irina and I were told to go to her room and stay there. We snuck out and hid so we could - watch. The king was - talking about how Kielo was a demon who'd snuck into his household. He was going to kill her - no one else could have, legally. Royal bodies are sacred. And then the queen's handmaiden came forward, and - the queen had apparently miscarried all of her pregnancies. The handmaiden accused her of having had a captive grisha Healer brought to her, and promising the woman freedom for herself and her daughter if she'd help the queen carry to term - and then had that grisha and her daughter killed after safely giving birth. The king was - "

"I think he was about to have her killed, and declare her daughters illegitimate. Kielo started begging for Irina's life; I rushed out of hiding and put myself between her and the king - I don't know what I expected that to do. Treason is a death sentence."

"My father arrived then - he'd been out of the castle, and had hurried back as soon as he received the messenger - and he interrupted, and got everything repeated to him."

"And then - and then he turned to Kielo. He asked her what she was. And she just... Looked at him, and started crying for the first time, and said 'I'm Irina's wolf.'"

"He talked the king - more like shouted at the king, really - into letting my father take Kielo into his custody, to do with as he saw fit. He was the leader of the druskelle, the one with the direct remit to handle capturing and controlling grisha, and - the king gave him a lot of latitude, and Papa was... Already used to how to argue this kind of thing. He'd gotten the king to abolish the death penalty for being grisha a few years before, and was working on outlawing murdering grisha..."

"Papa escorted her - and me - back to her rooms to get anything she couldn't part with, and then she just... Came back to our house with us, and moved into my room."

"Papa said a lot of stupid things about making her useful to Fjerda as a weapon. About how if his experiment with her worked, he might be able to talk the king into using grisha properly - Papa's in favor of stealing good ideas from our enemies - but. She slept in my room, all the way up until Papa moved us to a bigger house so she could have her own space. And Papa didn't treat her any differently from how he treated me, or from how he treated the younger druskelle who were constantly coming by for advice or just - someone who'd listen to them."

"...The king wanted all unnaturalness to be burned from the world. Papa wanted a Second Army."

"That's- better."

"...He isn't perfect. I'm angry at him for a lot, and he's fucked up massively before, and he can be a overbearing asshole."

"But he isn't a bad father."

"I've no grounds to criticize him on that front."

"...If you're dating Kielo, you're going to have to - be around him."

And then she smiles, suddenly. "Actually... Next time you see him, you should ask him for her hand in marriage - just make sure I'm in the room to see his face."

Snrk.

"Should I call her his apprentice or his daughter?"

"'Daughter' would get some funny expressions out of both of them."

"As long as he doesn't get it mixed up with you, I guess."

"You'd have to specify."

"Does 'the wolfy one' work, or would Trassel's presence confuse things further?"

"Might be best to just use her name."

"But which one? She has so many."

"Papa will recognize either Kielo or Kullervo."

"Noted."

She laughs. "Any other advice you need?"

"Oh, lots, I'm sure. But nothing else leaps immediately to mind."

"Make yourself at home, then."

Nina will do so.

Some time before...

Inej leads Kaz out into the sheltered courtyard containing the sacred ash - and to the Treasury beyond. "Helvar said here's likely," she murmurs as they skirt around the large and open space. 

"She'd know. Apparently."

"I can't believe I missed that."