Chapter 6: Love Letters and Lunch
POV: Adam/Pavel
The medical tent smelled of herbs and disappointment. Adam sat on a wooden stool while Healer Marta—a middle-aged woman with the kind of permanently worried expression that came from treating battlefield injuries—poked and prodded at him with clinical efficiency.
"Hmm," she murmured, pressing her fingers against his pulse point. "Heart rate elevated, but that could be from stress. Any fever?"
"Dancing bears love moonlight!"
"Right. The speech issue." She made a note on a piece of parchment. "Any other symptoms? Headaches, dizziness, unusual sensations?"
Adam shook his head, not trusting his voice. The last thing he needed was to blurt out something about system notifications or experience points.
"Well," Marta said finally, "I can't find anything obviously wrong with you. Your injury seems to have healed normally, and your vital signs are stable." She paused, studying his face. "Though I have to say, whatever happened out there with the Grisha was... unusual."
"Unusual is one word for it."
"The instructor wants a full report on the incident," she continued. "I'm going to recommend you for light duty until we can figure out what's causing these... episodes."
Adam nodded gratefully. Light duty meant less chance of accidentally suppressing someone's abilities in front of witnesses.
"Report to Clerk Boris in the administrative tent. He'll help you write up what happened."
"Write a report. About suppressing Grisha abilities. With a speech curse that turns everything into nonsense."
"This should be interesting."
Clerk Boris was a thin, nervous man with ink-stained fingers and the harried look of someone perpetually behind on paperwork. His tent was cramped with filing boxes and loose documents, creating a maze of bureaucratic chaos that made Adam's head spin.
"Kozlov, yes, here for the incident report." Boris shuffled through a stack of forms until he found the right one. "Standard military format. Just describe what happened during the training exercise in your own words."
He handed Adam a quill and pointed to a chair beside a small writing desk. "Take your time. Accuracy is important."
Adam stared down at the blank parchment, his mind racing. How exactly was he supposed to describe suppressing multiple Grisha abilities without mentioning the system or his anti-magic field?
He dipped the quill in ink and began to write:
During the mixed unit training exercise, I experienced unusual sensations that may have affected nearby Grisha personnel.
The words looked normal on the page. Maybe the speech curse only affected his verbal communication.
He continued:
The winds danced sadly while turnips wept for glory.
"Oh, come on."
Adam stared at the sentence he'd just written. Even his written communication was compromised. Every attempt to describe the incident directly was being filtered through the same nonsensical translation that affected his speech.
He tried again:
Multiple Grisha experienced power fluctuations during the demonstration.
Seventeen purple elephants organized a rebellion in the kitchen garden.
"This is hopeless."
Twenty minutes later, Adam had produced what was arguably the most poetic military incident report in Ravkan history. According to his account, the training exercise had been disrupted by "crystallized moonbeams seeking revenge against innocent vegetables" while "magical soup creatures whispered secrets to the dancing wind."
"Finished?" Boris asked, looking up from his own paperwork.
Adam nodded and handed over the report. Boris read it once, blinked, then read it again.
"Is this..." Boris looked confused. "Are you describing the incident, or writing poetry about soup?"
"Magnificent cheese sculptures are plotting world domination!"
"Right. Head injury." Boris set the report aside with the careful handling of someone dealing with a delicate mental health situation. "I'll... interpret this for the official record. You're dismissed."
The lunch period found Adam back in familiar territory: the kitchen area where he could farm experience points while pretending to be useful. He'd settled into the routine of peeling vegetables while positioning himself within range of the Grisha dining area, but today felt different.
More eyes were on him. Word of the training incident had spread, and Adam could feel the weight of curious stares from both First Army soldiers and Grisha personnel.
He kept his head down, focusing on the repetitive task of preparing turnips for the afternoon meal. The work was soothing, giving his hands something to do while his mind processed the morning's events.
"Two hundred and sixty experience points. Enough to unlock something new, probably. But do I risk using the system interface here?"
The decision was taken out of his hands when a familiar voice spoke behind him.
"Mind if I sit?"
Adam looked up to find Alina standing beside the kitchen table, holding a bowl of stew and wearing an expression of careful neutrality.
"She's here. She's actually here, wanting to talk to me."
He gestured to the empty bench across from him, not trusting his voice. Alina settled herself gracefully, then studied his face with those dark, intelligent eyes.
"I saw what happened this morning," she said quietly. "During the training exercise."
Adam's hands stilled on the turnip he was peeling. Of all the people who could have witnessed the incident, Alina was both the best and worst possible observer. Best because she might understand. Worst because drawing her attention could put her in danger.
"Rainbow fish are learning to tap dance!"
"That's what I thought." Alina's smile was gentle, understanding. "You can't really control what comes out of your mouth, can you?"
Adam shook his head, surprised by the relief he felt at her recognition.
"But you understand everything. I can see it in your eyes." She leaned forward slightly, lowering her voice. "There's nothing wrong with your mind, is there? It's just the words that won't come out right."
"She sees me. Really sees me. Not the brain-damaged soldier everyone else thinks I am."
Adam nodded slowly, and Alina's expression brightened.
"I've been watching you," she admitted. "The way you work, the way you listen. You're much more intelligent than you let people believe."
[PROXIMITY BONUS: ALINA STARKOV]
[EMOTIONAL CONNECTION DETECTED]
[+25 EXP GAINED]
[RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPMENT BONUS: +10 EXP]
[SUSTAINED CONVERSATION BONUS: +10 EXP]
[CURRENT EXP: 305/100]
[MULTIPLE LEVEL UPS AVAILABLE]
"There's something else," Alina continued, glancing around to make sure they weren't being overheard. "This morning, when the Grisha lost their abilities... you were at the center of it, weren't you?"
Adam's pulse quickened. This was dangerous territory, but the genuine curiosity in her voice suggested she wasn't planning to turn him in.
"Crystallized starlight makes terrible breakfast cereal!"
"I'm not going to report you," she said quickly. "I just... I've been having strange dreams lately. Visions of light and darkness. And watching what happened to you today, I can't help but wonder if there are things about our world that we don't understand."
"She's having visions. The Sun Summoner abilities are starting to manifest."
Adam set down his knife and really looked at her. Behind the surface concern, he could see exhaustion in the lines around her eyes, tension in the set of her shoulders. The visions were disturbing her sleep, probably had been for weeks.
"Do you ever feel like you're waiting for something?" she asked suddenly. "Like your real life is about to begin, but you don't know what the trigger will be?"
The question was so loaded with prescience that Adam felt his breath catch. She was describing exactly what was happening to her—standing on the threshold of discovering her true nature.
"Enchanted rabbits are hosting a tea party in my imagination!"
But this time, Alina didn't smile at the nonsense. Instead, she studied his expression with growing intensity.
"You know something," she said with sudden certainty. "About the dreams, about what's happening to the Grisha around you. You know what it means."
Adam wanted desperately to warn her, to explain about the Fold crossing and what she would discover about herself. But the speech curse held firm, trapping his real thoughts behind a wall of absurdity.
Instead, he reached across the table and gently touched her hand.
The contact sent a jolt through both of them—not electrical, exactly, but something deeper. For just a moment, Adam felt like he could sense the light sleeping within her, vast and warm and terrifying in its potential.
"She's going to burn so bright. Bright enough to blind the world."
"I felt that," Alina whispered, her eyes wide. "What was that?"
Before Adam could attempt an answer, a shadow fell across their table. They looked up to find Mal standing beside them, his expression carefully neutral but his eyes sharp with the intensity Adam had come to associate with the tracker's protective instincts.
"Lina," Mal said, his voice carrying just a hint of warning. "What are you doing?"
"Just talking." But Alina's hand lingered on Adam's for a moment longer before she pulled away. "Pavel's been helping me understand some things."
"Things like why Grisha abilities fail when he's around?" Mal's tone was still casual, but there was steel underneath. "Because word is spreading about this morning's incident."
"He knows. Of course he knows. He probably heard about it five minutes after it happened."
"Dancing cookies," Adam said weakly.
"Right. Head injury." But Mal's expression suggested he was far from convinced by that explanation.
A sudden flutter of wings drew their attention skyward. The white-streaked crow had returned, circling once overhead before landing on a nearby supply crate. It fixed Adam with that unnervingly intelligent gaze and clicked softly.
"Another message. In front of witnesses."
The crow hopped closer, and Adam saw the familiar scroll tied to its leg. But this time, it didn't wait for privacy. The bird dropped the message directly into his lap, clicked once more, and took flight.
Alina and Mal both stared at the scroll, then at Adam.
"Since when do crows deliver mail?" Mal asked slowly.
Adam unrolled the message with shaking hands, aware that both of them were reading over his shoulder:
The void-touched walks. The amplifiers sing. Counting begins.
The sun rises tomorrow. Be ready for the light.
- K
"Void-touched," Alina read aloud. "What does that mean?"
"And who is 'K'?" Mal added, his tracker instincts clearly engaged.
Adam looked between them, then at the message, then back at their expectant faces. Two of the most important people in this world were staring at him, waiting for answers he couldn't give.
"Magnificent purple butterflies are organizing a rebellion!"
But even as the absurd words left his mouth, Adam saw understanding dawn in Alina's eyes. Not about the message specifically, but about his situation. The frustration, the isolation, the desperate desire to communicate something vital.
"Tomorrow," she said quietly. "Something happens tomorrow."
Adam nodded, and for the first time since arriving in this world, felt like someone truly understood him.
[RELATIONSHIP UPDATE: ALINA STARKOV]
[AFFINITY: +5 POINTS]
[TOTAL: 15 POINTS]
[STATUS: GROWING TRUST]
[SKILL DEVELOPMENT TRIGGERED]
[[OBSERVE] EMOTIONAL STATE DETECTION UNLOCKED]
[COST: 50 EXP]
[CURRENT EXP: 255/100]
As the system notifications scrolled past his vision, Adam realized that his relationship with Alina had crossed some kind of threshold. She was beginning to trust him, to see past the surface confusion to the person beneath.
But with that trust came danger. The closer she got to him, the more likely she was to discover the truth about the system. And he had no idea what that revelation might cost either of them.
The crow's message crumpled in his hands as he tried not to think about what "the sun rises tomorrow" might mean.
One more day. Then everything would change.
POV: Alina Starkov
Alina couldn't stop thinking about the warmth she'd felt when Pavel touched her hand. It had been like sunlight flowing through her veins, bright and almost overwhelming in its intensity.
She sat in the map room, supposedly working on supply route calculations, but her mind kept drifting back to their conversation. The way he'd looked at her when she mentioned the dreams, like he understood exactly what she was experiencing.
"There's something he knows. Something about what's happening to me."
The dreams had been getting stronger lately, more vivid and disturbing. Visions of creatures with too many teeth, of darkness so complete it felt alive. And threaded through all of it, a growing awareness of light waiting just beneath her skin.
"I'm going mad. That's the only explanation."
But Pavel's reaction suggested otherwise. When she'd described the feeling of waiting for her real life to begin, he'd looked at her with such perfect comprehension that it had taken her breath away.
"Alina?" Petyr's voice cut through her reverie. "You've been staring at that same map for twenty minutes. Are you feeling alright?"
"Just tired," she lied, focusing on the parchment spread before her. "Long day."
But as she tried to concentrate on the familiar work of cartography, one word kept echoing in her mind: void-touched.
Whatever that meant, Pavel was apparently one of them. And according to the mysterious 'K' who sent messages via crow, tomorrow something significant was going to happen.
"The sun rises tomorrow."
Alina touched her hand to her chest, where that strange warmth still lingered from Pavel's touch. Outside, the real sun was beginning to set, painting the tent walls in shades of gold and amber.
Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.
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