Work Text:
The Tale of Shadow and Sun
In the third year of the reign of Tsar Anastas of Ravka, he was beset by enemies on every side and despaired of his misfortune.
Then, a man of great power, known as the Darkling, came to his court. He could control and weaponise the shadows, and he performed many impressive feats in front of the tsar and his nobles to prove his worth.
The two struck a bargain. The Darkling and his people – called the Grisha – would use their Small Science to defeat the tsar’s enemies. In return, all the Darkling asked for was freedom from persecution and space to build a town where the Grisha could live in peace.
The Darkling and his Grisha duly fulfilled their side of the bargain, driving all enemy forces from Ravka and fortifying the country’s border defences.
However, the tsar then refused to provide the protection and peace he had promised. Instead, he became paranoid and fearful, although the Grisha had only ever been friendly, and he ordered his soldiers to hunt all Grisha down and kill them without mercy.
To protect his people, the Darkling summoned an army of shadow creatures, who fought and defeated the tsar’s men. The tsar was captured and then executed, and was forever after known as Anastas the Betrayer.
The Darkling took the throne and ruled over Ravka with wisdom and strength, turning it into a haven for Grisha and otkazat’sya alike.
While there were some who initially wished to support the supplanted Lantsov family, they were soon brought to see the error of their ways and Ravka flourished as it never had before.
In keeping with customs and traditions, and to satisfy the expectations of the people, the Darkling took a tsarita. As his own Small Science kept him youthful even while other Grisha slowly aged, he had a succession of tsaritas over the centuries, beginning with the Healer Luda, who had been his wife before he ascended the throne.
His tsarita always had a place of honour in his court, but the Darkling would not permit any of them – not even Luda, for whom he had great affection – to be seated on the throne that matched his, or to stand as his equal. He had been waiting his whole life for the Sun Summoner who would be his perfect balance and his only equal, and only the second throne was for them, whenever they appeared.
Given that he would not wither and die as mortals did, the Darkling had no need for heirs and so he took many precautions to ensure he would have no issue, for he did not wish Ravka to suffer should a child of his try and challenge for the throne.
His tsaritas were sometimes Grisha and sometimes, to satisfy a diplomatic treaty, otkazat’sya. Not one of them had any issue.
Nearly five hundred years after his reign began, the Darkling married Princess Keyen, a granddaughter of the Empress of Shu Han. She was more ambitious than any of his previous tsaritas and, despite knowing of her new husband’s wish to remain childless, she desired to have a child with him, hoping it might aid the plots and plans of her scheming family.
How the deed was done was not known to any but the Darkling and his closest advisors, but the new tsarita did manage to conceive a child. She could not, however, conceal what she had done in a palace with so many Heartrenders and Healers.
Dragged before the Darkling, the tsarita confessed all of her sins. And when the Darkling touched her, he could sense that the child within her was a powerful Grisha. It was a core belief of the Darkling that no innocent Grisha should be harmed by his hand, and so he permitted the tsarita to carry the child to term, closely monitored and well-guarded.
Tsarita Keyen died in childbed giving birth to a daughter.
The first time he held the baby, the Darkling’s amplification drew out her Small Science and the whole room glowed with warm sunlight.
A Sun Summoner – the one and only ever in existence – had been born.
Great was the Darkling’s rejoicing and he named the little tsarevna Alina, bright and beautiful.
He took no other tsarita, instead choosing to dote on his daughter, supervising her education, training her to use her light, and instructing her on matters of state. From an early age, Tsarevna Alina sat on the matching throne next to her father and received petitions and reports in the throne room.
The father and daughter were inseparable and entirely devoted to each other, and the Darkling had no fear that this one beloved child of his would ever cause discord in the country they both served so diligently.
As the tsarevna grew older, she became more and more beautiful, as well as clever and witty and kind. Even when she was but a babe in the cradle, there were dozens of proposals sent to the Darkling, and even more as she got closer to womanhood. The Darkling refused every such proposal and decreed that none of the offers were in any way good enough for his solnyshka.
The Darkling always loved his daughter fiercely, from the moment of her birth, but he found that his love for her changed as she grew.
He did not just love her as a daughter, but he desired her, wished for her to be his eternal tsarita.
They were tied together by both blood and by the Making at the heart of the world, destined for each other, soulmates and equals.
On the day of her eighteenth birthday, he took her in his arms and kissed her first as a father and then as a lover. Alina, as attached to her father as he was to her, accepted his love and freely offered her own.
While some in the kingdom were concerned by the announcement that the Darkling would wed his daughter, they came to understand the powerful connection that was between them and that the Making itself had sanctified the union.
On the day that they wed, the Darkling gave his daughter the regnal name of Sol Koroleva and she glowed so brightly in the Cathedral that all but her father had to shield their eyes against her celestial radiance.
Thus, Shadow and Sun were united, as was always meant to be.
They ruled together, justly and wisely, for over a thousand years.
And then, when the world began to wish to forget the old ways, the Darkling and Sol Koroleva left Ravka and the mortal plane, and they returned to the Making at the heart of the world, where they ruled over the heavens together.
From the book Ravkan Myths, Legends, Fairytales and Folktales