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rosietrace · 3 months

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「 Jewel 」

Central Character ; 『 Ellis Clawthorne 』 | 『 Davidson Novellion 』

Others ; Victoria Shard

Mentioned ; Sumeragi Yuuta | Chizuko Miyato

Pairing(s) ; Ellis & Davis

【 All Ocs belong to their respective owners and will be credited at the end. 】

AU: Grishaverse AU

Synopsis: “You with the dark curls, you with the watercolor eyes.”

Warning(s): Grishaverse AU, may or may not require knowledge of Leigh Bardugo’s series to make sense of some stuff so um sorry pookies, potentially ooc, Davis is his own warning, mentions of slavery (but not actually shown)

[ Apologies for any out of character moments ]

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Every morning, and every cold, inglorious night— Ketterdam was an unforgiving place to call home. It was hardly believable that people in Kerch would actually consider it home. Let alone live there willingly.

But strangely, as she grew more and more used to the inconsistently dug out canals, the dastardly gorgeous facade of West Stave’s pleasure houses, and each and every tussle with another gang in the barrel; Ellis started to see Ketterdam as… well, a home.

An unhygienic and dangerous home, but home nevertheless. It was a little more dangerous for someone like Ellis, living and walking the streets and keeping her abilities — the gifts with which she'd been born — a secret.

Being a Grisha and wandering the streets of Ketterdam was about as risky as any of the meticulously complicated jobs Yuuta often assigned to Ellis and Chizuko.

Doing little in hiding her abilities as a Grisha would only get her in trouble with the Stadwatch, and she'd either be stuck in an indenture she wouldn't be able to pay— or worse, bound to a slaver ship, and even more horribly, a ship branded by Fjerdan ‘witch hunters’.

Although officially, they often referred to them as Drüskelle.

But all of that was the least of Ellis' worries at the moment.

A tussle with a member from another gang was one thing, but undergoing a chase with members of the Ravkan triumvirate was one whole other thing.

Saints, Ellis thought with a drawn breath, slipping past every passerby and tourist that came her way and meaninglessly destroying a food stall in her best efforts to escape the Grisha hunting her down.

Every so often she'd look from the corner of her eyes, and she could only swallow harder with each hard breath. Shadows. That could only mean one thing.

General Lucretius, her heartbeat quickened at the thought and not in a good, giddy, lovesick schoolgirl way.

She'd never seen the General of Ravka’s second army in person, but she's heard countless stories. From what Ellis could recall, it was likely he was taken in by the Lantsovs not too long after she made her retreat from the suffocating too-white walls of the Little Palace.

Cold, ruthless, all with a temper worse than the late king of Ravka himself. Ellis shuddered whenever she thought about it for too long— though, right now, it was probably the weather.

Damn it! With clenched teeth, Ellis shoved past everyone in her way to get every bit further from the shadows crawling up the grounds, walls, and possibly the skies like death had finally had enough of her cheating in its own game.

It was a shame she couldn't use her abilities as a Heartrender. It probably would've made a bigger difference in her escape. But the streets of East Stave were crawling with Stadwatch, and Ellis would prefer to avoid getting in trouble with them again— Yuuta's already mad as is after last time, thought Ellis as she spared a passing glance at the officers narrowly missing sight of her running like it was the last thing she'd ever do.

If things didn't turn out the way Ellis hoped, it probably would be.

Then her haphazard steps across the streets came to an unsteady halt. She thought it was her imagination, but she felt an arm snake around her waist and a hand — gloved with velvet — clasp over her mouth and nose.

“Shhh,” said the silent voice from behind her. How unfair it was, the soothing tone in their voice.

With added pressure, Ellis tried to wrangle free. The one behind her had been smart enough to clasp her wrists behind her back with… something. She couldn't make out the texture, but it felt so odd. So strange— so abnormal.

The last thing Ellis saw was the caution, the sheer terror in the eyes of Ketterdam’s citizens eyeing at her; or rather, eyeing at whoever had successfully kept her in check.

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Davis stared at the unconscious brunette limply sitting across from him, long and hard, dark circles under his amber eyes after a particularly petty argument between him and Victoria. It hadn't been pleasant.

It was always, “don’t do this” and, “don’t do that” with that snake of a woman. No matter his authority and power over her, Victoria acted like the attitude she had to him — and by extension, the Lantsovs, whom he'd spent the better part of several years to win the favor of — had no consequences.

“Are you not going to wake her up?” Entered, Victoria, the woman of the hour, and another Heartrender Davis couldn't be bothered to remember the name of.

“She can do it herself,” Davis spat, crossing his arms and resting his legs atop the table that kept him and the girl across him at a respectable distance.

“She is currently lying unconscious.” There was a subtle narrowness in her eyes as she added, “assuming you didn't somehow kill her.”

“I'm not stupid.”

“You make that hard to believe.”

“You think it's a good idea to question your superior?”

“Do you think acting so constipated and childish is doing anything to improve my opinion of her.” Damn her.

With a roll of his eyes and a scoff leaving his lips, Davis was more than ready to say something in reply until the girl just barely managed to stir awake.

“... Where… am I?”

Davis smirked, lowering his legs from the table and crossing them beneath it. “Ellis Clawthorne?” He questioned.

Just seeing the subtle — if you could even call it that — reaction to the name told Davis everything he needed to know. But he treaded carefully, needing to make sure that she truly was the missing Grisha they'd been looking for the better part of a couple years.

Again, he asked, “That's your name, I'm guessing?”

The girl's nose wrinkled. “No.”

He needed to test that theory. Looking over her shoulder, Davis' smirk widened. A Heartrender at the ready, waiting for her to lie through her teeth and catch her in the act.

“Then,” Davis leaned a tad bit closer against the dark wood of the table. “What is your real name, sweet, pretty thing?”

“I'm not a thing,” she spat, “and I don't trust you enough to tell you my name.”

“What's not to trust about a face like this?” He motioned to his painfully porcelain skin, whiter than snow from the Fjerdan north.

“Everything.”

“That's not a good answer, little jewel.”

“I'm not one for good answers.” She shrugged whilst acting far too casually for a girl being interrogated. Then her eyes narrowed to give him a look. “And my name isn't ‘little jewel’.”

“Then what am I to call you if it isn't?” Davis knew that Victoria knew; when it came to dodging questions, it wasn't usually him being on the receiving end of the responses.

“... Maude Ivory on some days. Other days, I’m Lucy Gray, and on rarer ones, I'm Eva Jacks.”

One hard look to the girl, he redirected it to the Heartrender behind her. Steadily, they shook their head. A lie.

“Tell me the truth, sweetheart,” pleaded Davis in his most condescending. “There's much good to come if you're punctual enough to be honest. Especially if you're trying so hard at being cryptic.”

She didn't say anything about that. She looked like she wanted to strangle him, maybe even shoot back a remark she's been itching to say to get on his last nerve— it was probably both.

Sighing dramatically, Davis held out a hand to Victoria standing behind him. He didn't need to turn his head to know that Grisha Squaller rolled her eyes while she bequeathed a velvet pouch full of coins to him.

Briefly, the girl eyed it. Davis took that as an obvious assumption that she could probably spit out whatever he wanted her to spit out for just the right price.

Surely 100,000 kruge was enough. If not, he'd be in a bit of tizzy.

He leisurely tossed the pouch to her from across the table, a gesture more threat than promise.

“Should you cooperate with us, you'll be given a hefty some of Kerch cash.” said Davis, his head cocking to one side. “We'll even take care of revoking your contract to whoever you're indentured to.”

“That won't be necessary,” said the girl. “I'm not an indentured Grisha. You might be mistaking me for someone else.”

Painfully, that ended up being her answer to every question Davis could throw at her. He had a hunch that she was lying, but the lack of hints from the Heartrender was starting to itch at him tirelessly.

Davis very nearly threw his hands up in frustration. Is she bluffing, or does this girl have a few screws loose?!

“You're a Heartrender.”

“I'm not.”

“My sources claim that there's been word in the barrel that a Heartrender’s taking up residence in one of the gangs.”

“It could be anyone,” said this girl, whom he was more than sure was Ellis Clawthorne. “It could be a Harley's Pointer, a Black Tip, maybe even a Dime Lion, or a member of the Dregs.”

“All I know is that as far as I'm aware, there's no Grisha lurking about in the Midas Touch.”

“That's a lie, and you know that.” Davis insisted. He wasn't going to let this fly, not until he got his confirmation.

But she was ever, ever ruthless in making sure he didn't get the answers demanded of her. “You can't have your cake and eat it too, sir. Maybe you need a moment to tuck yourself in bed and pay someone to burn your kruge to keep the furnace warm.”

Davis' hands slammed on the table. Whatever hiss Davis tried to suppress from the sting didn't show up.

“Now listen here, you—”

“Davis.”

His head whipped, eyes locked on Victoria. Her black hair, for once, lying down instead of her usual updos. Sometimes, in battle, her hair looked purple.

But that was the least of Davis' worries, right now. Not when Victoria placed a hand on his shoulder and expected him to react calmly to that when he was already in a sour mood.

“Now is not the time for—”

She cut him off with a quick shush, her eyes subtly trailing downwards and urging for Davis to see what she was looking at.

He did. He couldn't have felt prouder when he did, because now it all became clear, then and there— the girl sitting across them was Ellis Clawthorne, lost Corporalnik among many in Grisha’s second army, alleged enforcer for Sumeragi Yuuta.

And the most migraine-inducing trickster in all of the continents. Saints, Davis wanted to rip his hair out.

He rounded the corner in seconds, grabbing for her wrists while she was in the middle of steadying her heartbeat; a crude, but all-in-all effective way for Corporalniks to evade lie detection from their captors— especially if said captors had indentured Grisha.

But Davis was no Ghezen-worshipping merch, and he was no King of Ravka. Yet he was the general of the second army, and even through his silliest, most humiliating moments, he always finds a way to get the upper hand.

“What are you—”

“What's your name?”

Ellis — he was sure if it, more sure than ever — stared at him with wide eyes and a disgruntled face as she tried to break free. “I told you already, it's—”

“Maude Ivory? Lucy Gray, what's next, Aurora Borealis? I'm not stupid, sweet thing.”

She hissed when his grip tightened to a point it became full-on painful.

Davis said nothing to her while she tried to break free. If he had to give her any credit, it would be thinking she had a chance of getting past him.

He cast a glance at Victoria, still standing from the doorway, elegant as ever. “Prepare the ship. And tell the Council of Tides in advance that we're departing from Ketterdam.” He ordered.

With a huff and a more exasperated look than usual, Victoria stepped out of the room, closing the door so Davis could get his ‘precious’ silence and privacy.

Now it was the Heartrender behind Ellis' turn to get that long and hard gaze from General Lucretius. Not a pleasant experience in the slightest, but it was an effective method of making others do what you expected them to do.

“Tell me.” Davis said. His voice devoid of feeling, and wanting nothing more than an honest answer out of her. “Tell me, honestly, or I'll make sure you won't come back to your little barrel thugs with a tongue in your mouth.”

Ellis kept silent, her body stiff and waiting in anticipation for what he had to say. He could see the gears turning in her head, and it didn't take a genius to know her heartbeat quickened at both the proximity and the threat that came upon his lips.

Yet all Davis asked was, “Are you Ellis Clawthorne?”

It was a simple enough question. And the only question that truly mattered to Davis— more so than any of the others, at least.

If she said yes, all would be well, she'd be taken back to Ravka with an easy heart and 100,000 kruge lining her pockets. If she answered with no, however…

“I am.”

A simple and straightforward answer for a question of that same variety. That was all he needed; and she knew that was all it took for his suspicions confirmed.

He was surprisingly gentle as he let go of the hold he had on her wrists, and even stranger, he was a gentleman among other things as he helped her to her feet and escorted her out of the room.

What wasn't gentle, Ellis seemed to realize, was his voice. And more so than that, the way he stared down at her like she was the one thing he couldn't stand to look at for too long.

“You have exactly two days time to prepare before we take you back to Ravka, miss Clawthorne.”

Ellis' eyes widened. “Wait, what do you—”

Davis shushed her, lifting a finger. He didn't want to deal with another word out of her mouth.

As he sauntered out of the room with the other Heartrender, leaving Ellis standing there in her lonesome to process what exactly he'd said.

She supposed that Ketterdam wouldn't be ‘home’ any moment longer.

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【 Taglist / Credits 】

↳ In order of OC appearances/mentions

Ellis Clawthorne — @starry-night-rose

↳ Enforcer for the Midas Touch, Heartrender (Corporalki, order of the living and the dead)

Sumeragi Yuuta — Me 😈

↳ Barrel boss for the Midas Touch, Durast (Materialki, order of Fabrikators)

Chizuko Miyato — @sakuramidnight15

↳ “Spider” for the Midas Touch

Davidson Novellion — Also Me 😈

Victoria Shard — Also (x2) Me 😈

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