[ Nina doesn't pull away from Alina, although the contact makes it so she can't help but hear her heartbeat more than anyone else's, and it leaves them both more vulnerable than she would normally like. The camp, however, is safer for Grisha than most places in their world, which is a genuinely pathetic statement. Nina understands the kind of power simple contact can have, the way it builds a bridge. She's in the bridge-building business.

She nods and waves to a few people she recognizes as they walk. She feels a bit of a weight as she talks about this, keeping her voice for Alina's ears, but her tone is light enough. It's simple history. ]

I've been on the field since I was fifteen, a full soldier at sixteen. [ Heartrenders don't really get to wile away their time in the Little Palace, doing research. She'd been needed on the front, and that was where she went. ] About two years ago, I started running more specialized missions. My last one was in Kerch.