[ Oh, Alina, that smile. How you show your pain even in your joy, it's the iron framework for the stained glass.

But then -- Nina winces. ]

Politics. [ A sigh. But. Okay. If Alina's getting back - and she'd better - and Nina's staying with Matthias here - and she very well might - then maybe talking about things that Aren't Talked About is actually the better way forward. She shifts her posture to face Alina more directly and speaks very seriously. ]Anyone with power is going to try to take us and make us their tools, because our power makes them stronger. But we are not tools. We are people, with whatever stuff makes up people inside of us.

I serve the general, and I serve the king, but more than that I've tried to serve Ravka -- and more than that, I want to make the world a place where Grisha are viewed as people. Where we don't have to be separated out of fear, or pressed into service, or limited to where we can go and what we can do because of who we are. I think that's what most Grisha fight for. And the best way of doing that seems to be winning the war, and the best way of doing that [ she hesitates, because, treason, ] does not always seem to be following the king.