[ Nina's nostrils flare slightly as she takes a deep breath. Her gaze rests heavily on Alina, the focus not the focus of a knife point, but of a magnet - waiting for any clue to stand at attention and present itself to the inevitable force of her attention. She doesn't want to deal with this. She doesn't have much choice.
Quietly: ] Why are you afraid of him? Has he hurt you? Forced you somehow?
[ She remembers how the shallowness of Alina's 'I think he likes seeing it on me' and all the implications that she wanted Kirigan's attention which never rang quite true. As difficult as it was for Nina to think of the general as a human, sexual being instead of a force of nature... well, apparently he was. The man had a... darkness to him, true, but he'd spent his life in war, attempting to secure Ravka's freedom and protection of Grisha and undo the terrible wrong of his ancestry. A bit of darkness was understandable, with all that. Nina knew on some level she carried it too. But she could not believe that Kirigan would ever turn all his considerable power to hurting that which he'd spent his life protecting - and Alina was the hope at the end of the story, the chance for a future, for an ending. She couldn't imagine he'd risk damaging that... ]
sorry for the delay!
Quietly: ] Why are you afraid of him? Has he hurt you? Forced you somehow?
[ She remembers how the shallowness of Alina's 'I think he likes seeing it on me' and all the implications that she wanted Kirigan's attention which never rang quite true. As difficult as it was for Nina to think of the general as a human, sexual being instead of a force of nature... well, apparently he was. The man had a... darkness to him, true, but he'd spent his life in war, attempting to secure Ravka's freedom and protection of Grisha and undo the terrible wrong of his ancestry. A bit of darkness was understandable, with all that. Nina knew on some level she carried it too. But she could not believe that Kirigan would ever turn all his considerable power to hurting that which he'd spent his life protecting - and Alina was the hope at the end of the story, the chance for a future, for an ending. She couldn't imagine he'd risk damaging that... ]