Most people outside the Grand and Little Palace never knew of such things. General Aleksander Kirigan was aloof and closed off to the rest of the world, and nearly no one knew his first name. But to think that the infamous Darkling had a child was something entirely unheard of.

General Kirigan had been leading the Second Army for around fifty years, if not longer. And there was never any mention of a young Darkling in the scandal papers that often ran amuck in Ravka.