Chapter Text
Nina had learned what it was to be tailed, to be followed, stalked, hunted. If not from her time as a Ravkan soldier and a Fjerdan prisoner, then just from being in Ketterdam and around her fellow Crows long enough to be in some sort of situation that called for it. Emerging from the tunnels into the backrooms of The Crow Club, Nina's shadow doubled though she could never truly sense the cause.
Inej Ghafa was a master at her craft, there was no denying it.
No one looked up from their tables and decks of cards or spinning wheels to bat an eye at her as she traversed the game floor, the crowd only just starting to pour in. If she let her mind wander, she could imagine Jesper at the door, tipping his hat to her as she made her way to The White Rose for work. But she blinked the happy thought away, and instead a freckled lanky figure with eyes the color of chrysanthemum tea waved with a smile. Nina nodded a response and walked on.
She moved through the streets with ease, no one blinked twice at her, they were all far more invested and interested in their own business of the evening. Nina thanked the Saints for their ignorance, and made her way down the stave towards the bottom of the Barrel.
Finding someone willing to ferry her to Black Veil Cemetery came much harder than she expected. Some whisper about a ferryman who had gone missing after visiting Black Veil had made the rounds that day, put any canal worker that heard in a proper state of fright, or at least unsure enough to decline Nina the ride when she stated her desired destination. Finally after three failed attempts of convincing folks that she was harmless and simply wished to visit a loved one's resting place, she landed on a ferryman who hadn't heard the rumors, and who took her kruge of gratitude without a second glance.
What has Kaz done now? She thought as the ferryman pushed the gondola down the canal. Something stupid, probably.
The gondola driver made polite enough conversation. Rumors off the Exchange, tales of life outside the city, asking Nina her opinion on the Merchant Council's latest declaration, freshly out of mourning after a one Merchant Van Eck's passing some months ago. His descendant, Rayla Hendricks-Fahey was still too young to serve on the Council (by only a year, but they were surely desperate to keep her out for as long a they could, so they had declared a knowledge test be required of any who shall rise to the Merchant Council, birthright or not. It would prove itself to be a stupid attempt. Rayla was an honors student at the University after all.
Rayla is smarter than the whole lot of them. Nina thought to herself. The driver had never even heard of her, only referring to her as "Van Eck's little protege." A sad smile found its way to Nina's expression as she remembered her niece. She was truly Jesper and Wylan's child, brilliant as she was thick skulled, beautiful as she was brave. Nina briefly wished she had brought Rayla on this trip, to visit her Das and see her aunties again.
"Here we are, miss." Miss. Nina thanked her Saints and her Small Sciences she still passed for a Miss. She knew she was old enough to be a ma'am these days, "Black Veil Cemetery."
"Thank you, could you return in about a bell and a half chime?"
"That long, miss?" He laughed, the twilight lighting the fading ginger in his beard and making the overpowering grey hairs shine," 'Fraid they're not up to much these days in there, they shan't keep you that long."
I could change that with a wave of a hand, "I have lots of family to visit."
"As you say, miss. Be back in three quarters chime, just to be safe."
The boatman pushed on without another word, not giving Nina the chance to rebuke his hesitance. Never mind him, she had far more important business.
The downside to Black Veil Cemetery was all the dead people. Where anyone else may hear blissful silence, Nina heard the pulse of the dead. A faint, waning pulse that called to her in the back of her mind, pulling at her until she would call on them. They had noticed the fact she could feel them and for once, Nina Zenik felt unease in her stomach. This was why she detested cemeteries these days. The overbearing dead.
Still she walked on, continuing down the footpath, going right at the fork, and finding her way to the Hendriks Bookcase. The marble stood out stark against the darkening surroundings at dusk. The sailboat looked particularly glossy and polished, leave it to Jesper to stand out with style.
If ashes could wink, she was sure they would've just then.
"Do we really need to meet here?" Nina asked thin air as she approached, looking around at the weeping willows that shrouded and shaded many of the surrounding crypts, "The dead are noisy."
"But they aren't nosy." Her voice had never lost its warmth in her...evolution. It still brought a comfort to Nina's heart, "I show up anywhere in the city and everyone will know something is up, especially Kaz."
"Who, besides Brekker of course, are you worried about knowing the Wraith lives?" Nina asked, picking up the stone sword and turning it over in her hand, finger tracing along the floral design of the hilt.
The shadow behind the bookcase stayed silent, but Nina knew her friend well, "She has no hold on you, Inej."
"She can still try-"
"Heleen is dead, babes. He drank her dry last year and burned the rest himself on your birthday." Nina laughed a bit at the mental image of ageless Kaz Brekker, destroying Heleen Van Houten from the inside out literally, "Rayla told me all about it in her letters. The Menagerie has been turned into a safe house for victims of trafficking."
The shadowy figure behind the Bookcase's head tilted. She was silent for a moment, then two, "It is?"
"Calls it Saint's Haven. He's more proud of it than he likes to admit, hell he avoids ever associating his name with it, technically it's in Rayla's name. But Kaz came up with the idea." Nina admitted waving the stone sword around playfully.
Inej finally stepped out from behind the bookshelf, lit only by the fading sun and the vague light pollution of the city all around them. Her features looked as young and as bright as the last time Nina had seen her some years ago. Long coal black hair was braided behind her back and reached her waist with ease. Her skin didn't even look paler, it just appeared as though she had continued to live that last day in Nina's memory, and she simply had never stopped being that age. She wore a sea green coat over lighter colored shirt and pants, and Nina could spy what she assumed were only half the knives she was carrying.
"Oh," Nina let out, replace ing the stone blade and striding forward, wrapping her revealed friend into a tight, warm embrace, "How I've missed you."
Inej laughed and the dark night seemed to lift with the sound, spinning Nina and herself in the embrace, "I missed you too, Nina."
"How is sailing, Captain? You have a new crew yet?"
"Not yet, it's still too soon. Too many people know Captain Ghafa is dead." Inej spun out of the hug to just holding Nina's hands. With Jesper and Wylan's remains beside them, it almost felt like coming come. Inej could hear Jesper demanding all of her attention for at least five minutes. It felt faint, distant and somehow behind her, but it was a warm and welcome thought amongst the gloom of the cemetery.
"Including your heartthrob."
Inej was wielding a secret set of daggers it turned out, her eyes shot them at Nina and the Grisha woman laughed.
"Oh you two have been playing slow burn for decades, then you went all tragic hero on him and he's just been unbearably broody ever since." Nina nudged her head towards the Bookcase, "They'd back me up and you know it."
"That's not fair." Inej pouted, arms folded across her front.
"I wouldn't even need to use my hands." Nina smirked playfully.
"Still, If I reveal myself to the public as not being dead and word gets around, any slaver or seller will be after me with a stake and Saint's tears." Inej began to pace before the corpsewitch and the Bookcase, "Kaz only gets away with it because everyone already assumes he's-"
"A demjin?" Nina cut in with a smirk, "His reputation always proceeds him. Yours does too, of course. But his serves to his benefit where yours in this new scenario you're in, is a detriment."
Inej sighed, leaning against the Bookshelf and stretching her legs out, letting out an unnecessary breath as she thought out her next steps, "Is it wrong to say I want his advice on how to turn this my way?"
"Does Inej Ghafa need an excuse to go see Kaz Brekker?"
"She does if he thinks she's dead."
Nina sighed, "You two are unbearable. Perfect for each other."