𝕬𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞 - [𝗞𝗮𝘇 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗿]

𝐱𝐢. 𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘢'𝘴 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 — nina's disappearance

━━━━━━━

 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐊𝐒𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐊𝐀𝐙 had finalised their bickering once they had finally approached the other half of their rag-tag group of thieves and fools; Jesper had immediately swung his arm over Aleksa's shoulders and grinned merrily as she leaned into him still blinking away the daze her short bout of sleep had brought on.

 Now, Aleksa prided herself in always being the smartest — and prettiest — person in the room at any and all times, even if a certain Bastard of the Barrel would like to dispute such a fact. Thus even though Aleksa was ready to topple out of Jesper's hold and find a comfy home on the ground to slumber, she did catch the rough-looking man at the counter of the Inn grinning at a wad of foreign money within his hands.

 She couldn't get quite a close enough look at the symbol dusting the very corner of the papers, but she knew for certain that the man was not counting Kruge.

 The stairs of the Inn were piled high with dust and creaked with even the lightest of steps; each noise made Aleksa blossom at the thought of slamming her head into a wall — though she dutifully refrained from damaging her wondrous face.

 It was made incredibly obvious from the moment Aleksa, her adorably sketchy crows and Arken arrived before the very door that was supposedly concealing this Nina from their view, that the Heartrender would not be joining them.

 The door to the room was askew, a sliver of light escaping from the crack between the oak wood. The rusted silver handle was still tugged down, as though somebody with abnormal strength had burst through at a moment's notice.

 Aleksa was the one to push the door open; the toe of her boot bumped against the oak door and with a shrill creak that split through the tense silence, the state of the room was revealed to them.

 Nina's suitcase was still spread upon the bed and overflowing with various silks, velvets and other decorated fabrics; clearly a woman who prized her looks too. There was shattered glass by the side of the bed, and whilst the Heartrender could have knocked it over, there was a sprinkling of sharp glass on the side table too; it had likely been used as a weapon.

 Aleksa parted herself from Jesper and entered the room a pace behind Kaz. His eyes scanned each piece of old furniture and glossed over every detail that could aid him in cracking the safe and picking the lock.

 Aleksa slumped on the bed, wishing for nothing more than this Nina to miraculously appear before their eyes so that the Shadow Summoner could get another wink of sleep in an actual bed, rather than a carriage that was certainly going to blister her spine and bruise her ass. 

 She watched the others potter around; Arken was busy huffing and puffing to himself as he mindlessly looked around the room... It was almost as though he was forcing himself to seem disappointed at Nina's disappearance.