The bastard of the barrel and the sulis sister

8

"Let's stop here" Kaz says and Jesper brings the carriage to a halt. Tori ended up falling asleep in the carriage and used her coat as a blanket. "There's a surpirse in the carriage" he says and Kaz looks at him questionably. He opens the door to reveal tori asleep cuddled into a ball. A small smile forms on Kaz face and inej goes to the back.
The lock to the chest starts to heat up and pops out going towards Kaz. Alina opens the chest and sees them standing out infront of them. Jesper shows his gun and gestures for her to get out. Alina gets out and puts her hands up. "We don't want any trouble" Jesper tells Alina. "Neither do I, I will get tori and we'll be on our way" Alina says and moves towards Kaz. He put his cane up to stop her in her tracks. The horses neighs ended up waking tori up. She rubs her eyes and puts her coat back on. She gets out from the carriage and makes her way to Alina and Kaz. "Clearly, you want out of east ravka. But we can help you. We have a secure route through the fold." Jesper reasons with her and she sees tori in her peripheral. She moved towards tori and continues her conversation. "We prefer to travel alone" she says and gestures between herself and tori. "Don't be rash. You stick with us, everybody gets what they want." Jesper says continuing the act of not knowing who tori was. "We're not being anyone's captive ever again. So step aside and let us pass" she argues "I'm afraid we can't let that happen" Kaz says and Alina out of nowhere creates a large ball of light which causes everyone to cover their eyes. "Come on" Alina says and sees inej looking up kit affected from the light. "I can't this is my home with them" tori reveals herself. "You're with them" Alina says a bit angry. She storms off "Alina wait I can explain what's going on you'll be safe with us kirigan is looking for us it's better to stick together!" Tori yells as she trails behind Alina. "Leave me alone I can't trust anyone I just need to find mal" she says and starts to run off. Tori gives up and returns to the group. "Tori go wait in the carriage we can't risk any of the first army to find you" inej reasons and tori nods her head.

Soon inej kaz and Jesper get into the carriage and inej brings tori into a hug. "Thank the saints your ok" she says and tori hugs her back as a tear escapes. Inej sits back down across from tori and she feels a tap on her foot and sees kaz's right next to hers. She smiles to herself when Kaz begins to speak. "Well go to a pub far from the little palace where they won't expect tori to be. If they run into Alina they're gonna assume tori is close by. Jesper and inej you'll drive the carriage and keep a look out. 2 knocks mean everything is good but more than that means we've got some trouble. Don't rush to the pub they'll assume something is up and will stop us" he says and they all nod. "I'll chat with tori so I can get intel about kirigan and the routes through the little palace" he lastly says as inej and Jesper exit the carriage and go to the front. Once the carriage began to move Kaz spoke up "it was quiet when you were gone" he says and looks over to tori. "Missed me" tori joked and laughed a bit but shockingly received a nod from THE KAZ BREKKER. "Wow you admitted to missing me that means a lot tori says and a small yawn escapes. "You're still tired you've only been awake for 10 minutes." Kaz says and a small smile forms. "Dealing with Alina and kirigan and having to go through long secret paths is tiring. Also I needed to give my eyes a break from seeing kirigan and Alina on top of each other" tori says and gets grossed out. Soon tori didn't realize she let her head slowly fall to rest on kaz's shoulder. "Kirigan is the black heretic. He created the fold, he's eternal according to his mother I ran into last night when she helped us escape. Her names Baghra and she wanted to train me and Alina so we could get rid of kirigan. She says he planned on strengthening our abilities and wanted to find some stag which supposedly amplifies your power. He wants to strengthen the fold to use it as a weapon all the volcra in there are...men...wo..women...and children" tori tells Kaz everything she found out with her time being there. Her voice grew quieter as she ended up falling asleep on kaz's shoulder. Kaz hesitantly put his hand on her leg. She moved closer to Kaz finally feeling comfort and home. Soon many knocks were sounded and Kaz woke up Tori. "What's going on" she says and rubs her eyes "something" he says annoyed and soon we hear guards talking to inej and Jesper. "Have you seen a girl this tall, has black hair that is currently curled and has mini braids, she may be in a kefta, her name is tori?" One of them asks "no sorry we're just passing through hoping to make it to the ship to ketterdam. Our son just got married and they've decided to visit some friends in ketterdam" jesper tells the guard. "Do you mind if we check the carriage?" He asks and tori starts to take out the braids from her hair. "They didn't know what to do or what side they were gonna enter from. Kaz quickly pushes tori to the floor and crawls on top of her. They hear the door start to open and Kaz gets closer to her face. The guard clears his throat and tori lets out a shriek and hides her face into kaz's jacket. "Kaz wraps his arm around her and turns his head to make eye contact with the eye. "Can I help you sir we were in the middle of something" he says acting a bit out of breath. "No sorry for the interruption" the guard says awkwardly and shuts the door. "You may go on safe travels" he says and the carriage starts to move. "Sorry" he says getting up and sitting on the seat. "It's ok" she says with a bit of blush wishing if she leaned in those few inches. "I have a crazy thought" tori speaks up. "What is it" he says and turns his gaze towards tori. "Baghra was talking about some stag that's used to amplify power. What if we go find Alina and find the stag so I can amplify mine. Yeah I don't know where she could be but I'm 100% that we can find. We can worry about the kruge after so she can build trust with us and when we take her to ketterdam we can turn her in to dreesen" tori says and smiles. "We are on a time crunch tori. Yes that's a great idea but we need to stay on task and find Alina and take her straight to ketterdam." Kaz argues a bit not wanting to get off track. "Yeah but I'm sure" "tori please no it's too risky especially if they will be looking for the stag like you two would be" he says and looks forward "I don't want them to take you again" he says letting a little bit of his emotion show. "They won't take me Kaz. I won't let them take me from my home" she say and puts her hand a few inches away from his cheek. She's a bit hesitant but Kaz leans into her touch. He doesn't react like how he would if someone else would touch him accidentally. "I don't want them to take you away from me" he whispers and the two start to lean in close to one another soon they got interrupted by two knocks and they both pulled away from each other. Kaz clears his throat and returns to his cold self "we'll discuss what the plan is once we get inside." He says and opens the door once the carriage comes to a stop.