My Lady Inej (six of crows fanfic)

Inej

"You normally only do this at night. Aren't you worried your mother will come back and catch you?" Nina asked.

"No," Inej responded as she continued to throw her knife through the garden.

A few months ago, Inej had snuck out during the night and went to a tavern. Her mother had been trying to push suitors on her, much to Inej's disappointment, and Inej had wanted one night where she felt like she was simply living. One night where she could feel like a normal girl and not feel the pressures of her mother and society on her shoulders, and that first night she had. Nina had been getting drinks for them when she had noticed a man sitting by himself at a table, head bent over some papers. His eyebrows had been furrowed, as if he was struggling with something. Inej walked behind him, curious, and peered over his shoulder to see what he was doing. Is that poetry?

"I can help you," she had whispered and before she could register what was happening, she felt something press slightly into her side. She looked down to see the man holding a knife to her. Inej tried to take a step back, but he reached out with a gloved hand and grabbed her by her arm.

"Care to explain why you just snuck up on me?" he asked as he looked her up and down. "Someone like you probably shouldn't even be here."

Suddenly, Inej felt infuriated and took a step towards him, not caring about the knife still at her side. "Someone like me? Why? Because I'm a woman?"

The man raised his eyebrows as he said, "No, because I have a feeling you wouldn't be able to protect yourself if someone really tried to hurt you." He shrugged. "Luckily for you, I'm busy. Now, if you could leave me to my business and go back to minding yours."

He let go of her arm and Inej looked down to see the knife no longer there, or even in his hands at all. She walked away to find Nina and on their way out Inej looked back to see the man from earlier watching her as she left. Later on, as she had been changing into her sleepwear, the knife had tumbled out of her skirts. Inej had no idea how he had managed to hide it in her dress, but she smiled anyway.

As it turned out, Inej had a knack for sneaking around and keeping herself tucked into the shadows when she didn't want to be seen. She started using her free time at night to practice throwing her knife. Sometimes she stayed in the garden, other times she went out into the woods to practice throwing through the trees. Inej got the hang of it pretty quickly, even with her limited visibility in the dark. Now she was throwing her knife in the garden during the day, knowing her mother would be gone for a few hours more and using the time to try and accomplish trickier throws since she could actually see the knife flying through the air rather than being dependent on its sound. Not that the latter wasn't useful.

"If you're so worried," Inej told Nina, "why don't you go be my lookout?"

Nina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "And leave you alone to throw that thing? What if you hurt yourself? Then I'll really have some explaining to do to your mother."

"I assure you, Nina, I'm fine. If any harm comes to me it will be own fault, anyways, not yours. Besides, you have to get hurt to learn what you can or can't do."

"But I'm the one who's supposed to be watching you and making sure you don't get into trouble. Trouble like this," Nina said with a wave of her hand.

At this, Inej stopped and turned to fully face Nina. "You say that as if I'm in need of a wet nurse. Did my mother say something to you?"

Nina looked down. "She might've mentioned this morning that she knows you were gone last night and that whatever you're up to, I better put a stop to it."

Inej sighed as she twirled the knife in her hand. "What will you have me do, Nina?"

"Maybe we could just go inside and enjoy some tea and waffles?" Nina asked hopefully.