Shadows: A Six of Crows Fan fic

Chapter nine: Inej pt. 1

A/N Hi y'all sorry for the late post,  starting school again is rough. I hope you don't mind yet another part one of two. I want to keep it in Inej's pov for what happens next but I also wanted to give y'all something relatively on time so yea. Enjoy! Feel free to leave feed back or some ideas for what could happen in the coming chapters in the comments. I'm a little undecided on where I'm taking things so I'm open to suggestions.

Inej had finally made it home. She wasn't quite sure when Ketterdam had become her home but for some reason, despite all the horrors that this place had put her through, a large weight had lifted off her chest as soon as she'd seen the cities ports along the horizon. It was as if the entire time she'd been out on the seas, she had been worried that without her there watching over the city's skylines, the whole place would burn down, her friends would have gotten themselves knee deep in something awful, and then she would no longer have anything to go back to. But then she had looked through her spy glass and scene that everything was as it should be. The skies were filled with smog, the sun could barely filter through the smoke-filled sky, the dock workers could be heard from leagues away shouting profanities, and the ram shackle roofs were still holding together, waiting for her to run across them once more. It wasn't pretty, but it was where her heart and her passion laid.

Part of her still missed her parents, and of course that would always be her home of comfort, the place you thought back on from your childhood that brought you dreams of light, nostalgia, and hope. But this place. This was the home that she had created with her wits, her strength, and her love. This was the place that she had fought for. Her blood, sweat, and tears lined these streets, and she would be hard pressed to let this place go. There was a lot to work on still, a lot of rugs to beat, halls to repair, old things to burn, but when Kaz and her were through, this city would be a thriving place full of integrity and opportunity. Inej wasn't naïve enough to believe that it would become a Utopian society or something, she was working with Kaz of all people, but she would shine the edges and make it a place where you could choose to do you wanted. No one would be forced to do anything.

But, in order to that very distant future goal to be realized, she would need to get down and dirty and start defeating these slavers. The closer she got to the docks however, the more her nerves started to come back. One reason being a certain black haired escape artist who came to mind way to quickly once they spotted her port. The other reason being that she didn't know really know how or where to start. She knew that she was wanting to take down Tantee Helene down first if possible, but she didn't know how to do it. If Inej was being completely honest with herself, she'd sort of been banking on Kaz having a plan or two a bit. Or at least the start of one that she could take off running with.

The now familiar rhythm of calling out orders and nautical terms to her crew as they docked in her port, helped her begin settling her anxieties though. Until, she spotted a frantic, roughed-up, Pim running towards the ship, arms flailing, and shouting something unintelligible. At that point her anxiety had about shot her stomach out her mouth.

"Pim?" She called down from the prow of the ship when he finally reached them. "What's wrong? What happened?"

Pim was completely out of breath and unsteadily pointing his arms in a vague direction. He tried spitting out his words through his short, jagged breathing, but all that came out were short, convoluted phrases she could barely make out. The only word that he said that made any amount of sense to her was "Kaz." That was when her heart ticked up about five more notches.

"Pim!" She tried calling over his wheezing and random shouts. She tried again until he finally looked up again. "Take a deep breath. Calm down. Climb aboard. And then tell me everything."