Without Armor

Chapter 3

Days went by and the Crows were no closer to destroying Pekka Rollins. Kaz was barely seen by any of the members, he spent the hours in his room scheming, planning out every detail of a plan that was bound to work. But something unusual was happening, Kaz was becoming distracted. As he would hit another dead end, he noticed a feeling, a craving to check up on Vernera. Each day this want would get stronger and stronger, but Kaz was strong and hid away in his room. The two hadn't spoken since the bathroom incident, and Vernera didn't tell anyone about what happened, not even to Jesper. The two of them would gossip about things going on in their lives, but every time Kaz would come up, Vernera would move on to something else. It tortured Jesper to no end.

We pick up at the Crow Club, where Inej was just found out some crucial information.

"Ravka is in shambles, the crown Prince has been slaughtered by the Darkling and the Little Palace has fully been taken over by him and his followers. Surely there is something we can to do be of service to Sankta Alina." Inej spoke as she walked through the doorway of the club.

"There's no way we can leave Ketterdam, four of us are wanted for a murder we did not commit." Jesper pointed out.

"Plus there's nothing we could do, not unless we are asked to steal something like last time." Vernera joined the conversation.

"I miss Milo." Jesper sighed.

"If only we could have kept him." Vernera joined in the reminiscing.

"And who's Milo?" Wylan asked confused.

"Don't get them started, I made the same mistake in asking and was in for an hour long sob story." Nina quickly stopped him. "I'm going to try and get another visit at Hellgate, Maybe Matthias will see me." She continued.

"I doubt Kaz will let you leave now, especially since he's on this killing the king of the Barrel." Jesper said as he called for the bartender with his hand.

"Has anyone even seen him?" Inej asked.

"Nope, and I'm too scared to even knock on his door." Wylan shivered at the thought.

"He's going to make himself sick doing all this scheming." Nina shook her head.

"I've never seen him get this stumped. Or if he isn't stumped I've never seen him take this long to come up with a plan." Jesper thought out loud.

"Well then what does he expect us to do? Just wait around until his beckon call?" Nina scoffed.

"We need to get this wanted thing taken care of, I want out of Ketterdam as soon as possible." Vernera said ripping another wanted poster off of the wall and crumbling it up.

"Where do you plan to go, you know after Rollins is dead or rotting in jail?" Inej asked.

"Go anywhere, anywhere far from here. Too many memories I want to forget here. It would be nice to start fresh, maybe not have to be armored up every where I go." Vernera daydreamed.

"What's the dream world for you?" Wylan asked curiously.

"Hmm I've never actually really thought about it before." Vernera thought about it for a second. "A nice house in the middle of nowhere. My own horse I can ride anytime I want to. Maybe the ocean nearby so I could sail around, see the world. But no matter where I'd venture to, I'd always have a place to call home." Vernera smiled at the thought.

"All alone? Wouldn't you get lonely?" Wylan asked, Nina could hear Vernera's breath hitch for a moment.

"I've always been alone since I could remember. It's what I'm used to." She said honestly.