Six of Crows One-shots

"Less than-...

...-A skeleton of what we use to be. That's what I will leave behind."

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Ringing awoke Nina, plain and dull ringing that bounced on waves of octaves like dust floating in the air would bounce upon its currents. She sat up, groaning... something smiled. "Nina, another Grisha. Perfect, it means less work for me." She opened an eye and it widened at the red haired and green eyed boy in front of her, obviously from the Wandering Isle. "Ugh.. where?" The last thing she remembered, she was on a ship heading back to Ravka from successful negotiations with the Fjerdans and their new and more civilized leader that Djel had sent to the throne.

She looked around and saw a few others, Inej, Anika, Zoya, and her breath caught, was that Alina? "Your the first to wake." The boy croaked again, she turned to see him messing with one of Inej's knives, she sat up quickly as anger surged through her veins. "Who are you!" His hand moved away from the blade and slowly blood oozed from the knife, and dripping and drying on the blade. "I'm making a gift. Be quiet and let your friends sleep." He said, and then he looked over at Inej and created a small lock of an almost exact replica of her hair, wrapping around the handle. "Tailor." She snarled, trying to sit up, her body refused the action.

"What do you want?" He tsked and stood up. "All these questions, don't you enjoy a bit of mystery?" "No!" Zoya shifted and squeezed her eyes. The boy was on her in five seconds, he looked to be 19. "Unless you want to see your friends go the way of your lover I suggest you shut up." He said lightly, running a hand along her cheek and his eyes narrowing with excitement. "How do you know that?" She hissed, he only smiled. "What do you want from me." She asked shortly. He sat up, rolling his eyes. "Oh dear, you have me wrong. You do not interest me in that way. No... but your powers, strange. Could be useful for my pet." Her eyes widened, pet?

Then something hit her, no wonder he would be interested. Her eyes caught a packet on his side, and he smirked. "Reverse engineering. A clever thing that small science helped with." A tailor on Parem. "I have more... if your interested." "Go to hell!" "Oh honey, your all ready here." He created a door with a flick of his wrist onto the dark stone wall, then walked through it and it vanished back into thick stone. Nina's head hurt, she felt sick as she looked around the dingy place. She tried to yell to wake her friends, but found herself unable to make noise and incredibly tired and without her permission sleep wrapped her in its wings, and dragged her panicking conscious away from the controls, a hawk on a helpless animal.

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Jesper opened his eyes, to find the floor resting on his face and stretching out before him. This was pretty usual for him when he was drunk, but he remembered falling asleep on a different floor than the dusty stone and dirt he was on now.  He had fallen asleep on a comfy carpet, with Wylan looking down disapprovingly but letting him sleep on their hotel floor and instead going to bed in their one queen. He shifted at the idea, where was Wylan and their hotel? His training from the Dregs kicked in, as if Kaz himself had kicked Jesper in the gut. "Look around you podge. What do you see?" Jesper slid his blurring vision from the floor to the bodies nearby to do as the raspy voice had counciled.

The king Of Ravka was amongst them, was that Roder? He focused harder and tried to get a grip. Two unknown men also scattered along the room, no Wylan. No Kaz. "Obviously. Where are you?" Jesper squinted around the room to his displeasure and found himself in a catacomb of some sort. A door appeared in the wall. Alright, I've either hit my head or I drank more than I thought. Jesper waited for his next direction from the ghost of Kaz that lived in his head and the instincts that came from his training and time.  Nothing. Panic rose it's ugly head in his stomach and slithered through his intestines and up his stomach, his acid doing nothing to rid it as it rose into his throat, he tried to swallow down the thing before it could release his scream. Calm. Where was Wylan? His head was shoved into the ground of sand. "Not yet boy, night time for you," the hand tightened on his head and Jesper's eyes rolled themselves to the back of his head.

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Wylan opened his blue eyes, they glazed over with sleepiness. He tried to move but was bound, the sand working its way under his shirt. "Heh-hey...." Wylan squeaked, his voice too high for his own liking as he started to squirm. The humanoid shifted its head, it's unreal yellow/gold eyes to shut him up and it did so. He stood and pulled Wylan's restraints off. He tried to get up and run, he couldn't remember much but he knew he wasn't where he should be. Two feet before he dropped, gasping as he watched his chest crush into itself. He couldn't scream, as if all the air had been stolen from his chest. Grisha... the thing with a tailored face came up closer, claws peeling from the metallic gloves. It reached down, he was stuck on the ground, tremors racking him as it sliced its claws along his neck, he screamed instinctively but no pain receptors made it to his brain, it slashed again, getting blood to splash, twice more he swept the cold claws over Wylan's throat until it nodded and stood. Wylan sobbed silently, his throat... he gurgled uselessly, the creature looked sad and furious. It was emotions so strong and guarded that he almost missed it, it was familiar.

His fingers scratched in the sand, deep gorges disturbing the droplets around him, he stilled, his eyes staring up as his last breath shuttered from inside him and wished around the squaller, he clutched it tightly until it vanished between his fingers. The word he had dragged into the sand was unfamiliar but he felt like it should be. Kaz?

Part 1, I hope your interested. For the Labyrinth only goes deeper, secrets and dreams waiting around each corner, but every puzzle has its end, and when you learn to live in a riddle, you began to get... bored.