winter lights // PRIVATE

[wraith]

[align=center][div style="width: 450px; text-align: justify; line-height: 15px;"]Tatiana's first mistake was approaching in the first place; her second was making herself known by speaking aloud. By that point Inej could have dodged a slew of bullets without even blinking, or a set of daggers thrown for the back of her heart - she moved with the shadows, so it was only fair that she felt every move they made too. Somebody who dealt in business as grim as hers did not have the luxury of being oblivious, especially when she had already suffered so dearly for it in the past. Letting her guard down meant that she was either dead or a breath away from being it, so really she knew the girl was behind her the second she stepped onto the shingles, perhaps even before - the sound of her feet whispering over stone, the wind curling its fingers around her loose clothing... all of them were dead giveaways, and Inej had an inclination to point it out. Stupid. She's an enemy, not an ally.

The sound of a blade slipping out of its sheathe was only another indication of that, and yet Inej didn't so much as bat an eyelash, fingers curling and uncurling over the hilt of Sankta Alina against her inner wrist, the smooth bone serving as a reminder: freedom came at a cost. The Badlands was no sanctuary, it was getting up every morning with a knife held to her throat in exchange for not having her wrists tied together and her mouth clamped like a rabid dog's. Another mistake: Tatiana's blade made too much sound, it was announcing itself far too long before the toss. It was no amateur's mistake, but a fatal one nonetheless, and Inej could feel her fingers tighten around her blade as she heard it cut through the air aimed for her head. Is this girl picking a fight? Or eliminating an enemy? She would have been flattered if she was stupid enough; instead she was excruciatingly aware that now that she was being targeted by the Top Dog, she was at risk. Badly. So much for sleeping.

The knife landed with a hard thunk. The blade was embedded in one of the shingles, the stone splintering around the impact point, a hair's breadth away from Inej's foot. It was as if she didn't move at all, but perhaps it was the soundlessness of it that gave way to such an illusion. She remained crouched, with her back turned to the Top Dog... a reckless, stupid move it may seem if she weren't as quick and focused as she was. Still, a smile curled at her lips, hidden by the hood pulled over her head which had now fallen back over her shoulders from the movement, more exposed. She dragged the tip of Sankta Alina's blade along her clothed leg, where it barely bent the tough, unyielding armor. There were so many things dancing on the tip of her tongue: Did I do something to offend you? Too upfront, garish, abrasive. You reek of smoke. You step too briskly, the wind catches your loose clothes. No way, that was suicide waiting to happen. Is this some kind of game? Any grunt writhing in these slums could have dodged that. True, it was offensive, but childish. Instead she simply brushed a thumb over the bone hilt of Sankta Maria and said: "They say an arrow demands aim to land true." Her coal eyes glinted as she looked over her shoulder at the blonde girl, unyielding and dark as ever. "Where is your arrow aimed at, sundari?"

[wraith]

[align=center][div style="width: 450px; text-align: justify; line-height: 15px;"]Inej was a businesswoman at heart, but a dog held on a taut chain in reality. Whoever held that chain was arguable, but she was constantly trapped with it looped around her throat like some kind of twisted jewelry. She sold off the chain to whoever was willing to pay enough coin or give her some material she wanted, and they sicced her own whichever poor victim they so desired to meet an unfortunate death. She did all the dirty work for disgusting people who lived in a place like this, and any normal person would have felt a twinge of guilt for what she did; however, Inej put her faith in the Saints she named her blade after and pressed onwards. She was here for one thing only, and that was revenge: revenge on the people who had stolen her from her family, for the people who dressed her in shimmering dresses and painted her eyes like a lynx's and sent her off to wage a battle she would always lose. All of these people were worthless slums in her eyes, slums that would kill each other - she was just pulling the trigger for those with hands too tied to do so themselves.

Still, Inej thought to herself as she wiped the blood of her latest victim on an old rag, this is growing to be rather tiresome.

While she got to do things she enjoyed like masking herself among the shadows and letting the whispers of rumor carry her throughout the dark corners of the Badlands, there was little else pleasant about her work. She got to warm the laps of shitty men and women alike and hear their cries until she finally took matters into her own hands (and their money.) It was hard to ignore the knife that twisted in her gut with every kill: she numbed the pain by reminding herself that the blood she shed was all worthless blood anyways. The people here were cruel and foul, and she was just pulling her weight with the Saints by exterminating them.

Sheathing the blade in the pocket on her thigh, Inej hopped off of the dumpster and clambered onto the roof of a nearby building, her steps silent as always as she shifted like a shadow past the window. The wing tugged a little harder up here and she relished it, crouching close to the shingles and climbing higher, hopping from roof to roof until she was up high, balanced on the concrete top of a building that used to be a law firm, now completely abandoned, the last names wilting like dead flowers and crumbling like broken rocks. From here she could see everything: the ends of burning cigarettes, the glint of knives, the corpses hidden in the rocks. The spider is always watching. It felt nice to be above it all, to breathe in what little fresh air she could up here - the smell of bog and filth seemed thinner, and she breathed it in gratefully.

"Another day in paradise," Inej said with a grin.

[TATIANA]

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