Six of Crows Oneshots

The Third Rietveld

A/N: Requested by L1LYWr1T35StUFF and I swear I tried tysm for tolerating how late this is!! Hope you don't hate it!!

Kestrel Rietveld was the middle child.

Jordan was her dumb farm boy older brother, not dumb in a bad way, but it was fun to team up with Kaz and mess with Jordie. The boy barely knew the difference between fantasy and mystery books!! Kestrel and Kazzie had to tease him.

Then there was Kazimir, her little brother. Kaz was oddly mischievous, but with a thousand stars in his smile. The boy was scarily intelligent for his age, and looked at Kestrel like she'd hung the moon, and Jordie had lassoed the sun.

Kaz was a devilish young rascal, Jordie was the saintly elder, and Kestrel was the human one, inbetween them both. Jordie was the replica of Da, Kaz was the masculine version of their Mother, and Kestrel was the perfect blend of both.

They were always together. The trio. The sun, the moon, and the stars. The rivers, the trees, and the wild animals. The Rietveld Trio of Lij.

Anything they did? It was together. Whether it was Stealing candies from the shop in town, giggling over Da's stories, putting bandages on Kaz's scraped knees, or laughing over Jordie's pouty face when Kestrel beat him in horseback races. They did chores together. They are breakfast together. They even went to bed together!

They were always family. Their own little dysfunctional family. It was Da, Kestrel, Kaz, and Jordie.

Until Da died, and they had to sell the farm.

Jordie dropped Kestrel off at their close family friend's house. He was taking Kaz with him to Ketterdam. Jordie was thirteen himself, Kestrel was only ten, and Kaz was barely nine.

They were gonna make a fortune, he said. They'd be rich, he said.

And they'd come back for Kestrel, when the time was right.

He said he'd send word by letters. He told his little sister not to worry.

Years passed. Her last letter was sometimes around when the plague had taken over Ketterdam.

Kestrel aged in the family friend's home.

And when she was old enough; she went to Ketterdam, to at least find their death certificates.

*time skip brought to you by my apologies for how late this is*

Kestrel's POV

She got off the boat with light feet. It'd taken all her savings to get here. Nineteen years on a farm made her shoulders square, but still gave her a feminine grace.

Age had treated her well, Kestrel was the dark Pearl of Lij, and her foster family had sent her off with enough money for the best hotel and well wishes in the dangerous city.

Her hair fell in waves, darker than the harbor waters, and every part of her the perfect blend between their Da and Mother. Her eyes were the lightest in the family, the color of gentle honey in the sunlight, with flecks of green like the wheat in summer.

Kestrel looked around, she took her hat off gently, fingering the velvet lip nervously. She was supposed to find her way to one of the Staves or something?

Saints, she didn't even know where to start.

She looked around, trying to decide which burly sailor she could convince to take her to the hotel.