During the search, Nina encounters two guards, who set off the Yellow Protocol alarm before she kills them. Nina realizes that much of the Ice Court is built from Fabrikator glass and begins to fear the Ice Court. Once the Crows escape their cells, Nina and Kaz search the cells for Yul-Bayur. Inside the Ice Court prison, she and Inej are taken to the women's side. The Crows arrive in Djerholm and Nina learns the best place to set up their ambush of a prison wagon. The two form a plan to kill Bo Yul-Bayur rather than retrieve him. Matthias helps Nina dig a grave and Nina tells Matthias the truth of why she gave him to the Kerch: there were Grisha who recognized him and likely would have executed him. The Crows are attacked by two Shu-led parem-drugged Grisha, including one of Nina's old classmates from the Little Palace, a Durast named Nestor. Nina is furious and upset, and argues with Matthias, and Matthias forces her to tell the crew about how she betrayed him. As the Crows traverse Fjerda, they stumble upon three Grisha pyres. When the Ferolind reaches Fjerda, Nina begins tailoring Matthias to make him less recognizable. Jesper Fahey comments that Nina and Matthias ignore each other for most of the trip to Fjerda. When Inej is stabbed as the Crows escape the Ketterdam harbor, Nina nurses her back to health aboard the Ferolind. Nina is the one who suggests the Crows enter the Ice Court on Hringkälla, to the anger of Matthias. She tailors Muzzen to look like Matthias and wakes up Matthias, who immediately strangles her. Nina rows to Hellgate dressed as the Lost Bride and watches Matthias fight in the Hellshow, then enters Matthias's cell. Kaz visits her at the House of the White Rose and tells her about jurda parem and his plans to spring Matthias from Hellgate. Nina is selected by Kaz Brekker to join his mission to kidnap and retrieve Bo Yul-Bayur from the Ice Court. Nina accepted and began working at the House of the White Rose as a member of the Dregs. She was originally approached by Pekka Rollins and invited to join the Dime Lions, but Kaz sent Inej Ghafa to recruit Nina to the Dregs instead. Nina stayed in Ketterdam instead of returning to Ravka because she wanted to get Matthias out of Hellgate.
Matthias was condemned to imprisonment at Hellgate. Nina tried to recant the charges, but couldn't without compromising Ravkan Grisha intelligence operations. In accordance with Kerch law, Matthias and Nina were brought to Ketterdam. There were Grisha undercover in Elling who planned to take Matthias prisoner and bring him to Ravka for interrogation and execution. She surrendered Matthias to the Kerch in an attempt to protect him, but Matthias did not know this at the time. In Elling, Nina told a Kerch trader that Matthias was a slaver who had captured her. When Nina nearly fell into an ice crevasse, Matthias saved her life. Though they argued and bickered, they became allies, if not friends. They found an abandoned whaling camp and spent the night, then stuck together for three weeks as they traversed the Fjerdan landscape. Matthias also survived the initial shipwreck, and Nina saved Matthias's life with her Heartrender abilities and kept them both warm through the freezing water as they swam to shore. Nina managed to cut her bonds and those of the other imprisoned Grisha using the broken water cup from Matthias, thereby escaping their cages. One night, the ship experienced a massive storm. Matthias spoke with Nina one time and gave her a tin cup filled with water to drink. Nina was put in a cage and experienced grueling treatment and mocking at the hands of the drüskelle guards, who included Jarl Brum. She pretended to be a lost Kaelish girl, but the drüskelle saw through her disguise and captured her and took her aboard a ship with other captured Grisha. While in the Wandering Isle on a mission with Zoya Nazyalensky, Nina wandered into a camp of Fjerdan drüskelle, including Matthias Helvar. She was forced to cut her lessons short to start her training with the Second Army early, since they were low on soldiers.
Before the Ravkan civil war, Nina attended school at the Little Palace before all of the children were evacuated to Keramzin. One day she found out that she could make the kids bullying her suffer using her newfound powers, and soon after went to school at the Little Palace.
During her time at the orphanage, she was bullied. As a child, Nina grew up in an orphanage.