(The silent threat of Inej's presence likely only helps - only Kaz could point her out, but anyone who runs with her often enough learns to recognize the cold sweat, the shiver down their spine that means she's watching their backs - when she lets them get an inkling she's there, at least.)

Her cane (an affectation these days, but still a useful one) clicks sharply against the cobblestones as she walks.

"Leverage, children, that's what it's all about. Leverage and hard work. And speaking of which, there are plenty of pigeons waiting to be plucked. Hop to."

They'd much rather be celebrating, crowing about their accomplishments tonight - getting deep in their cups (and deeper into retelling the story about tonight until it grows taller and crazier and wilder). 

"Figure we've got some time for a good drink and a few quick hands, boss."

"It'll be a long night, Jesper. Are you taking responsibility?"

"Uhhh... Not sure I'm good at that part, boss."

Smirk. "I thought not."

"Still, I suppose a small measure of celebration might be tolerated. Since you ask so politely."

"You going to come along to supervise?"

"I have other business to see to yet."

"Sure you're okay leaving us with no one taking responsibility?"

"Just don't burn the club down."

"If we did that, where would we drink?"

"There's that legendary intellect. Keep that in mind."

"I will, I will." He raises a hand in a lazy salute. "See you later, boss."

"Later, Jes."

And he heads off with the others. 

And Inej falls in closer beside Kaz.

"Good work tonight."

She pulls her mask down, lets just enough light flash on her as she walks that Kaz can see her smile. "You too," she says. "Though I feel a bit mean, not giving Jesper a heads up..." She and Kaz had been the only ones in on Big Bol's treachery - and the work they'd done to counter Geels' own tricks. Jesper had been... Pretty upset, when Big Bol got shot by the guard Geels had thought he'd successfully bribed. 

"It was necessary. Keeping things close makes keeping the secret easier."

"Didn't say I objected. Getting ahead in the Barrel is a mean business." Shrug. "I'll make it up to him later."

"If he's not incapacitated by a hangover."

"I can bide my time."

"Ambush him with a good time?"

Shrug. "Inspiration will come to me."

"No doubt."

She goes to reply - and then her expression sharpens, turns wary, at the sudden feeling that they're not alone -

And a shadow, person shaped, darkens the alleymouth in front of them. There's no foot traffic here, no street lamps, just the subdued quiet of small boats bumping against the wall in the canal that splits the little side alley they'd cut through. 

Trouble.

Kaz tightens her grip on her walking stick, ready to snap it up and swing.

And Inej slips a knife into her palm, stepping sideways into the shadows - 

- And then the figure lunges at them -

Cane snaps up, jabbing at the face-

- And it sails through empty space, and her attacker is right there in front of her - a fist connects with her face -

Agh, fuck- Hop back for distance, switch grip on cane to guard-

Inej darts behind her opponent, blades flashing -

- And the man dissolves into shadow - 

Something incredibly fucky is going on. With Inej in the mix, Kaz takes a chance on turning her attention away briefly to scan the rest of the area.

- And the wall beside her wavers, and someone strikes through it - 

She parries, too late-

- And a needle sinks into her neck -

And the last thing she hears before falling unconscious is Inej's enraged scream. 

Nice to know... she... cares...

She wakes up bound to a chair, wuftsalts being waved under her nose. 

Eugh. She jerks back.

"Get that shit away from me, I'm awake."

There's an old man wearing the robes of a university medik in front of her. He caps the bottle and tucks it back into its leather pouch, his eyes uncaring as he steps back from Kaz. The room beyond him is revealed when he does - a room that screams genuine wealth, and not a place Kaz recognizes. There's carved mahogany panels on the walls, roiling seas framing built in bookcases full of leather-bound books with gilt spines, openings for a real DeKappel - a placid bay with the farms of Novyi Zem spilling behind it, the long-defunct ships of Old Zem drifting on the gentle waves - and a heavy leaded window. And, behind a large antique desk, there's a man watching her, one with the look of a mercher - a pale man, in fine clothes, his lightly wrinkled but soft skin suggesting he'd already arrived gently in his forties, silver-streaked hair withdrawing from his forehead. His vest is dark and well-cut - but his tie pin is a massive ruby, and the gold fob of his pocket watch is made up of heavy laurel links. 

She doesn't recognize the room, but she recognizes him - Van Eck, a member of the Merchant Council. 

"There are easier ways to ask for a meeting. Even in the Barrel."

He raises an eyebrow. "I wanted to ensure you'd be here in a timely fashion, Miss Brekker, with no chance of... Gossip beforehand, nor your little friends interrupting us. I hope you're not feeling too poorly?"

"I get the feeling you don't actually care, mercher," she says, with a withering glance at the ropes tying her to the chair.

He turns and dismisses the meddik, then says: "I care that you are in sufficient health to complete a certain job. I - the Merchant Council - have a proposition for you."

"A proposition, huh. Is it dangerous, underpaid, or both?"

"Dangerous," he says. "You will be well compensated for your trouble."

"Plus twenty thousand for the trouble you've inflicted on me already."

"A drop in the bucket for a job this size," he says with a lazy wave of his hand. 

"And in advance."

"Only if I'm assured of your intention to carry this job out."

Hm.

"All right, then. What's the pitch?"

"The Shu have developed something - a new drug they're calling jurda parem. It amplifies a Grisha's capabilities beyond imagining. And even beyond the risks inherent in leaving it under the control of one country... If it gets out, it will cause mass chaos even before every country finishes manufacturing enough for their own armies. Market collapse will be just the start."

"And what is it you imagine I can do about something like that?"

"You can steal, Miss Brekker. And you can avoid getting caught doing so."

"So all you want is first mover advantage."

"I want it removed from the board," he corrects, though there's a flash in his eyes. "And the inventor has not shared his formula - and has contacted us requesting asylum. We need you to extract him."

"Where from?"

"...Fjerda," he says. "They captured him during our first extraction attempt. We believe he's being held at the Ice Court."

"Fjerda."

"Why do you think he's even still alive?"

"Our sources say he is alive and awaiting 'trial' - and Fjerda has been known to vanish useful grisha to be slave labor, rather than killing them. We are... Concerned about their military technology advancing with this."

"Yeah, I bet you are," she mutters.

"What's your timeframe on this?"

"We would want you to set out as soon as possible, and take the most direct route to Fjerda." He gives a time estimate; it allows fairly little wiggle room. "Though there's more flexibility for the return - but only if needed to avoid pursuit."

"Got a ship lined up?"

"A small schooner," he says. "One entirely unassociated with the Kerch government."

"All right."

"So what's the payout?"

"Five million kruge."

"Five million?" She snorts dismissively. "Don't waste my time. What's the real number?"

He frowns. Then, grudgingly: "Ten million."

"You wouldn't have brought me here if you didn't want to hire me. Twenty."

That gets a scowl out of him. But: "Twenty."

"Except now it's thirty, because that was too quick and one of my people was with me when you took me. And you haven't said a word about her."

"She's perfectly safe; twenty, and I'll return her to you now." He gestures to one of the two stadwatch by the door, who turns and opens the heavy grand doors - 

To reveal two crumbled purple-uniformed guards out in the hall - 

And Inej drops behind him, silent as a cat, and the click of the pistol she points at Van Eck's head is louder than even the guards' startled curses. 

"Thirty," she says, "And have your fucking guards untie my boss."

"...Thirty," he says, weakly. Then: "Gentlemen, if you would - ?"

The guards are frozen for a moment - before one cautiously goes to undo Kaz's bonds.

She does not flinch when he gets close.

"Thank you," she says, standing and massaging her wrists. "Then all we need is a signed contract, the name of the ship, and that twenty thousand in advance."

She holsters the gun the instant Kaz is untied; no sense being uncivilized about this. "Ice Court's going to be tough on twenty thousand," she says, mildly, as she steps out from behind Van Eck to return to Kaz's side. 

"Good point."

To Van Eck, "Better make it as much as you have on hand. Less twenty thousand, we can take that out of the final thirty million."

"Don't be unreasonable," he says, flatly, trying to hide how shaken Inej has him. "Thirty thousand, and it's all an advance - your final payment will be less that."

"Unreasonable is kidnapping someone off the street to strongarm them into an unsanctioned mission relating to national security that involves a break-in to one of the most secure prisons in the world, a prison that is owned by a foreign power, in order to extract a foreign national belonging to yet a third country."

"What I'm talking about is just good business." And good business in Ketterdam can get you killed, if you're not careful.

...Very grudgingly: "Fifty thousand advance."

"Deal."

He gestures his scribe forward (and sends a guard to collect the ones Inej knocked out or otherwise disabled and deliver them to the medik). "The deal is the deal."

"The deal is the deal."

And the contract is drawn up, and the advance payment counted out. 

Kaz will take a copy of the contract. For her records.

If he's unhappy about that, he doesn't let it show. He has the copy drawn up. 

And he gives them the name of the ship - and then has nothing else for them, beyond a reminder of the timeline they're operating under. 

Best not to waste any more time here, then.

Out into the Ketterdam night.

Inej keeps pace at her heels - quietly, until they're back at the Slat, in rooms Inej knows - rooms she sweeps before speaking even a single word - 

"What's our move?"

"Two problems. One, getting into the Ice Court and back to Ketterdam alive. Second, surviving Van Eck's betrayal when we do. Not sure which is more pressing, honestly."

"Three, getting our money anyways - we'll want to set up our return before we leave. Van Eck's more entrenched than us, and he knows we're coming. But as long as we have the right crew, we can wing it at the Ice Court - and they'll be expecting armies. Not us."

"Still, can't afford to leave much back."

"A small crew will be best with a mission like this... But we'll be taking our best with us."

"If we're sure Van Eck's going to flip - might be best to ask first how we're getting paid anyways, and if we'd rather pocket what we've got and just give a good show of attempting the contract." They owe back the fifty if they don't attempt, but it doesn't require they succeed at their mission to keep the advance. 

"Mm. He didn't fight very hard about the thirty million and we've got his signature. Either he does have Council backing or this contract is never getting seen. No way he can shift that much on his own."

"Any drawbacks to verifying with another member of the Council before we leave?"

"If they're in on it, we get marked unable to keep our mouths shut and arrested or assassinated. Or Van Eck hears and manages to arrange for same before getting the boot. Or whoever we go to muscles in on his plan and he takes his frustrations on a split payday out on us."

"...I hate politics..." she grumbles. 

"Still... Even if it's a fake contract - it sounds like the Council would be sending an army, if they could afford one big enough." Being the wealthiest nation on the True Sea doesn't really matter if you don't spend it, and Inej doesn't know much about the clash of nations but she knows Kerch maintains a navy more meant for discouraging pirates than for tangoing with Fjerda and Ravka. The chatter of sailors is mostly gratitude about those two keeping each other busy; Kerch does actually have a lot invested in neither getting the upper hand in their unending war.

"And someone would pay us thirty million to save having to fight that war, at least if we already have Bo Yul-Bayur in hand." That being the inventor of jurda parem; they'd squeezed Van Eck for as many details as he'd give them, including a rough sketch of the man and a pass phrase to indicate they've been sent by Kerch.

"True. If we make it that far, we'll have options."

"An entire sea of them." Hum. "Which makes our more pressing issue keeping ahold of Yul-Bayur without getting shanked. And that might be easiest if Van Eck thinks we're in the dark."

"Keep your secrets close."

Nod. "It'll limit our ability to prepare, though."

"Not much more than it was already, though."

"True..." Heavy sigh. "Think maneuvering against a mercher is the type of trick I'll need to ruminate on... Heists are easier. Who are we bringing?"

"Me, you, Jes. Couple others, maybe. We'll need a Fjerdan for sure."

"There's Nina's girl..." Getting her out of Hellgate hasn't been worth it - yet. 

"That'd mean bringing Nina too."

"A heartrender could be useful. And if we're thinking of looking beyond Kerch for our pay... She'll be able to vouch for Yul-Bayur being who we say he is to Ravka."

"And - if it's you, me, Jesper, Nina and her Fjerdan, and, hm, Van Eck's kid for demo and insurance... That's one point two mil for me, at standard split. I'm fine with that payout."

"Hm. Yeah. I can work with that."

"We can," she corrects with a teasing grin. 

"Of course. Though if that's the case, your cut would be more like six than one point two."

She recalculates. "Splitting your share with me?" (The standard split is twenty percent for Per Haskell, twenty percent for the slush fund, twenty percent for major crew members, and forty precent for the leader - meaning just Kaz, up until now.)

"You want to help lead a crew, you get paid like it."

Oh no why is she blushing. 

...Also at one point two million it'd have been merely silly not to pay off her indenture. At six million it'd be ludicrous. But if this is a 'we' now...

"I like the sound of that. 'Help lead.'" Softer smile. "Though if that's the case... It might be time to pay off my indenture."

"You've earned it."

Slowly, sounding out the words in her mind even as she speaks: "I don't think it's - a question of 'earned.'"

"I want to be beside you. For a lot longer than another eight years. And - I don't want to keep pretending it's a contract or a law or a debt making me yours." Dry swallow. "I want 'being yours' to be something I'm choosing. That I'm free to choose."

"Oh."

"I didn't want to- expect that, of you.Or... make it seem like a condition."

"I know," she says, a very silly grin splitting her cheeks. 

"I've always appreciated your powers of observation."

"A major part of my charm?"

"Yes."

Giggle! 

"Kaz Brekker wouldn't be half the boss she is today without her Wraith, you know."

And now she's blushing again! "And her Wraith wouldn't be half the thief she is without her boss."

"Good that we found each other then, isn't it?"

"One of the few excellent things to come out of this city."

"The world may yet regret it."

"They should be grateful."

"When has should ever had anything to do with it?"

"It'll soothe our troubled consciences. Obviously."

"I don't believe I've ever had one of those."

"Hmmm... Means 'should' is unnecessary, true."

"Let's stick to what we're good at, Inej."

"So... Ambitious heists?"

"Exactly." They've got a lot of planning to do.

Their first priority should be breaking out Nina's Fjerdan... They can make preparations without telling any of the crew what's up - they'll just need to give enough warning for the exact mission that they can replace anyone who balks... Though Nina and her Fjerdan are the main wild cards there; they should probably then make sure Nina is secured before going to the effort of breaking a prisoner out of Hellgate...

Nina might even have a plan of her own they can spur into finally using.

She's not the type to sit idly by, twiddling her thumbs - and she might know what ins Ravka has to the Ice Court, too.

She will push for them to get the target to Ravka, too.

"I think we can bring her around. And... If nothing else, we know the Darkling's better on payouts than most merchers. I like bribes better than assassins."

She'd paid them well and on time for flipping on their mission to kidnap the Sun Summoner, and she'd been fair when Inej made a game of seeing how many vulnerabilities she could identify in the Darkling's security - Inej's pay from the bounty on those had surpassed her cut of the original job with plenty of interest. (Getting to actually keep her pay had helped; she hadn't told Per Haskell about picking up a side job pen testing Ravka's security. (Of course, she'd invested a good chunk of it back into Kaz's endeavors, but - they're partners.))

"Not sure I'm quite ready to submit to Ravkan rule, though."

"Then maybe she'll pay up for an assassination," she teases. "Bet you I'd be as good at that as I am at thieving."

"Oh, so it's fine when you're the one doing it. I see."

"When I'm the one getting paid," she corrects. 

"Ah, of course."

"You'd hardly guess I wasn't from Ketterdam originally."

"You've adapted beautifully."

"Grown into it."

"Yeah."

"Become one of those bastards they only manufacture here." Her, making fun of Kaz's more dramatic claims? Never. 

"I like to think I've had a hand in shaping you."

"You are part of Ketterdam..."

"An important part, right?"

"The most important."

"Yes, I am."

Wiggle! (She's slowly - not entirely intentionally - sliding closer to Kaz, like she's trapped in the other girl's gravity and wouldn't want to escape even if she could.)

Kaz uses her cane to arrest Inej's movement, the tip at her chest.

Shameless grin. 

"Something you need, Wraith?"

...She hesitates. 

"Something I - don't want to expect of you."

She lowers the cane again. "What is it?"

"...Can I touch you?"

"Why."

She - doesn't know how to answer. (Doesn't know how to say that touching other people - Jesper, her many hookups - settles something wild in her but that it's never enough. That there's a screaming vicious thing in her head, and it wants to crawl inside Kaz's skin. That she likes to be close to, to touch people who are important to her, that Kaz is worlds more important than anyone.)

(She doesn't know how to say that she wants to give Kaz something Inej could never give anyone else, and she wants Kaz to give her something she wouldn't give anyone else, something just for Inej. She wants to be special.)

But she knows touch is - hard, for Kaz. And she doesn't want to create an expectation, any pressure. She doesn't want to ask if Kaz would want to say no.

So she's quiet instead. 

"I don't- Inej-" Her voice cracks, pained.

"I can't."

"It's okay," she says, voice gentle and almost hiding the disappointment. "Kaz - it's all okay. I don't expect it."

"No, it isn't okay. You-"

"I want to give you more."

Sharp, surprised (pleased) breath. "I can wait," she says. "Until you're ready. And - whatever you need to help, I can do."

"You've always been more patient than I."

Smile! "Just a different kind of impatient."

"If you say so."

"I do say so."

"Then it must be. Your information is always reliable."

Giggle blush. 

Ah, there's the smile she likes.

Kaz can have even more smile then! 

Good.

Though theoretically they do have a time-sensitive mission to plan.

...Where were they? 

If getting Nina involved would lock them into arranging for an outcome favorable to Ravka.

Right. 

Well - Inej thinks Nina's loyalties are a bit more split than Nina herself might realize. She's at a minimum staying here to help her Fjerdan, rather than returning to Ravka - she might be willing to take a neutral option, that neither harms nor helps her home country. 

True. And it's not as though they have a lot of other options lined up, either.

Especially for a way into the Ice Court.

They're going in eyes open, at least. That's something.

"I'm thinking also about not telling Jesper and Jana about the mission until after we've got Nina and her Fjerdan locked down. They'll be quick to load up, and they're pretty likely to accept."

"Makes sense, yeah. Keep the secret closer."

"Less time it could leak in."

"Start that first thing tomorrow, then."

"Use tonight to plan and then sleep on it?"

"Best way to do it."

They have a lot of details to go over then, plus contingencies...

And their first order of business in the morning will be recruiting Nina and verifying the Hellshow schedules - the rest can fall into place pretty quickly...

If Inej can take care of Nina, Kaz will see to the rest.

Sounds like a good split. 

Once dawn starts to threaten - before most potential customers will be out and about, after most have gone to bed - Inej slips out of the Slat, up West Stave until she reaches the Crow Club - and the Rookery, the brothel they've ended up more or less integrating into it. The club now dominates the block, its moody and harsh black and crimson color scheme broken up only by oxidized silver crows - an enormous one with its wings spread over the entrance, small renditions of the Dregs' tattoo (a crow drinking out of a nearly empty wine glass) at the employee entrances in the back alley, two women with crows' wings wrapped around them flanking the side door that goes straight into the brothel, nearly invisible in the gloom cast by the deep portico, windows with black-painted glass and heavy crimson shutters on the rooms over the portico...

Inej, of course, takes one of the many rooftop entrances, slipping through a small window crowned by a crow in flight into one of the 'nests' for her and her spiderlings, places where the only clear access is from the rooftops.

If you don't know about the trap doors, of course, built nearly seamlessly into the floor. Inej slips into the crawl spaces she'd asked Kaz to build in when remodeling, making her way quickly to where she can drop into the room next to Nina's. She raps on the wall between them - a bit of decorative paneling that hides both a peep-hole and a door.

The door slides open. Nina is, as ever, fashionably en deshabille without quite toeing over the line into outright lewdity. That's not the service she gets paid to provide.

"Miss Ghafa. You're up late."

"More like early; I already slept." She nods to the room past Nina. "May I come in?"

"Of course." She steps aside.

She waits for the door to shut behind her, and glances around, listening for the tell-tale signs of any of her spiderlings or other curious parties trying to listen in. (Inej usually knows when she's being watched.)

Once she's satisfied that they're alone: "We've got a mission for you - and for your girl."

"My girl?"

"Helvar," she says. 

"Oh," Nina says. "Her."

"We'll get her out of Hellgate," she says, "We need both of you on this mission."

"Must be quite the mission. That's not really part of our usual arrangement."

"I know."

"What have you heard about jurda parem?"

"Less than you, I think..."

"A man dead in a closed and guarded room. Ships full of gold that shouldn't exist. Someone waltzing into a Ravkan military base - and waltzing out with classified documents."

"Squallors flying. Tidemakers turning to mist and walking through walks. A Fabrikator making gold from lead. A Healer telling a man to cut off his thumb, and telling everyone who could hear her - everyone trying to stop her - to wait. All them still waiting, even after she's dead and gone, until they drop dead themselves."

"And every last one of those grisha dying from the inside out."

"All connected, then. To this... drug."

"Yes."

"So the mission is to stop it. In Fjerda? Who's paying?"

"So... Van Eck approached us, supposedly on behalf of the Merchant Council, to retrieve the drug's creator. He's Shu, and he requested Kerch asylum - and the Fjerdans intercepted him on his way here."

"We don't think Van Eck is good for his word, but I've checked his intel and he at least told us what he knows. And with a situation like this... I don't want to be in a Fjerdan colony. We're going to get parem, its creator, and any secrets he's given them out of their hands. And then," she shrugs, "We'll let the market decide who pays us - minus any bids that'd be really fucking stupid to agree to."

"Of course. Got to keep a minimum of sense."

"All right, I'm in." Tight smile. "Can't speak for Helvar, but if you've got a good way out of Hellgate, I'll put it to her."

"How likely do you think she is to agree?"

"Reasonably so. She's... not exactly ultraorthodox."

"I'd imagine not, if she's a soldier. Even one in a non-combat role." She thinks Fjerda doesn't call their female soldiers 'soldiers,' but that's stupid so she's ignoring it. (Susanne Helvar had registered herself as a member of Fjerda's Women's Auxiliary Core, specifically a prison guard, when pressed by the paperwork-obsessed court system, and in court had maintained that Nina was a prisoner being transported legitimately under Fjerdan laws, not a slave. That hadn't been hard to find out.)

"...Yeah."

"We want to move as soon as possible - tonight, for breaking her out. We'll spend the rest of today on other preparations."

"What's the plan, boss?"

She lays out - in brief - her plan to slip in with the crowds for the Hellshow, and cause a distraction there. One big enough that they can slip away to Helvar - who's a star fighter - and swap her out for a Dreg of a similar build, with a bit of Tailoring. After that... They'll just need to slip back out, and then back to the city proper. 

"We're going to need to stock up on supplies today for the journey, so we can set out at first light tomorrow. And we'll need to scope out if anyone else has gotten the same job."

"Sounds good. Which part am I on?"

"Information - on Fjerda and the Shu especially. You've got some Navy lined up today, right?"

"Admiral'll be in for her monthly."

Slow smirk. "Good."

"Don't let on that you're leaving town, or about this mission. We're playing it close to the chest until after we're already sailed."

"You got it."

"Any supplies you need me to pick up for you?"

Yeah, her medical bag could use a restock. She'll get a list together.

Cool - they'll also be stocking up on parrafin wax, to hide her from any checks for Grisha... And general provisions for a sea journey. 

"Anything you think Helvar will need, too?"

"More wax," she doesn't say. "Therapy," she doesn't say either. Not her secret, not her decision.

"A baton, throwing darts. She liked to poison her darts but I'm not sure I want to give her poisons. And if we're worried about the Shu, smoke bombs or something to block line of sight."

"I can use poisons, even if we don't give them over. I'll grab supplies for a few different use cases."

"And anti-grisha measures are a good idea; I'd bet we won't be the only Ketterdam crew either, and anyone seriously in the running will be able to pull in grisha. Anything else you can think of?"

A few miscellaneous odds and ends, nothing too exotic.

Her memory's good enough she doesn't need notes for all this, fortunately. "That should all be doable," she says, rolling her shoulders. "I'll come get you a bit after sundown for the Hellshow."

"I'll be ready, Miss Ghafa."

She nods. And: "No mourners."

"No funerals."

And she heads out into the city. 

And Nina will attend to her own business. Lots to do before tonight.

(And maybe think through what she's going to say to the woman she got imprisoned for not killing her.)

Sunset comes soon enough, and Inej slips back into Nina's rooms. 

She's rested, dressed, and ready to go.

"And how was your day?"

"Productive. And there's a boat waiting to take us to Hellgate."

"You really know just what a girl wants to hear, don't you?"

"Part of my job." She offers her arm to Nina, as an escort.

She takes it with a smile.

And Inej takes her on a late evening stroll over the rooftops - and to a waiting rowboat, with Kaz, Jesper, and a Dregs girl, Minke, one of Kaz's recruits - a blonde with the same wiry, strong build as Susanne Helvar, though one who's seen Nina with some shame in her eyes a few times for her trouble eating. It makes her a good match for a half-starved fighter, and it probably won't take much Tailoring to swap her out for Helvar.

Easy enough. Nina can get most of it done on the boat ride.

Good; and they'll be wearing masks once they're at Hellgate - though they can wait to put them on until they're close to Terrenjel, one of the many tiny islands off Kerch's coast, and the site of the Hellgate. (Nina should probably change into the rest of her costume sooner, though; Inej is already wearing hers - the Scarab Queen - under a nondescript cloak.)

Just needs to shake out her cape and take the cloth flower crown out of her pocket.

Minke hides features now eerily similar to Susanne's under the veil of the Bride, just before other shapes - other small boats - start to drift out of the fog as they approach the few wavering lights on the shore. Two masked Dime Lions pull them in when their boat hits the sand shallows - and one demands: "The entrance fee," holding his hand out.

Kaz, mask securely on, handles that.

They're waved on, towards an uneven path outlined by a staggered row of torches whose smoke swirl through the air, not doing much to mask the smells of salt and rot and misery. There's another Dime Lion at the door they come into, and he leads them quietly through the warrens beneath the prison, into the oldest spire, where the prisons are crudely hewn into the rock and protected by heavy iron bars, with walls and floors stained by rust or blood or damp air, down a tight spiral staircase and then along a claustrophobic hallway to where a guard with a rifle over his back waits. The Dime Lion says, "Four more for you," to the guard, then: "If you need to leave, let the guard know, and they'll call for an escort. No one goes wandering off on their own."

(...Which is the first time it becomes obvious that Inej is no longer with them; Nina's last clear memory of her is from the pathway with the torches.)

That's just what the Wraith does.

"Yeah, yeah, we got it."

"Enjoy," the Dime Lion says, something ugly and sadistically amused in his voice, as the guard waves them through. 

The room beyond is an arena, not a prison, the black walls of the old tower rising above them to the starry sky, the roof long since missing. There's a crudely made amphitheater below the stone ledge they're standing on, terraced ledges crowding claustrophobically around a small fighting pit, nearly every space on the ledges filled by people in costume, the sands of the pit scuffed and stained dark with blood. There's a wheel of fortune with scuffed paintings of animals, like they just gutted some old gambling hall for the props, and two heavy gates on opposite sides of the rings, and an announcer wearing a costume probably meant to look like a lion's pelt.

Barbaric.

"And now we wait," Kaz mutters.

The first fight is between a prisoner and a large lizard whose jaws drip with a flesh-eating venom - the prisoner doesn't last long, and the crowd boos as he's torn apart and partially eaten. Several Dime Lions prod the lizard back into the tunnel, and the body of the prisoner is cleaned up. 

And Susanne Helvar is next to emerge.

She looks different from how Nina last saw her. Thinner. Harder. The burgeoning hope in her eyes replaced by a cold rage as she glares around the arena - and at the announcer specifically. (She doesn't seem to notice Nina at all.)

She steps up to the wheel and spins it with her shackled hands, so forcefully it nearly comes off its setting. The red needle clacks, until the wheel finally starts to slow...

And settles on a painting of a wolf's head. 

Something changes in her posture. Something helpless. Angry. Hurt. But she doesn't lash out even as the guard undoes her shackles, even as he and the announcer leap on the ladder to be safely lifted from the arena. 

She just stands and stares at where the wolves will emerge. 

Ah.

"Kaz. Don't let this happen."

"I don't run the Dime Lions, Zenik. Your Fjerdan will have to deal. You can make it up to her after."

Her expression looks dead as three wolves emerge, snarling - mangy, their ribs visible - already rushing her, so hungry they're heedless of the danger - 

And then the ice that was her mask breaks - 

And what's under is more feral than even the starving wolves, a terrifying rictus that doesn't look human, doesn't even look like something of this world - 

The wolves stop. Stumble. Pause, and pant for breath - 

And lay down, resting their heads on their paws peacefully.

There's a Fjerdan saying. The water hears and understands. The ice does not forgive. 

It's a jagged, broken ice that looks up at the Dime Lions. A dark cold water revealed under. Hungry, and ready to drag everyone who dared walk across her calm surface into its depths. 

She lifts her hands. It's almost unnecessary. 

The announcer crumples, clutching his chest, before anyone has time to react. The guards scrambling to raise their rifles aren't far behind. 

Which, of course, is when the crowd starts to panic. 

"Down, down, get down!" Kaz drags her party down behind the lip of the railing.

She's used her time productively is, absurdly, the thought most on Nina's mind.

Kaz has good instincts, based on how many random audience members Helvar kills when she runs out of Dime Lions - aiming for the ones closest to the exits, the ones whose deaths will cause the most chaos as the press of those desperate to escape trip over them - though she's focusing on killing any who try to enter most, including the panicked guards who just open fire into the crowd. 

Kaz's crew aren't the only ones who think to get out of sight, even if that means not fleeing yet. 

It takes an eternity, in the time measured by panicked heartbeats, for Helvar to run out of people she feels like killing. A good number have escaped... But the bodies - and those hiding or pretending to be dead - are thick on the ground, and there's distant shouting. And less distant sobbing and groaning; it isn't hard to tell that there's some people still alive in here. 

There'll probably be backup, sooner or later. Someone trying to restrain the enraged Grisha.

Helvar stands in the middle of the bloody arena, breathing heavily - 

And then turns to start healing the wolves.

Nina rises, evades Kaz's hand grabbing for her, and hops down into the arena to help.

She turns around, snarling, hand rising - and freezes when she sees who it is. "Nina?" Her voice cracks.

"...Yeah."

"I'm here to break you out of prison, babe." She attempts a flirty smile.

She doesn't smile back - but she does relax. And then she gestures at the wolves. "Them too."

"It'll be a tight squeeze in the boat."

"I'll keep them calm."

"Nina. You owe me."

"I know."

"All right, wolves too."

- And then Inej steps out of the hallway leading to the cages. 

And Helvar tenses. 

"No, hey, it's all right- Wraith's with us."

She doesn't relax - but she doesn't attack either. 

Fair enough. 

"Nina - I took care of the guards back there," she says, then looks up to the seats. Not quite at anyone: "And I'll grab a bigger boat." They'll have an extra person - no point leaving Minke behind to pretend to be Helvar - and three extra half-starved wolves. Even Grisha-calmed, she doesn't trust them. "We need to get moving before reinforcements arrive, and before they shut down the harbors looking for us." 

"Yeah. Soon as the wolves are moving we'll get out. Same rendezvous point?"

Nod.

Getting a balance where the wolves are moving but not snapping at them is tricky - but Nina's experience controlling moods will help. Wolf brains are at least more simple than human brains.

Kaz descends into the arena with Minke.

"Change of plans, I assume?"

"Yeah, well, that's what you get for a rush job. Wraith's getting a bigger boat."

Yeah, Kaz bets Inej doesn't want to be in a confined space with starving wolves any more than she does.

"Fine. Let's move."

Jesper looks the least happy out of all of them somehow, standing at the back and trying very hard not to fidget.

She gets herself and the wolves moving. 

Down the hall to the waterfront. Inej has already taken care of the guards, good girl.

She left the existing boat there - turned out easier to grab a second small boat. Which Nina, her Fjerdan, and their wolves can ride in. 

They'll want to establish new rendezvous plans before splitting up, though. 

"Word's going to get out fast. We should get the Ferolind out before they start tearing the city apart looking for Helvar."

"Mm. You two," Kaz indicates Nina and Helvar, "go straight there. Don't get seen, don't get caught. Then scuttle your boat. Give us an hour, if we're not on board by then have the captain set off and anchor around the other side of the island and we'll meet you there."

She doesn't have any objections, and she can get the wolves into the little rowboat okay. 

Nina will do the rowing.

Once they're away from the others, voice pitched not to carry over the water: "Was it worth it?"

"You're not dead yet."

"...What happened?" She's been clinging rather desperately to the thought that Nina must have had a plan, a reason. It's kept her the closest she could get to sane.

"A pair from the Little Palace caught up to us. The only thing that they wanted to hear was you were druskelle. They were just going to kill you. I didn't have another way to get us out of the port fast enough."

"...Thanks. For saving my life again."

"I'd been saving up to buy you out. But... Hellgate's expensive."

Nod. "Why the rescue now?" A change of plans, if Nina isn't just still saving money. 

"Kaz- the boss I've been working for- has a job. In Fjerda. Another prison break, believe it or not."

"This one was well timed, at least."

"And you want me to help you with the Fjerda job?"

"Ideally."

"There's a new drug, jurda parem. Only effective on grisha. It amplifies your abilities, lets a tidebinder walk through walls, a healer take control of a group's minds... And it's cripplingly addictive and seems like it drives the users insane. Only one person knows how to make it. He fled Shu for Kerch, but Fjerda intercepted his ship. He's in the Ice Court. The job is to get him out."

"...Fuck."

She's no traitor. But there's a difference between the government and the country - and a difference between the Ice Court and the crown princess. 

And the grisha are her people too.

"What's Kaz's plan once he's out?"

"We're working on that. Merchers have promised thirty million to get him here, but she doesn't think they'll actually pay."

"That doesn't sound like a weapon anyone should have."

"This is me not disagreeing with you on that. But no one in Ketterdam does anything for free."

"What will Kaz do if I stop this inventor's heart? Or snap his little neck?"

"Strand us in Fjerda, probably."

"I've worked with worse."

"We wouldn't be starting off half-drowned, at least."

That gets the faintest ghost of a smile out of her. "And I'll already know that I trust you."

"But... they're already thinking about alternate payouts. The Little Palace would bid for an assassination, if they knew."

"...I don't want to hand the inventor over to Ravka. But - letting Ravka pay us to kill him sounds fine."

"That's what I'd prefer, too."

"Then we'll push for that." She slumps, clearly exhausted. 

"It's halfway to a plan, at least."

"More than we had before."

She can't snuggle Nina while one of them rows, unfortunately, and she's still trying to keep the wolves calm. They're not much for creaky rowboats on dark waters. 

(She wants to sleep. She wants to run free through the woods of Fjerda again. She wants - )

"They'll think I'm dead already," she says suddenly, voice small. "They'll have turned Trassel out."

It's tradition, when a druskelle dies, for his wolf to be turned out alone on the northern ice. Her family might have tried to delay it, but... She and Nina were alone after the shipwreck for a long time, on the unpleasant journey back to civilization, and it's been a longer year since. 

"I'm sorry."

She buries her hands in the ragged fur of two of the wolves, and contemplates burying her face in the side of the third. Maybe when they're on a ship with more room. 

"I - She has to have survived. I would've known, if she'd died." (But would she? She doesn't entirely understand what she is - the cursed powers of drüsje, witches, aren't supposed to work on animals, but she's always found them easier than humans - her powers first beat in her chest for an injured dog she'd found as a child. And she's always felt more like one of the wolves, a howl in her chest that she can't let out, than one of the men. Those cursed powers aren't supposed to include bonds across distance and time, which is the stuff of children's fairytales and teenaged girls' gossip.)

"She would have, if she's tough like you."

She laughs. It's a brittle, sad sound. "Tougher, even."

"I need to find her. Find out what happened."

"A share of thirty million kruger isn't much for my plans. Kaz can pay me for my service by getting me my Trassel back."

"I can hear her complaining already."

That gets another, less fleeting smile out of her. 

"It's good to have you back, Nina."

She smiles back.

"I'm glad you didn't give up on me, Feilan."

Wolf-cub. A name just for her and Nina - that feels more like it belongs to her than any of her other names, from the one she was born with to the one she served under to the one she uses now. 

Her smile widens. "I - needed someone to trust."

"I'll do my best to not let you down."

"I know you won't."

She has a lot to live up to.

Soon, though, they arrive at their destination.

She keeps the wolves calm while they load them onto the ship, then retreats into one of the dark, small, private places in the hold to curl up. 

Nina will convey Kaz's instructions to the captain.

Does Feilan want company?

...Yeah.

Nina can join the fluffy cuddle pile. 

Flops.

Meanwhile, the Dregs have a lot of ground to cover in not much time. And they'll want to stay out of sight as much as possible while doing so.

They did most of their prep work already - but they'd thought they'd have more time for the central crew, and had been delaying certain parts to avoid intelligence leaks. 

First thing: They need to find Jana Hendricks and inform her she's coming along. 

Kaz can deal with her.

She's in her room at the Slat, high up in the eaves where normally only Inej's spiderlings like to sleep - though she's not asleep yet, rather awake and scribbling in a notebook by lamplight. She's left the window open, and there's crows on the sill.

"Hendricks. Grab your things and a couple changes of clothes. We've got a job."

She startles a little at Kaz appearing. " - Now?" Still, she's at least standing up and closing her notebook.

"Right now. Ship's waiting, we need to clear the harbor before the guards catch on."

She gets her stuff together! "I don't have supplies for everything on hand - "

"How much are you missing?"

"I don't know! What do we even need?"

"I grabbed the things you usually ask for, plus some extras, already..."

"We'll be breaking into the Ice Court."

"...Do you know how yet? Like are we sneaking in with the Hringkalla crowds or are we blowing a hole in the side - would not recommend that - or are we all turning magically into Inej and crawling over the wall. Or should we prepare something for everything."

"We're improvising a little."

"Then something for everything." She checks with Inej what's been gotten, and - "I can make do or get the rest in Fjerda." She finishes packing up. "Ready to go."

"Efficient. Good."

Off, then, through the dark alleys of Ketterdam.

They make it back to the Ferolind before the hour is up. 

Finally, something goes right. Now let's get out of the city before fate catches up to correct the mistake.

They manage it! Somehow.

And then they're on the open sea, wind filling their sails, ship rocking in the waves near Ketterdam. 

That's something, anyway.

Next step: actually pulling this damn caper off.

...Probably need to start with reading everyone in, and actually planning their initial approach now that they've got their insider information...

Team meeting time.

Captain's cabin is probably big enough. 

That'll do. Gather everyone up. Assuming the Fjerdan's ready to come out of her hole.

...She is.