I walked into the crow club to see Jesper standing at the bar. I walked up to him, still holding the handkerchief to my neck. He noticed my bleeding neck, and his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

"Are you alright, Vik?"

"Yeah, Kaz dragged me into all of his antics. Pekka threatened us off the job, and the one holding me got a little aggressive." Jesper got increasingly more angry as I told him of the one who hurt me, and I could see his hand travelling to his gun.

"Who did this?"

"I couldn't see his face. I think he was Zemeni? I don't know Jesper. Do you know where Inej is? I need her to stitch me up."

"Tantee just called her to the menagerie. I can try if you need it now?"

"Thanks for the offer Jesper, but I know how you are with blood. I can do it myself, but It would be nice to have someone else there to distract me."

"Yeah, of course," Jesper replied. He followed me back into Kaz's room and watched as I stitched up my cut.

"Where did you learn how to do that?" He asked.

"All the corporalki learn how to do basic medical tasks at the little palace. That part of training is brief, but I've used it hundreds of times."

Kaz burst into the room moments later with a woman behind him. Jesper went to watch the interaction, and I tied the last stitch, following.

"I don't understand! I wasn't cheating," The woman exclaimed.

'You've been here every night for a week. You don't play Makker's Wheel or Ratcatcher, only cards. Because you keep track of what's played." I smirked, surprised Kaz noticed something that insignificant happening in the large club.

"Well, that is not cheating," the woman defended.

"No, but I'll have to add an extra deck to your table to keep things more balanced." Kaz slammed a large stack of kruge down on the table.

"An incentive to keep playing." It's fun to see Kaz in his element sometimes, but he can be quite scary. However, I know he would never hurt one of his own or someone without good reason.

"Count it for me," Kaz continued. The woman picked up the stack of Kruge and began to flip through it. I noticed she was counting like I do, which probably meant she came from East Ravka. Well done Kaz.

"Where are you from?" Kaz asked.

"West Ravka, Os Kervo," She replied. I stepped forward, glancing at Kaz to see if I could take over.

"West Ravkans count money from one hand to the other, but people out east who work the mines in Sikursk, they count like you do."

"I am from West Ravka," she stated with a tone of finality.

"West Ravkans don't mention the west part. To them, there's just Ravka and the old country. And your heart never lies," She looked at me, astounded. Kaz took over the conversation again.

"You're lying about where you're from because you've fled. You're hiding." The woman contemplated telling him the truth, so I grabbed her wrist and helped her along.

"My daughter is Grisha. Neither of us wanted her to fight in the war. You can't make us go back!" I felt bad for her, I could definitely sympathize with wanting to hide from the second army.

"No, I'm not after you," Kaz said. The woman calmed immensely after he said those words. "But you need to tell me how you and your daughter got through the fold unscathed and unnoticed." I gave her another slight push, and she finally relented.

"He just went by a title. The conductor. We paid him in advance, and he took us across in some special transport. It was noisy, but he had us wear hoods, so we couldn't share how he does it." I could feel her getting more anxious, and I did my best to calm her.

"I don't know what else to tell you!"

"Give me something. A name. An address. A contact, someone he worked with."

"He left us with a stage performer who took us in for a few nights, Poppy."

Kaz asked the other dreg in the room, "And where is Poppy working these days?"

"Emerald Palace, boss." Kaz looked down, shook his head, and told the poor woman to go. Kaz went off to interrogate 'Poppy', and I stayed with Jesper as we went outside the club.

Jesper needed to buy more bullets for his guns, so I thought I would buy some while we were out. After we got them, Jesper stood in front of a mirror, staring at himself and doing stupid things with his guns.

"Saints, Jesper. Are you really that self-centred?"

"Of course, darling! I thought you really knew me, but I guess not," He said, giving me his famous smirk that could make any girl swoon. After a few more moments of Jesper being a complete idiot, Inej landed behind us in an archway.

"Jesper," She said to get his attention. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard her, which made me laugh. He really was oblivious to the rest of the world.

"Woah! How do you do that?" He asked in complete seriousness.

"I need your help." This got my attention, I walked closer to Inej to make sure she wasn't hurt and was glad to see no damage. While I was doing that, Jesper was making conversation.

"Of course, love. Doing what?" He stood with his arm resting on the butt of his gun, with his coat pulled behind him.

"I need you to kill a man for me." I laughed, thinking Inej was kidding. She would never hurt a fly! Once Jesper realized she was being serious, he sighed loudly.

"Oh, why me? Why can't she do it?" He asked, gesturing in my direction.

"Because if I kill someone with my powers, it only leaves like 20 people in all of Ketterdam who could have possibly done it. It can be traced back too easily." Jesper stared at me as I spoke.

"Well, I guess that makes sense. But why can't she do it? She's got as many knives as I've got teeth!"

"You know why, Jesper," Inej said, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Yeah, but how is getting me to do it any different from you doing it?" Inej ignored the question and moved on.

"Will you help me or not?" Jesper's face softened, realizing how difficult this was for Inej.

"Like I said, of course. But-" I could hear Kaz's voice echoing through the alley.

"Jesper, Vik! New Job." I glanced back to continue our conversation with Inej, but she had already disappeared into the mist. I will never understand how she does that. Kaz walked past us, gestured for us to follow, and said, "come on guys".