Fandom: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone (TV)
Relationships: Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa
Summary: It’s taken her two years to sneak up on him again, but by the way the smile breaks across his face she thinks it might be the only time Dirtyhands is pleased to have someone get the drop on him.
The day the Kerch courts return his shares of the Crow Club and the Fifth Harbor to Kaz is as fine a spring day as he can remember. He watches the large, white clouds scuttle across the brilliantly blue sky through the large windows in the courtroom, and all he can think is, A good wind. A carrying wind. The kind that, he hopes, brings his Wraith back to him. She deserves to share in this victory just as much as he does; after all, she was the one who chased Pekka Rollins all the way back to the Wandering Isle.
If not for him cleaning out his accounts at the Gemensbank and fleeing the country this would have been much harder. But Kerch law favors citizens in all things, and Rollins, as a foreigner, was only allowed property in the country so long as his person, and more importantly, his money, stayed in Kerch. After a year of absence, his properties are to be returned to any one who can prove title, and failing that they are to be auctioned off. Kaz very seriously considered buying the Emerald Palace just for the pleasure of tearing it down.
It is a strange sensation to be in a courtroom accepting a handshake and a quiet congratulations from his lawyer as they conclude their business. The only other times he has appeared at the courts is when he was on his way to jail, but he’s a respectable businessman now, not some juvenile thug in need of the rehabilitative powers of hard work and prayer.
He lets the delight of letting the system do his dirty work make a warm little nest in the hollow of his chest. The good feeling lasts exactly until he is stopped by a Stadwatch officer by the name of Visser on his way out of the building. Kaz is well acquainted with him. He has shockingly bad luck at Three Man Bramble and an apparent inability to walk away from a losing hand. Kaz has been more than happy to extend him a not insignificant line of credit at the Crow Club. And to let him pay it off with something other than kruge.
“Speak,” Kaz says shortly, once they are alone.
Visser hesitates for a moment, and Kaz can see the struggle within the man, between decency and duty, and self-preservation. He hands a file over, his lips pinched tightly together like if he doesn’t speak he’s not betraying his oath as a Stadwatch officer. Inej’s indenture documents are the first thing Kaz’s eyes light upon when he opens it. A year, maybe two, he told her. That is how long he estimated they had before the Merchant Council started hunting her. There’s no satisfaction in being right.
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