Chapter Text
Sweat clung to Wylan's back as he hauled himself onto a staircase attached to the side of a building, using what little upper body strength he had for what he hoped would be one of the last things he ever had to do.
The last few weeks had been the worst of his life, and he'd finally decided enough was enough. He was certain this city was slowly killing him anyway, better to do it sooner and on his own terms. Or maybe he just truly couldn't bear to live another day.
These streets seemed to suffocate him, his heart had not stilled since he was on that boat, foolishly dreaming of his place at a music school whilst the people sitting adjacent were plotting to kill him. Simply walking the city was an incredibly difficult task, and his mind swelled at the thought of the threat that lurked around every corner.
The tannery should have been a good thing, he had at least gotten a job so he wouldn't starve. But the chemical smell had brandished him ever since, and he couldn't shake it, it lined his lungs with thickness and watered his eyes until all he could do was sit, and breathe, and tell himself that he was doing all this for a reason. But he felt like he'd lost that reason long ago, when he first saw his reflection in a chemical vat and did not recognise himself.
But even with no direction, no light or hope to speak of, Wylan could just about live with himself knowing his father had no idea where he was. He wasn't dependent on him anymore, had no ties with that life except for his flute that lay unplayed in his satchel.
But then the letters came.
And he no longer had a reason to live. The small hope that he had finally done something for himself, that he'd gotten away with his dignity intact, crumbled slowly as he realised what the letters actually meant. It didn't matter if he couldn't read them. He was still a joke to his father. After everything, he was still being laughed at.
He thought over those moments on the boat way more than he should've. Staring at the ceiling, waiting for the sun to rise, waiting for a reason to lift himself from the scratchy mattress, he thought what might've happened if he'd just accepted it. Maybe those two men his father hired for the job would've had a better day. Maybe Wylan would never have to torture himself in the tannery, or go to bed hungry, or have to go through the humiliation of trying to navigate through a city without reading a single street sign.
Wylan came to the conclusion that the only reason he had fought his way out of that situation was because he didn't know what was waiting for him on the other side. Now he knew. And he thought that he should've just let his father send him to his death. Because he was right. Nothing else was out there waiting for him. He had failed at being a merchling. And he'd failed at surviving the barrel. So he'd do what his father wanted him to, the only thing left for him to do.
Disappear.
As much as he hated giving his father what he wanted, he knew no one would mourn him. He had no one left that cared about him in the slightest, so he might as well do the responsible thing and spare himself from more pain.
So that's how he'd ended up here. Climbing twelve stories up the side of a building hoping it would be quick. He hadn't wanted to jump initially, but he couldn't bear to die from poisoning after working with all those chemicals all day, and he didn't even own anything sharp for any other methods. He couldn't hang himself because he couldn't stand to think of someone having to find him like that. Though he knew he'd be found in the street eventually, hopefully it'd be a bit less gruesome than having to unhook him from the ceiling.
He wasn't sure why he cared what he was like after, anyway. It's not like he'd be there to witness it.
The only thing he'd miss was his flute. His music. But there was little opportunity to play it here anyway. And the sun. Which there seemed to be a serious lack of in Ketterdam. Seriously, he couldn't even remember seeing the sky since he'd got here. The clouds smothered the city almost as much as the smell of damp musk and gunpowder.
Pushing himself over the side of the rooftop, Wylan wished there was at least a sunset, something beautiful to see before he left.
That's when he spotted a dark hooded figure standing 10 metres away on the opposite edge of the roof. His whole body froze, and he watched her hood slip back to reveal a dark braid, and a shocked expression. Suddenly she held two knives firm in her grip, pulled seemingly from thin air.
They stood staring each other down for what felt like an uncomfortably long amount of time, before a tall, heaving man hauled his huge frame over the side of the building, huffing and puffing and completely oblivious to the scene he's just walked in on.
When he finally straightens, raising his hands from his knees to lock eyes with Wylan, who feels ridiculously exposed, Wylan's first thought is what beautiful lips he has. Which is ridiculously inappropriate to be thinking about in this situation. The boy looks positively puzzled before glancing back at the girl to say,
“Who’s this?”
Wylan takes the opportunity of slight distraction to take hold of the tiny explosive he'd concocted in case he ever ran into trouble. It was one of the few activities he found that he enjoyed, partly for the knowledge of safety in case anyone- or Ghezen forbid his fathers goons- came looking for trouble, and part because he just enjoyed the process, loved experimenting with different concoctions of chemicals and seeing what they were capable of. What he was now capable of.
He didn't hesitate before throwing it in between the girl with the knives and hopefully disappearing behind a cloud of smoke. His heart raced as he made his way back to solid ground, but he wouldn't let himself stop moving till he knew he was safe. But there was no safe in Ketterdam, so once he felt he might have a heart attack if he didn't stop soon, he took a moment to breathe with his back against the building he'd just tried to throw himself off.
He couldn't believe he'd just gotten away from that. Even though he had no clue what that even was. And through his deliriousness, another thought came out, aiming right for his heart. Was he really so stupid he couldn't even manage to succeed in throwing himself off a roof?
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Jesper watched, stunned, as the strange, cute boy literally vanished in front of his eyes. One minute he was there, looking like a deer in headlights, and the next, a puff of smoke and a small bang forced Jesper to blink, and he was gone.
He turned to see if Inej knew what was going on, but she looked just as baffled as he felt.
“What the hell was that?”
Inej slowly relaxed her stance and tucked her knives away god knows where, but didn’t take her eyes off the spot where the boy's feet had been moments before.
“I have no idea. Might’ve been nothing. Let’s just finish the job and we’ll mention it to Kaz.”
He kept quiet as to not attract more strange acquaintances as he got into position next to Inej, and tried to focus on what he had been hired for; Keeping watch from the roof and playing sniper for Kaz in case things got heated with his meeting with the Razorgulls below.
But waiting for action was probably what Jesper was worst at, and he found his mind wanting to go anywhere but the dark streets below him.
Thankfully, their strange interruption proved a good distraction. Why had that skinny boy with the bow lips been up on a roof anyway? He didn’t exactly look like he’d been expecting them. Didn’t even look like a part of any gang, now that he thought about it. His hair was too perfect, a little halo that framed him just right. It was unusual in the barrel to look so… ethereal. He was like a storybook prince who walked into the wrong story.
And his exit… was certainly dramatic. Almost Kaz level drama. In fact, he could imagine Kaz taking notes as to how to acquire that exact ‘puff of smoke’ magicians exit himself. He did have some sort of fetish for magicians, Jesper thought, suppressing a laugh at his own stupid joke that he would definitely save for later.
Inej turned and gave him a strange look, one eyebrow raised at Jesper smiling when they had literally been sitting in silence the whole time.
Right, a job. He was on a job. He needed to focus. People were counting on him. However, one look down told him everything was going smoothly, and he let himself relax as he stared back at the moon from the horizon.
He decided he wanted to know more about the strange prince from the rooftop. He could feel his skin itching with curiosity, and hoped Kaz would have the answers on his identity. If he didn't, he’d likely have them within the hour, because let’s face it, Kaz couldn’t stand not knowing something about this city.
Strangely, it was the picture of the boy that kept coming back to him most. His perfect, unbarrel-like hair, his bright eyes that he couldn’t tell the colour of in the dark. His jacket, that was obviously too big for him. He wanted to know every detail of his face and memorise each of his features. Saints, he didn't even know the guy's name yet. But already he seemed more interesting than half the people he knew in the barrel.
Finally, Inej gave the signal and they silently rose and started their descent, Jesper glancing back one last time, expecting the prince to pop back up from the ledge and explain himself. But to no avail, so he instead settled for a quick walk back to the slat with Inej in tow, his favourite knife wielding little acrobat deep in thought, leading the way.
The streets felt hollow at night, at least the quiet backroads Inej led them down. The only sound was Jesper's feet clacking on the cobbles, and distant action as they neared the Slat. It wasn't much but it was home, and most importantly, warm, Jesper thought, wrapping his coat tighter around himself and willing time to jump like it does at the tables. He wanted to blink and find himself in bed, like how all good nights ended.
A new light shone on the wet stones and he found himself once again in front of the crooked building, coming at it at an unfamiliar angle and totally unaware of the route they'd taken, as Inej seemed to have a different understanding of the barrel to anyone else. All that looking at it from above made her mind process the winding paths differently, leading to Jesper never knowing where he was when he was with Inej.
But he'd never admit that.
He felt the loud, rampant energy of the bar ease the tension in his bones and he finally took a breath before making his way up to Kaz. It does seem frivolous that such a small detail of such a low risk job was worth mentioning, but better be safe than sorry. Jes knew Kaz would be furious if he found out Jesper had spared even the smallest amount of information from him anyway.
He barged in, eager to share with someone the strange twist the evening had taken.
“Kaz! The weirdest thing just happened-”
“It wasn't that weird-” Inej added, Kaz looking entirely unamused with them both.
“Ok, so a guy just happened to climb the exact roof we were on, and then set some kind of smoke bomb and vanished into thin air. You're saying that's not weird? What was he even doing up there anyway?”
Inej gave Jesper an offish look and stated,
“I thought it was obvious?” This piqued Jesper's interest more than an opportunity at three man bramble, why the hell hadn’t Inej said something sooner?
“Do share with the class?”
“He was obviously going to jump.”
Jesper startled and practically jumped on the spot at this insane explanation- that thought had never even come to his mind. But, no way. The guy looked too innocent for that, too… un-crackhead like.
“I- w-what? Where did you get that idea?”
“Uh, hello? Who climbs up a roof in the middle of the night for any other reason?”
“Uh, I can think of plenty of other reasons. Maybe he was there to do repairs… or something.”
“In the dark?”
Inej and Jesper continued to bicker while Kaz just spectated, clearly unamused. But thinking. How had a new face in Ketterman slipped by him? Who was this mysterious person who could apparently vanish into thin air? If he worked with chemicals, specifically explosives- he might prove useful. And if he happened to be one step away from the edge of a rooftop, well… Kaz could work with that.
“Inej. Find out more about him. Anything and everything. See if he could be useful.”
Jesper butted in, “Wait, Kaz- I don’t want to be working with a crazy person-“
“If he’s suicidal- it means he’s desperate. And desperate people are all the more likely to do my bidding.”
“Oh my god. This is ridiculous. Now you sound crazy. We should obviously leave him alone, I mean what if he decided he’s had enough mid job? And blows himself up, likely taking all of us with him!”
Jesper waves his arms, trying to emphasise his point but clearly neither party are impressed.
“Jesper, you’ve been asking for a demolition expert for months. So whatever your problem is, get over it.”
Inej sees Jesper's eyes narrowing and decides to butt in before people start being threatened.
“I’ll go find him. No need to get antsy. If he is dangerous, Kaz, we should probably find someone else. An unstable person in possession of explosives doesn’t sound too appealing to me either.”
So Inej slipped out of the room presumably to exit again through her window, and Jesper left feeling like he had whiplash. First he’d been curious, then that had been decidedly squashed by a clear reasoning Jesper had managed to overlook. Now he wanted as far away from this new demo guy as he could get. Lets hope he doesn’t kill himself before Kaz gets to him, otherwise he’ll likely be dragged out of hell by a particular crow head cane, because no one eluded Kaz breaker, not even death itself.
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Inej had been bouncing back and forth across the city for far too long, but she finally had an address of where this mysterious man lived.
She could only hope she wouldn’t walk into a trap. A doorway rigged with explosives would be a very unfortunate way to die. But, obviously, she wouldn’t be entering through the doorway.
She staked out the location waiting for him to show himself, almost convinced she and Jesper had had a shared hallucination, when she finally saw him leave the building. She made light work of the wall and slipped in through the window, careful not to fall straight onto the floor as she couldn’t be sure it would be totally empty.
But its energy alone had already told her it was lonely. Rooms all had an energy, Inej had discovered, and they lit up whenever she walked in as if she reignited them with every step. She loved empty rooms. It was like finally meeting with a friend you hadn’t seen in years, so welcoming but also cold, and changed. They were never what you expected.
This one was a mess, but in a way that it was clear it had once been tidy. There were very little actual things to even make a mess with, it was practically empty yet it still managed to look like a total state. Shoved in one corner was a small chemical mixing station with other apparatus that Inej could not decipher. The bed was unmade, and the walls and floor had a smell and a dampness that made her feel like she was standing in a cave. Overall, it was a sad excuse for a home. She began by searching a large satchel draped up against the wall.
Inside, it was practically hollow, a small flute leaning on some once damp sheet music with just a few items of clothing. Inej was hoping for some documents or letters of some kind, those always provided way more information than intended. The only downside was they made Inej feel like she was invading their privacy. She had never been one to gossip, though it seemed that had become her full time job now.
She moved over to a pile of clutter, which proved uninteresting. Why Kaz felt like he needed to know everyone's business was beyond her, but she shook the thought as she spotted a piece of paper poking out from the corner of the mattress, and found exactly what she was looking for. A thick, smooth envelope, carefully adjourned with the name ‘Wylan Van Eck’ in swoopy cursive lettering.
And suddenly, this boy became much more interesting.
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