Kaz Brekker didn't need a reason. Those were the words whispered on the streets of Ketterdam - but that didn't mean that he never had one.
The Shu Serpent rears her head and slithers from the shadows when a high paying job catches her prying eyes a...
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The cold air of the morning set into Zhen's bones as she wandered the streets of Ketterdam like she did every week. She needed a tiny break from having to think, from having her anxiety destroy her. Her mind was on the little tea shop across the Stave owned by a lovely old Shu lady called Khema - the place was quaint, cramped, on a narrow street of stalls and cafes selling exotic fabrics and food giving off scents of spices and herbs.
She had stumbled across it when she was nine with Kaz and Jordie once and ever since, had vowed she would earn enough money to eventually try some of the sweet smelling tea that drifted from the building. It's red and gold decorations and paper lanterns hanging from the outside windows had stunned her as a child, and although now they were slightly weathered by rainfall and dulled in colour from the sun, Zhen still always found time to visit when she could.
It brought her closer to a home that she had never known.
A little bell chimed above the door as she entered, sweeping her gaze over the unusually packed tea shop - some traveling ships had come in from the harbour that week and it seemed non-locals and tourists were keen on trying anything that seemed remotely new and alluring. Gambling, food, drink, among just a few.
Even the Crow Club was especially packed.
A few eyes watched her as she nodded to the owner, a greying lady with a pearl ornament sat high dangling from her coiled updo at the back of her head. She wore a traditional satin gown with a red dusted robe around her with loose sleeves, tied at the front with a ribbon. She was tall and bony, with sharp features and high cheek bones and a distinct disliking for mess.
When she wasn't preparing the tea she could be seen sweeping the floor with a broom and trying not to look like she was glaring at the customers for trailing in dirt on her dark wood floors.
Zhen caught the womans eye behind the counter and a rare smile lifted her face.
Her own dress was of a similar colour, ruby red but with white birds soaring across waves sewn into the design. There was a slight line forming at the counter but as Zhen made her way to the front, Khema disregarded them all with a wave to serve her first.
She ignored the few glares at her back and smiled.
"Sheyao." Snake. Khema greeted cordially.
"How is my favourite person in the South Stave doing?"
The woman eyed her with narrowed eyes and a knowing smile. "I am not your favourite, don't lie."
"I don't lie, not to you, ayì." Auntie.
"Fake truths, then." She hummed in disapproval, her hands moving below the counter to pick up combinations of herbs and settling them in a little bowl in front of her methodically and without much of a glimpse. Always tinkering, always working. "We all know the crow man has that title taken."
