After landing in another universe, Arya has to learn to navigate the unfamiliar territory. Lucky for her, she quickly makes a deal with a local gang: she helps them kidnap their target, and they'll help her get home to her own world.
They hit a few...
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"I don't understand. I was not cheating." Arya hears a woman's voice as she makes her way to where Kaz is opening a safe, which he keeps hidden behind a painting.
He pulls out a small stack of cash before closing the safe. "You've been here every night for a week." He says before lowering the framed photo to conceal it again. "You don't play Makker's Wheel or Ratcatcher, only cards. Because you keep track of what's played."
"Well, that is not cheating."
"No, it's smart." Arya says as she sits down in a nearby chair. "That's how I play."
"But surely you can understand how that's bad for business." Kaz looks at Arya, annoyed that she's interrupting.
"So add an extra deck to her table." She says as she looks over at him. "Make it more balanced."
He narrows his eyes for a moment before looking back at the woman that's seated on the other side of his desk; he slams the money he pulled from the safe down in front of her. "An incentive to keep playing." He tells her. "Count it for me."
The woman hesitates for a moment before leaning forward and picking up the small stack. She straightens the bills, and then places them in one of her hands before using her other to fold them over toward her fingers. Kaz uses his cane to stop her after she counts a few bills, and she looks up at him with a furrowed brow.
"Where are you from?" He asks.
"West Ravka." She tells him. "Os Kervo."
"West Ravkans count their money from one hand to the other, but people out east who work in the mines in Sikursk, they count like you do." He argues.
She sets the money back on the desk between them. "I am from West Ravka."
"West Ravkans don't mention the west part." He continues in his argument as he leans over his desk again. "To them, there's just Ravka and the old country. You're lying about where you're from because you've fled. You're hiding."
"My daughter...is Grisha." She reluctantly tells him. "Neither of us wanted her to fight in the war. You can't make us go back."
"No, no, no. I'm not after you." Kaz says. "But you need to tell me how you and your daughter got through the Fold unscathed and unnoticed. Now."
"He just went by a title. The Conductor." She says, clearly not liking that she's giving up this information, but she's afraid for her daughter. "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 don't know what else to tell you."
