The FlameKeeper - Kaz Brekker

CH.01 - Weaponry

(THE GIF IS NOT MADE BY ME - CREDITS TO THE OWNER)

Ketterdam has always been the perfect place to hide, also a great place to make money. The first thing that Sabo did when she arrived in Ketterdam was landing a job, she started as a bartender at the fighting pit. The fighting pit, which is located in the Barrel, is a place where people came to fight with each other.  

The pit was founded after the Queen Lady's Plague. A lot of people were unhappy about the leadership, so they made the people who were in high ranks at the time fight each other to the death. If they didn't, both parties would end up with a bullet in their heads.

Nowadays the pit was used for sport. To see who's the best fighter of Ketterdam, people gambled good money for it too.

Sabo eventually let go of her bartender gig and started fighting in the pit, giving her quite the reputation in Ketterdam. She had gotten multiple offers for a spot in the most famous criminal organizations of the Barrel, the Black Tips, the Dime Lions, and the Dregs.  Sabo wasn't planning on taking up anyone on their offer until a boy named Jesper showed up and convinced her. She had been part of the Dregs ever since.

Tonight, Sabo had won more kruge than she could have ever made working as the pit's bartender in a whole week. Girls fighting in the ring were getting more popular by the minute. She didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Where she came from, a woman fighting wasn't a good thing at all.

The crowd, who was still watching one of her friends battle a foreigner, was getting louder by the minute. There were a lot of emotions involved in these kinds of fights, that's why being a fighter in Ketterdam was one of the best legal paying jobs in Kerch. Sabo was just about to leave for the night until she heard loud banging on the window. She turned around on high alert until she saw who it was.                                                                                         

"How much did you win?!" Jesper yelled. Sabo rolled her eyes at the sharpshooter and pretended she didn't hear him.

"What?!" she mouthed while putting her hand behind her ear. "I can't hear you!" Sabo said while pointing at the window that was currently in between them.

Jesper opened the door that was located next to the window, suddenly in a hurry. "Come on! I have to be back at the club in..." Jesper put his arm up to look at his watch. "Saints, 10 minutes! Let's go!"

Sabo said her goodbyes to her coworkers as she walked towards the Zemeni boy. 

"You know that you don't have to pick me up, right?"Jesper put his arm around her as they walked towards the Crow Club. 

"Well, you're the one too stubborn to carry any weapons."Sabo rolled her eyes at him. A couple of nights ago she and Jasper argued about the fact that she refused to carry a gun. 

"I fight guys twice the size of me daily, why do you care about me having a gun?"

"Look, I have my beloved pistols, Inej has her killer knives, Kaz could hit people on their heads with his stick if necessary. You need a weapon."

"I've survived all this time with just my fists, Jesper. I'm fine." She wouldn't tell him the truth about why she didn't carry weapons. 

Sabo learned from a very early age that if you wanted something to remain secret, the only person you could trust is yourself. The people in the Barrel were known for their deceitfulness, for their longing for power and money. And if people found out who she was, they could make a lot of it.