Six of Crows OS

Fear

'Dirtyhands', 'Demjin', 'The Bastard of the Barrel' .
It was the name they called him in the Barrel. The nastiest part of Ketterdam. There was no kindness to be found in this city. Profit rules the streets and the hearts were cold like cement.

"We need to stop calling him that! His reputation is getting to his head! Kaz Brekker is just a boy! He's acting like he owns this city! And we're all LETTING him!"
Voices were loud and stern in the mercher's council. Many voices were scoffing, other's offered their agreements with much displeasure.

The council room was big enough to fit perhaps five entire families in them. At the moment - it had been like this for decades now - about thirty mercher's occupied a seat and table each. Each from a rich family. And almost all of them had had a run in with the Bastard of the Barrel and lost something to him. Be it money (it was mostly money), friends or dignity. Kaz Brekker collected his debts like a mourge it's corpses. With little care for their wellbeing and even less care for their benefits.
In the midst of the council was little place for mercy, even less for charity. Especially when it concerned Kaz Brekker. But of course, none of them was talking about giving charity to Brekker. He was richer than most of them. Except maybe Mr. Van Eck.

Wylan Van Eck was known for his charity pojects. He had been funding them for almost three years now, since he took over his father's seat at the table. Next to him, as always, sat his boyfriend and partner, Jesper Fahej.
Some of the scoffing was probably directed at him. Mercher's didn't like it, when people rose from the Dregs to do politics. They were often too good at it for their tastes. The bastards got there by being exceptional at being corrupt. The rest of the council got there on their father's wealth and hoped to keep it by the same means. Still, they were entitled people. They insisted they deserved their place in the world, even though they had done nothing for it, while the Bastard's from the Dregs actually did. But those were semantics that rich people didn't like to entertain much.

Jesper Fahej wasn't just from the Dregs, he used to be Dirtyhand's - for the lack of a better word- right hand. For that alone, he was eyed with suspicion. Rumors had it, he were still in contact with the man. At the moment, he was sitting rather calmly on his chair and cleaning his revolvers. Whether it was a warning, a casual habit or a casual warning did not matter to the council.
Weapons were weapons. Those who carried them into these rooms openly, basically announced that they were mistrusting the rest of the council. Those who didn't carry any, were naive and most likely killed mysteriously on their way out. It's how it always had been.

"And what exactly do you plan on doing against that? You can't forbid people their language!" Wylan remained calm during the entire speech. As the youngest in the room, he had to keep himself with more dignity than the rest of the council combined, to appear half as dignified. They thought him naive. They didn't believe he was any good with numbers or wealth. He ruled his little capital with morality. The mere idea of that was foreign to Ketterdam.

Wylan had escaped a murder attempt created by his own father. He had allowed any resemblance between himself and his father be temporarily tailored away, just to hide from Jan Van Eck himself, and protect a chemist who was known to recreate the famous, highly addicting drug: Jurda parem.

"Kaz Brekker must have some kind of weakness!", the mercher answered matter of factly.

Jesper hummed and shrugged. "Not that anyone knows of." He shared a knowing look with Wylan. Neither of them would know Kaz's weakness, even if they were tortured for the information. Kaz was incredibly brilliant and in the few instances that he wasn't, he had lady luck on his side. Trying to cross him was like trying to cross a god.

The mercher grimaced in his direction, as if making fun of them. Then he eyed the rest of the council once more. A pleased grin entered made his lips curl. "We have found a way to figure it out."