If Things Had Just Been Better | Six of Crows

Matthias

Matthias was getting sick of watching people be scammed out of their money. It was unjust- the whole country was, if you asked his opinion. Oh, how much he already wished that he was back in Fjerda.

And yes, he was aware that it may not be prudent to disrupt a scam, having stepped off the proverbial boat only a few days ago. He was aware that it wasn't clever to go around stopping every scammer he came across. But just one wouldn't be so bad, he supposed.

The one performing the tricks had dark hair and a polite smile. Matthias could tell that the latter of which was fake and that the former of which needed a good cutting. The con man, unlike many of those that Matthias had seen in his little time in Kerch, wore black. The crowd wore browns and greens and blues, making the con man stick out. Matthias thought that he dressed rather like a merch. Matthias did not have respect for those people.

Beside the con man was a tall, lanky Zemeni, dressed more like a gambler than a student. Matthias hadn't been to either Stave himself- Djel forbid he should ever need to- but based on what he had been told, what with the clothes and the way the Zemeni called out to the crowd, he looked as if he belonged there, not in the school.

Matthias walked over to the pair of them, standing in the crowd and looking for a way to put a stop to it.

"-100 Kruge," He said, "Anyone willing to go for the money?"

Matthias pushed to the front, "How much will it cost me?"

The lanky Zemeni cut in, "Just five Kruge! It's a steal, considering you could win it back, plus one hundred Kruge!"

Matthias pulled a bag of money from his pocket. This had been given to him when Matthias had been assigned to this miserable place. He pulled out five Kruge and tossed it to the con man. The con man caught it out of the air and swept it into the pile of money. The con man placed the coin that he had been using (was the object not generally a ball?) under a cup and began to mix them up. 

Matthias, despite himself, found that he was focusing on the cups rather closely as they spun. The con man slowed the cups to a gradual stop, and smiled once more. Even so, he looked tense.

"Alright, where is the coin?" The con man raised his gloved hands away from the cups.

"Up your sleeve, con man," Matthias replied simply.

The man blinked. And then- to Matthias' utter surprise- he laughed. Truly laughed. When he stopped, his grin faded into a much realer, much subtler, almost sinister, smile.

"You're clever, I'll give you that." The man began to roll up his sleeves to reveal nothing but a decently expensive watch.

"Under the watch band," Matthias amended quickly, not wanting to look a fool.

The man clicked his tongue, "You don't normally get two guesses. But I'll indulge you." He unclasped the watch and dangled it from one finger.

Matthias frowned, "I-"

The lanky Zemeni cut in now, "Oh, come on now, three guesses would just be unfair to our other patrons! Unless you'd like to pay-"

The con man held up a hand, his watch and sleeves already fixed, "That's alright, Jesper. I think it's about time we pack up."

"But we're-"

The con man held up a third of the money. The tall Zemeni tucked it in his coat and began to help clean up.

Matthias was confused, to say the least. Where could the coin have gone? If not under any of the cups- which was proven by the fact that no one had won- and not up the sleeve, where? Behind the table somewhere? Matthias watched them clean up. No, the con man didn't retrieve it from anywhere... It didn't make sense.

And then Matthias realized. 

Evidently, he was either a very good or a very bad Drüskelle. On the one hand, he'd found a Grisha- a durast, apparently- without even looking for one. On the other, it took him far too long to realize.

Matthias quickly turned a corner and began to make a plan. He was about to track and catch a Grisha.