HER HEAD WAS SPINNING, that was the third time it had happened that day. But now for a completely different reason.

Natalia was still missing, and Grisha are suffering. Svetlana didn't know which was worse.

As a high-ranking Grisha, she should put the other Grisha first. But Natalia is a Grisha too, and she's being held by Fjerdan. As Svetlana Milkovich, she should put the girl she's always seen as a daughter first.

The conflict was going to tear her apart.

"What the hell is this?" She heard Kaz hiss. "Let me go and I'll explain."

"You can explain right where you are."

Van Eck was annoyed and scared for his life, he knew the reputation Kaz Brekker held, he knew what kind o man he was, so he decided that he wasn't in a place to argue any further.

"What you're seeing are the effects of jurda parem."

"Jurda is just a stimulant." Kaz said, speaking her mind. Svetlana used to have stashes of jurda in her room back at the Bay, the blossoms used to be her favorite pastime. "It's harmless."

"Jurda parem is something completely different, and it is most definitely not harmless." If this is what jurda parem did then Svetlana figured she should steer clear of its path.

"So you did drug me," Kaz said, and It almost made Lana roll her eyes had she even dared to pull them off Mikka. "Not you, him."

Mikka did look sickly, he looked like he was on the brink of death even. Like he was walking on a high wire between life and death and he was severely imbalanced. He had dark hollows beneath his eyes and the fragile, trembling build of someone who had missed several meals and didn't seem to care.

But he looked so young, fourteen at best, and it shattered her heart knowing the mercy that he deserved, because no Grisha deserved to feel like this, to look like this, or be treated like this.

"Jurda parem is a cousin to ordinary jurda," Van Eck continued, "It comes from the same plant. We're not sure of the process by which the drug is made, but a sample of it was sent to the Kerch Merchant Council by a scientist named Bo Yul-Bayur."

The name shouldn't have had the reaction that came out of her. It was a stranger's name, she can't say she's never heard it before, but he was a stranger. A Shu stranger. A Shu scientist.

She visibly froze, her breath hitched silently and she cursed all Saints when Kaz caught her gaze. He noted her pale form and her sweating brows, the way her eyes widened at the name, and the way her pupils contracted, she had gone rigid.

He was Kaz Brekker, nothing went unnoticed by him.

"Shu." She mumbled, and her voice sounded so small to her ears, and she had never wanted to disappear more than that moment. Van Eck spared her one glance, "Yes. He wished to defect—"

Svetlana snorted, and when Kaz glanced at her again, it was like her weakened form never even existed. She was back to how she was earlier, man spread on that chair with both her hands relaxed in her lap, her back leaning on the chair ever so comfortably. He was almost impressed.

"Shu scientists don't defect, Van Eck."

He ignored her, as usual. "He sent us a sample to convince us of his claims regarding the drug's extraordinary effects."

"'Extraordinary effects'? You tested this drug on Grisha?" She was horrified, but what had she really expected from the Merchant Council? Actually honor the dignity of Grisha? For her people? Every single Grisha in Ketterdam was indentured to someone in a higher position than they are; they've all been kidnapped or enslaved or trafficked somehow. Grisha lived in Ketterdam illegally, and not because they wanted to.

Again, Van Eck ignored her. "Please, Mister Brekker," he gritted through clenched teeth, how bruised his ego must be for begging a Barrel scum to let him go. She wanted to gut him. "This is the most uncomfortable position. If you'd like, I will give you a pistol, and we can sit and discuss this in a more civilized fashion."

She was almost tempted to walk out, he wouldn't be able to hold her back. She had already managed to escape his first attempt at holding her back, trying to hurt her will result in dead bodies. Van Eck knows this, and if she was to walk away he'd let her, but there was Grisha involved in this. Grisha that Sophia had begged her to help, and this was her secondary quest.

She'd help Natalia, then help Grisha. But for now, she'll collect her information.

She wondered why he wanted her here, it appeared like it was Brekker he really needed, so why nick her off the streets and shackle her down to a chair and force her to listen to him? Surely not because he knows she's Grisha, right? No one in Ketterdam knows she's Grisha, aside from Sophia now.

She watched amusedly as Van Eck let one of his guards give up his pistol and hand it over to Brekker, along with his walking stick that had a raven's —or is that a crow?— head for a handle. An interesting design.

Kaz let go of Van Eck and tossed the letter opener onto the desk while the merchant attempted to set his suit to rights. It looked funny on him like this, all crumbled and untidy.

"That cane is quite a piece of hardware, Mister Brekker. Is it Fabrikator-made?"

That captured Lana's attention and her eyes snapped to the cane, it was lead-lined and seemed light, the bird's head handle seemed perfect to hold, and the beak was sharp enough to cut throat. It downed on her that this wasn't just a cane, it was a weapon.

Was Brekker even a cripple? Was that just an act?

"None of your business. Get talking, Van Eck."

Svetlana was glad to know he was just as annoyed as her, but he wasn't shy to show his annoyance, unlike her.

When people kidnap Svetlana, they expect the same behavior they do every other victim; violent, confused, rigid, or timid. But she was unpredictable, and she liked being unpredictable. The captors would be on the tips of their toes, they were nervous about what she'd do or say, while she would lean back in her chair and relax and grin at them with that maniac of a glint in her eyes and it would set them on edge.

It brought her pure pleasure to see them squirm uncomfortably under her stare. Sometimes, she'd find it difficult to hold back laughter.

"When Bo Yul-Bayur sent us the sample of jurda parem, we fed it to three Grisha, one from each Order."

Again, Lana went rigid. "Happy volunteers?" Kaz asked an obvious question, one they both already knew the answer to.

"Indentures." Van Eck said, and Svetlana leaned forward in her chair, her jaw set. "The first two were a Fabrikator and a Healer indentured to Councilman Hoede. Mikka is a Tidemaker. He's mine. You've seen what he can do using the drug."

He's mine. Svetlana wanted to cut his head in halves.

"I don't know what I've seen," Kaz said, glancing at Mikka. Lana couldn't blame him, but she believed it. After all, she was sitting right there, and her existence should be nothing but a myth.

"An ordinary Tidemaker can control currents, and summon water or moisture from the air or a nearby source. They manage the tides in our harbor. But under the influence of jurda parem, a Tidemaker can alter his own state from solid to liquid to gas and back again, and do the same with other objects. Even a wall."

For a split second in time, Svetlana dared to wonder what it would do to her. But she quickly shut it down, this isn't natural. None of this was natural. Grisha took pride in their power, in their ability to serve mother nature and their country, using their powers felt like a part of themselves was healing and developing. That was natural, this is not.

"How?" She asked, she couldn't help it, she needed to know more. She knew Zoya would want to know more.

"It's hard to say. You're aware of the amplifiers some Grisha wear?" Van Eck addressed her for the first time since his bickering with Kaz started, and suddenly the foreign bones within her back felt heavy, and she straightened, hoping no one had noticed it. She nodded once, and as Kaz said he'd seen them, his eyes were still fixated on her.

She hated this. She hated him.

"I hear they're hard to come by."

"Very. But they only increase a Grisha's power. Jurda parem alters a Grisha's perception."

"So?" Kaz asked, and Svetlana decided to stand because this talk was making her itch all over. "The only way Grisha can use their abilities is when they understand it. They see every aspect of it and study everything there is about it. They manipulate matter as it is, without changing its physics. This... parem drug, it sounds like magic." She weighed in and saying it out loud made her understand it better.

Of course, this was the creation of a Shu scientist. It's always the Shu.

"Exactly," Van Eck pointed at her, "It's not magic per se, but Grisha under the influence of parem, those manipulations become faster and far more precise. In theory, jurda parem is just a stimulant like its ordinary cousin. But it seems to sharpen and bone a Grisha's senses. They can make connections with extraordinary speed. Things become possible that simply shouldn't be."

Svetlana jerked her hand at the merchant, "Magic." He only scowled at her.

She needed to leave. She's heard enough, seen enough, Svetlana's entire being was aching and itching for her to walk out of that place. She needed to leave, but not until she got every piece of information she needed.

"It's lethal. An ordinary mind cannot tolerate parem in even the lowest doses." Van Eck told Kaz when he argued why it should even interest him, but Lana could see that he was already interested. He could've jumped out that window at any given point during this speech, but just like her, he wanted to know more.

Svetlana must have dissociated, because Van Eck pulled a lump of what appeared to be gold from his drawer, "This started as a lead."

"Like hell it did."

Van Eck only shrugged, "I can only tell you what I saw. The Fabrikator took a piece of lead in his hands and moments later we had this."

Svetlana held out a hand to inspect the lump, and Van Eck gave it to her. Kaz never took his eyes off of it, and even though Svetlana could see the doubt behind his eyes, she knew he was already thinking of ways to waste it.

He asked about it as a merchant would, he got the information he needed about it, and Lana handed it over to Kaz. She didn't want anything to do with that.

"What does this have anything to do with either one of us, Van Eck? I could be in my warm bed right this very instant instead of hearing you ramble about magical Grisha." Svetlana mumbled, her voice low as she leaned on the desk, coming to eye level with the short merchant. She wouldn't be in her warm bed actually, she would be scanning the Fjerdan embassy for any sign of Nat and when the drüskelle could've taken her. She would be collecting information, just as she was doing now.

Van Eck leaned away from her, maybe uncomfortable or maybe intimidated, Kaz couldn't tell as he continued talking. "Perhaps you heard of the Shu paying off the entirety of their debt to Kerch with a sudden influx of gold? The assassination of the trade ambassador from Novyi Zem? The theft of documents from a military base in Ravka?"

Two out of these three events Svetlana has actually heard of. That morning she left Ravka, Zoya was trying to convince Nikolai that they'd all go to check the base and interrogate the otkazat'sya. She was still thankful she found a way out.

They nodded anyway, "We believe all these occurrences are the work of Grisha under the control of the Shu government and under the influence of jurda parem." If the Shu had paid their debt to Kerch with the same amount of gold Van Eck claimed, then they'd have multiple Fabrikators under the influence of parem on their side. A shudder ran down her spine when she wondered just how many Grisha they had and how many were under parem.

Van Eck was losing his edge as Kaz stood before him, still only half convinced of his claims and completely indifferent as to why he was being told this. But Svetlana figured it out, Van Eck was desperate— the Council was desperate. To pick off the worst of the Barrel from its streets and tell them what should be confidential information that belonged to the government? They wanted them to do something for them, for a big amount of kruge of course. Kaz wouldn't deal any other way.

"I want you to think for a moment about what I'm telling you. Men who can walk through walls— no vault or fortress will ever be safe again. People who can make gold from lead, or anything else for that matter, who can alter the very material of the world— financial markets would be thrown into chaos. The world economy would collapse."

Svetlana sneaked a glance at Mikka. Not just the world economy. Grisha would cease to exist; being plucked off the streets and forced to be under the influence of this drug, taking dose after dose until their bodies collapse. The Shu and the Fjerdan would take advantage of this, and they wouldn't be merciful. Ravka would be under attack again, and their Grisha would be helpless against these forces.

Svetlana had to find a stop to this. She needed to find this scientist, slit his throat, and set his work aflame, then find every dose of this parem and destroy it. If not for herself and the sake of her country and her people, then it's for Natalia.

Svetlana could only pray that she wasn't exposed to this already.

"—I want you to steal the man."

Her head snapped up to meet Van Eck's gaze and realized he was staring intensely at both her and Brekker. She straightened and folded her arms across her chest then glanced at Kaz, "Kidnap Bo Yul-Bayur?"

"Save him. A month ago we received a message from Yul-Bayur begging for asylum. He was concerned about his government's plans for jurda parem, and we agreed to help him defect. We set up rendezvous, but there was a skirmish at the drop point."

If Svetlana was told to compare Shu Han to Kerch in the way they treat their Grisha, she'd tell you there's almost no difference, only Kerch was worse. Because while the Shu gives their Grisha absolutely nowhere else to go but to force them to undergo their experiments and torture, Kerch gave them a false sense of safety and freedom. Just as it did with every man who ever walked these cobblestone streets.

The Kerch government and Shu Han work the same, they have the same goals; the Shu will use parem on every Grisha they had shackled and rage war on every other continent until they were supreme, and Kerch will use parem on every Grisha they have indentured to be the kings of the world economy.

Two evils. Bo Yu-Bayur is a fool for thinking he can trust Kerch.

"With the Shu?" Kaz had asked, and Svetlana had assumed it was. But then Van Eck said, "No, with Fjerda." And suddenly she was weak in the knees.

Fjerda did hear of parem. They have the scientist. Drüskelle continues their hunts on Ravkan grounds, they continue capturing Grisha and send them to the Ice Court for false trials. Fjerdan have a hundred Grisha in their cells, and now they have parem. They have Natalia.

Svetlana felt like her heart might stop altogether.

She wanted to smack both men, she wanted to run out of here and go back to the Bay. She wanted to tell Sophia and she wanted to be on the first ship heading to Fjerda. She wanted to send a letter to Nikolai to let him know about parem and Fjerda and Natalia. She needed to leave.