Chapter Text
I go 'round and 'round, satellite
Three months later
INEJ
Inej Ghafa didn’t need a reason. But if you asked her, she’d tell you she left her life at sea because she was ready. Because it was time.
She decided to stay in Lij many months ago, it’s true, but today feels auspicious, official. Not least of all because she is travelling with several ledgers Kaz told her to bring back from the Slat, a trunk filled with her own possessions rescued from The Wraith , and a box containing a second-hand typewriter that Wylan sourced for Henry. She could not look more conspicuous getting on the barge to Belendt, but then, it’s not really a secret that Kaz Brekker has taken up in the country with a wife.
Wylan and Jesper see her off at the docks. Jesper is crying, even though she’s reminded him several times this week that they’ll probably see more of each other now that she won’t be at sea most of the year.
“You can come and visit literally any time, Jes,” she says into his shoulder as they hug. “It’s only a day’s journey.”
“Well not any time,” Wylan reminds her. “Kaz needs warning, I’m sure.”
“Yes,” she agrees. “And not during harvest, we’ll be too busy.”
“I could help with the harvest!” Jesper says, brightening. “I’d be brilliant at-” he mimes using a scythe, hacking at the air in front of him.
“No!” Wylan and Inej say at the same time. And then they’re all laughing, and embracing. And Inej has to peel herself out of their grasp to board the barge.
“Love you both,” she calls from the boat.
“Love you, bye!” Jesper shouts back. “Do lots of kissing for me!”
KAZ
Kaz Rietveld doesn't need a reason. He does things on his own time now, guided only by the weather and the whims of his crop.
One day his old self left Ketterdam on a barge and just… didn't go back. He hasn't returned to the Slat or the Crow Club. When he went to officially hand the business over, he took the meetings in Wylan's sitting room. Anika barely contained her bafflement when he asked her to run it all, a tea tray between them. He still backs the operation, they still defer to him for strategic advice. But the messages from Ketterdam have become less frequent.
It'll be harvest soon. The plants are tall now, swaying gently in the breeze coming off the river. He checks the irrigation pump at the bottom corner of the field. He doesn't need to check it really, it's all working as intended. But he checks it anyway.
He's been talking to the Baxters about installing a pump on their farm. They're putting a proposal to the new merchant council about it. There's a fund now, that everyone in town can apply to. The council are going to offer small grants that can be used for farm improvements or business upgrades. Any proposal considered, as long as it's of benefit to Lij.
He walks back up the field and finds the cat is sleeping in the new garden beds along the house. Tomas helped him make the beds and plant them with wild geraniums. He's nervous for her to see them, hopes she'll be pleased. The cat has almost crushed one plant by lying against it but she looks so happy in the sun that he doesn't chase her away. He leans down to scratch her belly and she stretches out appreciatively.
INEJ
Tomas picks her up at Belendt. The girl from the barge, who says her name is Ilse, helps them load Tomas’ gondel with all of Inej’s luggage. Ilse and Tomas tease each other about their respective boyfriends, and Ilse hands them an envelope with her monthly report for Kaz.
She’s on Kaz’s payroll, Inej now knows. And has been for years. As are a whole range of people who live and work along the canals. All of them part of a complex network of spies and runners. Most not even really knowing who they work for, but all threads in the tapestry of security that will allow Kaz and Inej to live in relative peace in Lij.
“Good to have you back, Mrs Rietveld,” Tomas says, pushing off. “We missed you.”
“It was only a few weeks, Tomas,” she says, “I’m sure you’re too busy to miss me.”
Tomas blushes. “It’s been nice setting up my own place, that’s true. Mr Rietveld’s missed you a lot though. He’s been over at Aunt Ada’s for dinner heaps and he even came to visit me a few times,” he says, puffing out his chest.
“And how’s Henry?” Inej asks, hiding her smile.
“Much happier now he’s back working the press. And they’re even letting him write for the paper! It’s an opinion column! He’s so clever, Mrs Rietveld.”
“I’ve got his package here,” Inej says, patting the parcel with the typewriter inside.
“He knows you or Mr Rietveld could have just bought him one,” Tomas says, “but-”
“No need to explain, Tomas,” Inej assures him. “He saved his kruge for this, we all know how important that feeling is.”
“He’s going to apply for one of the grants,” Tomas says, “so he can write his novel.”
“That sounds really good, Tomas,” Inej says, smiling. She lies back in the gondel and watches the clouds in the blue, Spring sky.
KAZ
Kaz sets the table, as the late afternoon sun streams in through the windows. He sets out a bunch of daisies in a jar and a bowl of ripe apricots, puts out forks and glasses for wine.
It's the longest the two of them have been apart since all this started. He is worried that touch will be hard, like it used to be after they hadn't seen each other for a while. So he's been practising, hugging Ada when he goes for dinner and letting Petra hold his hand as she walks him around the field, telling him her plans (she wants to go to university one day, of all things).
He starts when he hears the cart trundling up the path. He intentionally continues pottering around the table, stops himself going to the window, holds off the first moment of seeing her again. And then she's opening the door and he looks up and his heart flutters in his chest. She's grinning at him. She gives him a look that's all question and he nods. Inej steps close and kisses him gently, a hand on his elbow. And it's not hard. Nothing about it is hard.
"Kaz?" She says as she pulls back. "Why is there a horse in the back field?"
"That's Ernie," he says. He's smiling at her, he can't help it.
"Sure," she says, "Of course."
"I wanted to have a cart ready too but it's not done yet," he looks out to where Tomas and Henry are unloading her things.
She shakes her head at him.
When she's unpacked and Tomas and Henry are gone, Kaz makes omelettes. He got a recipe from Wylan's chef and he's been practising. They're not perfect, not yet, but they're better.
"How's the Wraith ?" He asks, sitting down at the table and passing her a plate.
"The ship?" She says. "Like new. Fixed up, new crew, some of the old crew back."
"And the person?"
She smiles.
"I like her. She's determined. I think she'll be good. It was nice training someone. Strange but good."
She tells him about the time she's spent with her new Spider, flitting together around the roofs of Ketterdam and through the masts of her ship. She lapses into silence.
"The Lamberts are selling up," he says. She nods.
"Good riddance."
He doesn't say out loud the idea that's been floating around his head since he found out a shopfront would be empty. Not yet. He will.
"The Merchant Council meeting goes all afternoon tomorrow," she says, leaning her head against her hand and looking at him. "But maybe after that we could do nothing for a couple of days."
She looks tired. Nothing would be nice.
"Can't believe you're on a Merchant Council," he says, smiling.
"Can't believe you're a farmer," she teases back.
They grin at each other.
INEJ
They sleep in each others’ space and in the morning, Inej takes a bath. Kaz has installed a heating system so they have running hot water, and Inej watches in delight as the tub fills with water, and the room with steam. Never in their wildest dreams could their younger selves have imagined this. A house of their own. A community. A family. She soaks in the bubbles and lets herself cry happy tears.
In the afternoon, she walks to town for the meeting. Kaz offers to come with her but she squeezes his hand gently and shakes her head.
“You have work to do,” she says, gesturing to the harvesting equipment he and Tomas are sorting and oiling, “why don’t you pick me up after though?”
She wants to kiss him goodbye but he shakes his head softly. He’s not so comfortable in front of other people, which is fine, and besides, they’ve got all the time in the world. She smiles to herself as she leaves the farm.
The Merchant Council meets monthly. This is their second meeting, and Inej is still not entirely convinced any of them know what they’re doing, herself included, but they are working it out, bit by bit. They spend the afternoon deciding how they’ll manage the funds that Jesper has funnelled back to them thanks to Gerrit’s disastrous investment in the short-lived shipping venture.
The rest of the council think it’s an anonymous donation. Inej would desperately love to tell them the truth, but it’s probably for the best that they don’t know the town’s wealth started with fraud.
They vote unanimously to add the money to the grants fund, and then the rest of the meeting is spent talking about the empty shop front left by the Lamberts.
“We should ask for submissions,” Rosalind says.
“No one else in town is a haberdasher,” Mr Baxter muses thoughtfully, “so it’ll have to be something different.”
“It’d be good if it were something new, breathe some life into the street,” Mrs Petersen adds.
A spark of something twists in Inej’s chest. “If a council member made a submission,” she starts, “how would we…?”
Everyone looks at her, expectant.
“Hypothetically speaking,” she says, trying not to grin.
“You- that is- they could excuse themself from the vote,” Rosalind says, smiling.
KAZ
Kaz and Tomas are waiting outside the town hall, leaning against the cart. Tomas is holding a bunch of flowers, fiddling anxiously with the stems. It's a mess of colour, with wild daisies and grasses and freesias from Ada's garden. Even Kaz can admit it's beautiful.
"He'll like them," Kaz says and Tomas looks up at him nervously.
"You think so?" Tomas says, frowning.
"I do, Tomas."
Tomas nods.
"Did Inej like the geraniums?" He asks.
"I did," Inej says, suddenly beside him. She smiles up at Kaz and Tomas grins at them both. Some days Kaz feels nervous about loving Inej so openly. It can still be a struggle not to see it as an exposed vein an enemy might slash at. It's a calculated risk, to let his guard down in this place. The security measures are rigorous. But still. It's the biggest risk he's ever taken. He smiles back at her.
Henry strides towards them from the Town Hall, grinning at Tomas. Tomas holds the flowers out and Henry blushes deeply. He starts to sign shyly and Tomas puts the flowers down on the cart so they can talk with both hands. Henry steps in closer to see the flowers.
Kaz bumps Inej's shoulder and nods towards the pub. As the two of them make to leave, Henry catches Kaz's eye and flashes his hands in a question. Kaz replies in stilted gestures and they nod at each other.
"What was that?" Inej asks as the two of them make their way towards the pub.
"We were worried the new ink was too thick but Henry said he sorted it," Kaz says.
"No Kaz, since when do you know their hand language?" She's smiling. Kaz blushes.
"Tomas taught me a few things," Kaz says. "So we can talk about the press."
Inej shakes her head fondly and he frowns at her.
They have dinner at the pub. The food is better now, after they helped Rosalind hire a cook from the city. The paint is fresh on the repairs and the place is humming with people.
Tess is working behind the bar. Kaz wouldn't be so forgiving and he can't quite meet her eyes when he orders. Ruben left town not long after Van Der Hoek and no one has heard from him since. But Tess stayed. And Tess is trying. Inej says that it's worth giving people a few chances.
Inej tells him about the meeting as they wait for their food. She can't tell him everything, in the pub, but she tells him the parts that will make him laugh. There's a pause when their meals arrive and then they both start talking at once.
"Do you remember that coffee house-" Inej says at the same time Kaz says:
"So I've been thinking about-"
They both stop.
"The shop front?" Inej says. Kaz nods. They're both trying not to grin.
"Tell me what you're thinking," Kaz says, feeling a plan start to form on the table between them.
She shakes her head.
"You first."
INEJ
They walk home, hand in hand. There are fireflies hovering in the long grass beside the road, and crickets chirping somewhere in the darkness.
“I can’t wait to do nothing with you,” she says without meaning to.
Kaz hums in agreement. “I’ve blocked out at least two days.”
“Scheduled nothing,” she laughs, quietly.
They lapse into comfortable silence.
“So what do you want to call it then?” Kaz asks. “The cafe.”
“And bookshop,” she reminds him.
“And bookshop,” he agrees, shaking his head indulgently. “People know your name now so-”
“It’ll be our shop though,” she says, squeezing his fingers gently.
“Rietvelds’ Cafe and Books,” he says, almost to himself.
She stops walking and Kaz pulls up short a pace ahead of her.
“Kaz,” she says. “I’m not actually Mrs Rietveld, remember?”
He turns to face her, his eyes wide. “Of course not, we could use our first names, or Ghafa or-”
“It’s not that,” she says, concealing a smirk behind her hair. “It’s just that… well, you haven’t actually asked me yet.”
“Asked you?”
She grins at him. “Asked me.”
Kaz’s expression clears, and he barks a laugh.
“Inej-” he starts.