IGNORANTIA (Dark Academia!Wesper AU)

achttien

Apparently I'm not the only one who came to Brekker in distress. When I enter his office, I immediately spot Nina sitting in one of the chairs with her legs kicked up on the table. She's gotten mud all over his paperwork, but she doesn't seem to care. There's a fading purple bruise over her eye, much cleaner than it should be for last night's fight. You'd think a Heartrender like her (or whatever they call themselves) would be better at healing themselves.

"You look terrible," she tells me as I sit beside her.

"You don't look so good yourself, you know," I retort.

This elicits a little smile from her. Her eyes trail upwards towards my hairline, and she moves her feet off of the desk to sit up straight. "You've got a little cut right there. Do you need me to heal it?"

"Do I?" I touch my forehead, only to find that I have in fact been bleeding. I look down at my bloodied fingers and frown. "Huh."

She extends her hand outwards. Carefully, she waves it over my head, and I feel the cut begin to burn. When she sits back in her chair, I go to touch the wound, only to find it has disappeared. Not too shabby. I wonder if her black eye is just for effect then.

Mr. Brekker (I don't even know what title's appropriate for him. Based on how Nina and Jesper spoke about him, I imagined him to be much older) grunts as he sits down on the opposite side of the desk. His gloved fingers drum over the cane's skeletal head in rhythmic succession.

"So tell me, Mr. Van Eck," says Brekker. "Why is a mercher's boy asking for me in my club?"

"Jesper's gone," I say. The words feel just as wrong out as they felt in. He's gone, and it's my fault, just like Bo and Kuwei. All I seem to do is fail. It catches in my throat and stings my eyes, that message of failure. Failure like my dad promised. Failure to save, failure to keep. Failure to be the son and student I'm supposed to be.

"What happened to him?" Nina asks.

"The Stadwatch took him," I say. "He's going to Hellgate for Bo Yul-Bayur's death."

"If he's going to Hellgate, I'm afraid he'll have to save himself from there. It's impossible to break into." Kaz leans back in his chair, crossing his ankle over his thigh. "Is that all?"

"But he didn't do it," I press on. "We found Bo in this secret lab underneath the dormitories and we were trying to get him out. His death wasn't Jesper's fault in the slightest. If anything, it's my fault. I accidentally startled him and he... fell."

The crack of his neck, the blood on the ground. I can see it all so clearly. I can smell it, hear it, taste it. It's all I'll ever be able to see. It takes a second for me to snap out of it.

"The council's been making this drug called Jurda Parem," I continue.

Brekker glances at Nina. "Yes, I'm quite aware of it."

"They kidnapped Bo to make it, but he refused. That's when they hired me to recreate it and, well, it's been finished. Parem is real, and who knows when they'll start to use it. Who knows what they might do to my team if they refuse to recreate it."

From beside me, Nina ducks her head down so it rests in her palms. I assume she's got a headache of some sort, but then she begins muttering. It's Ravkan — her mother tongue — and it's a prayer.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Van Eck, but there's nothing I can do to help you," he says.

"But Jesper—"

"He got what he deserved, and frankly so did your ragtag team of chemists." Suddenly what those men said at the bar is beginning to make sense. Kaz Brekker really is more devil than man. He's proving this as he speaks.