IGNORANTIA (Dark Academia!Wesper AU)

tweeëntwintig

Jan Van Eck has always been a proud man. He had been a prideful boy, a prideful husband, and now a prideful father for to his second first-child. He kisses the beads of sweat off of Alys' forehead and pats her blonde head. Though he'd never admit it, the girl's beginning to grow on him. Not as a wife or a mother, of course — Ghezen, she's going to make such a terrible mother — but more like a... pet. Yes, that's it. She's just as bright and lively as his favorite brown terrier as a kid. (Hopefully he won't have to euthanize her, too.)

What a busy week, he thinks to himself as he leaves Alys' "birthing room" as his mother-in-law had called it. Becoming a father is already hard enough work, but this plus Bo Yul-Bayur's death and his eldest son's rebellion has only added to his headache. He's lucky he hasn't had heart failure from it; he's getting to be that age, after all.

He washes his hands in the nearest bathroom before heading to his study in the west wing. Paperwork will seem like a miracle after having to sit through Alys' moaning. Marya had never been that difficult. She was such a good wife until she wasn't.

When he walks into his office, I'm the first thing he sees. I know this because he drops the porcelain cup he's holding, only for it to bounce off the plush carpet and roll away. Lucky cup.

First, there's fear on his face, then confusion, then realization and anger. He slams the door shut and marches right toward me with an accusatory pink finger pointed straight at my chest. He looks rather ridiculous doing that. Somehow seeing me in my own home upsets him more than yesterday's events. Typical Jan behavior, I guess.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" he spits.

"I connected the dots."

"Pardon?"

"I connected the dots," I say, slowing my words to give them the patronizing tell he always loves to give his own speeches. "I know you killed Jesper. I know everything now."

I pull out the manilla folder that's been hiding in my jacket until now. Jan takes another step closer, obviously intrigued but still wary enough to keep a bit of distance between us. I set the folder down on my lap, drumming my fingers against the thick yellow parchment.

"When Kaz was searching for dirt against Callaghan's experiments, I told him to look through the safe you keep in your office," I say. "You know, the one you think it so expertly hidden. Don't ask how he got in here — I myself don't quite know how — but he discovered something rather... well, I guess the best way to put it is alarming."

Kaz had come up to me before yesterday's meeting with this same file in his hand, telling me to read it for my own personal "enrichment". Jesper was supposed to read them to me after the rescue mission. We were supposed to discuss it over Zemini food at his favorite restaurant across the street from the university.

"Kaz was quite sufficient in his search," I explain. "He found deeds for things I didn't even know about. The carriage, the house, and the sugar mills made sense, but the empty warehouses in the Warehouse district..."

"Blackmail is illegal, you know," Jan responds. "I could send you to Hellgate like that," he snaps his fingers.

"And your embezzlement on state money?" I ask. "How do you think that's going to look when the Stadwatch go through this folder?"

Jan's face goes white. "How did you—"

"I've got my ways."

His eyes fall to the folder in my lap. He looks like he wants to grab it, to tear it up, to hit me, or worse. But he knows he can't. He knows he's already lost.

"Fine," he says. "You win. What is it you want?"

Suddenly I'm back at Jes's funeral. It was held at sunrise, as was Kaelish tradition. Usually the Dregs (or the Crows as Inej called them... I'm not entirely sure what each title means, but apparently I'm a "Crow" now) don't host funerals, but even Kaz agreed that it felt wrong to leave Jesper without saying goodbye. It's what he would have wanted, after all. No mourners, no funerals, my ass. Anyone who told themself they'd come out of this story unscathed is a dirty, two-faced liar. Jesper's death was inevitable; we were all just too hopeful to notice.