Kaz Brekker is not a stupid man, and he owns a lot of whores. Well, not owns. He's the only boss in the Barrel who won't take them on indenture. The women and men who work his pleasure houses do it because they like the work, and they take home a healthier profit share than the indentures at the other houses. They're more enthusiastic in their work for both reasons, which is why his pleasure houses are quickly running the others out of town.

But lately, he's using the pleasure houses he owns for a very different purpose.

No one has ever held his hand and taught him to do anything in life. Everything he's needed to know, he learned from watching people who were already doing it. Usually, people who were doing it badly. Those, he watches merely to discern the flaws and missteps in their performance.

Each bedroom has a peephole that goes to secret passageways, for security, so that's where he stations himself. Sometimes, he watches from the rooms themselves, because the chairs are more comfortable and some of the customers will pay more to know there's someone watching. Kaz is always in favor of leveraging multiple income streams, even now that he's rich.

What he learns is that men are mostly garbage, and the women aren't pleased.

He tosses out more than a few of his own customers in disgust, though he makes them pay anyway. After the first week, he switches to watching the few female customers of his gentleman employees. There, he learns much more quickly about the this-and-that of bringing pleasure to a woman. He does not take notes because Kaz's brain is a trap that lets no detail escape. Sex is no different.

His brilliant mind grasps it immediately, though it's difficult to imagine his body performing the undignified movements and sounds. Especially the more athletic ones that he knows Inej will take to easily. It's unfortunately difficult to glean the finer points of inner movement from beyond the wall. After all, it hardly matters how big the gun, if you don't know how to point it. This last gap he remedies by the easiest, if most disagreeable of methods.

He asks Nina.

She laughs (rather more than he thinks necessary) and teases him (about as much as he expected). But she also goes into great, unembarrassed detail. And he knows the Grisha spy will never breathe it to another soul. For Kaz's part, it's easy enough to sit stone-faced and unreacting to things he wants to react to very much, for that's his life. Also, it seems to amuse Nina. He supposes he owes her that small payment for her help, since she refused all the kruge.

It doesn't take him long to steal the bits of knowledge he needs, between peepholes and Nina. Kaz is not a slow learner.

He's not as worried these days, about what he might do. His skin has grown used to Inej, his hands even more so. When a memory takes hold of his mind now, it's the work of an instant to wait for it to relax its grip. The stakes are lower now, because with her, he won't be attacked if his weakness is glimpsed.

Now, all he need do is wait for her to be ready, so he might show her what he's learned.