Kaz races through the Ice Court’s upper prison cells without his cane, gloves, or usual clothes, feeling stripped of his constructed identity. Although the crew’s mission is to find Bo Yul-Bayur and time is nearly gone, Kaz searches the cells for Pekka Rollins, driven by the belief that Pekka’s death belongs to him.

The chapter shifts into Kaz’s past after he escaped the Reaper’s Barge. Firepox, Jordie’s death, and the horror of handling corpses destroyed Kaz’s old gentleness. Barefoot and starving, Kaz survived by robbing a schoolboy, stealing food, and using violence to take another boy’s job at a gambling den, beginning the ruthless life that earned him the name Dirtyhands.

Kaz gradually learned the Barrel’s trades: picking pockets, cheating at cards, sleight of hand, and taking dangerous jobs. He abandoned the family name Rietveld and chose Brekker so Jakob Hertzoon, the man who had conned him and Jordie, would not see him coming. Kaz discovered that Hertzoon’s scheme had involved many accomplices and that Kaz’s own gift for cards might once have saved him and Jordie.

Kaz eventually saw the man he knew as Jakob Hertzoon entering a gin shop and learned from a doorman that the man was actually Pekka Rollins. Pekka did not recognize Kaz, which deepened Kaz’s fury. Realizing that he could not destroy a Barrel boss alone, Kaz joined Per Haskell’s Dregs with the intention of turning the gang into his army.

Back in the Ice Court, Kaz finds Pekka Rollins imprisoned, beaten, and apparently asleep. The Elderclock warns Kaz that he should leave for the mission’s next stage, but Kaz decides that money and Pekka’s execution by others would not satisfy Jordie’s need for revenge. Kaz picks the lock, enters Pekka’s cell, and discovers Pekka has been awake; Pekka greets him by name, and Kaz shuts the door behind him.