She's taken from her cell only a few days into her captivity. She's marched - dragged - to an old stage (this place must be a decommissioned theater, there's only so many - ), the props set up for The Madman and the Doctor, a short play in the Komedie Brute - 

Except for one table, which isn't decorated with props at all, the comically large mallets and ludicrous dull saws replaced by real tools - for surgery, for the dismemberment of bodies. 

They had to unbind her feet, shift her arms, to move her. She shows them how much of a mistake that was, dropping into a wide sweep that takes out both her guards - tumbling past the surgical table, palming scapels and cutting her ropes - 

The gutted theater is full of guards, shouting, trying to grab her - she goes up, grabs a cord dangling from the heights - 

She's halfway up when the line is cut from above. She absorbs the fall, turns it into a roll - 

But she doesn't escape fast enough to avoid getting grabbed, being pinned, dragged to the table and tied - 

“Really, Miss Ghafa,” Van Eck chides, stepping in from the rear of the theatsr. “We’re well aware of your gifts. Did you think I wouldn’t take precautions?” He does not wait for an answer, instead walking foolishly close to the stage. “You are not going to find your way out of this without my help or Miss Brekker’s. As she does not seem to be making an appearance, perhaps you should consider a change in alliance.”

Inej says nothing, and Van Eck climbs the short set of stairs, coming to a rest at what he probably thinks is a safe distance. He tucks his hands behind his back. “The city is awash in rumors of parem. Today a Fjerdan delegation has arrived in the embassy sector. I originally gave Brekker seven days to broker a trade for your safety, but they are all looking for Bo Yul-Bayur, and it is imperative that I get him out of the city before they find him. I have informed her that I am moving the timeline up, but, well. I still do not have Bo Yul-Bayur."

'He's out of time,' she thinks, 'And he doesn't even know what game he's playing.'

"I will give you one last opportunity to come to an arrangement peacefully, Miss Ghafa," that smug asshole says. “You are the Wraith, Miss Ghafa, legend of the Barrel. You’ve gathered the secrets of judges, councilmen, thieves, and killers alike. I doubt there is anything in this city you do not know. So: you will tell me the locations of Miss Brekker’s safe houses. Now.”

She bares her teeth at him in a parody of a smile. "Kaz has secrets even from me. She isn't stupid enough to use a safehouse I'm aware of."

Van Eck just sighs. “Remember that I have tried to treat you with civility. Perhaps you will instead do for a reminder to Brekker that I do not tolerate games like this, and her deadline is coming up." He steps forward and touches Inej's right ankle. Her skin jumps as she reflexively tries - and fails - to jerk away. His fingers are like ice on her bare skin. "This foot," he says, and a sharp-nosed man - too wiry to be a guard, perhaps a medik - takes up a heavy saw. He doesn't even look at her face as he examines her ankle - 

My feet -

There are plenty of body parts Inej cares not one whit for, and plenty she'd readily trade for freedom, for Kaz.  There are several she can learn to do without. 

(Her mind feels involuntarily with the sense-memory of her soles melting off her shoes; Nina, Feilan, and Jesper laboring to ensure she'd walk as easily as ever.)

My feet - 

She could learn to compensate without one of her hands. But what use is spider with only one leg - ?

The medik places the saw against her ankle, begins to press - 

"She'll never trade if you break me!"

It rips its way out of her throat, from somewhere deep, from where she keeps her hungriest, angriest secrets. 

"I'll be no use to her anymore," she adds numbly into the silence. The medik pauses. (That part isn't true. But the first - )

She can tell Van Eck believes her, by how he shifts and tilts his head. "You make an interesting argument," he says. 

- And she knows he only believed it because he felt the truth in her exclamation, and his mind elided over the awkward explanations. 

(The truth is that if Van Eck sends her Inej's foot in a box - the right, a perfect match to the right leg Kaz broke so long ago - Kaz will set fire to everything Van Eck has ever touched, and Inej doesn't know if she'll hold off long enough to rescue Inej first. (She doesn't want to know.))

"But there are less important parts," he says. "And I intend to get every scrap of information that can be wrung from your body." He seems to savor her fear before saying, "I have some time. I'll give you until dawn to think this through. Perhaps then... You'll be more willing to talk. 

She's taken back to her cell, bound - aware she needs to escape now, but she still doesn't have a way -

Some indeterminate amount of time later, there's a soft click and the door swings open. "Inej!" a familiar voice says, as steps cross the room and gloved hands start undoing her bindings.

"Kaz!" 

She gets the blindfold off as soon as she can move her hands, looking at the two women who accompanied her - she recognizes Val (??? it's only been a few days, right?) but not the other. 

"I'm not seeing any limiting injuries," the stranger says. "Minor bruising, but the bigger issue will be dehydration and low blood sugar - I can ease your symptoms, make it easier to get out of here, but you will need to follow medical advice once we're safe, even if you feel fine." 

She doesn't like that, but - 

"Fine."

She helps Kaz get the last of the bindings off. 

The woman touches her head briefly for focus - and her headache, her weakness, her shakiness, even her dry mouth all evaporate. 

"Van Eck isn't here now, we don't think. Still going to burn the place down on our way out." She holds out a pack of matches for Inej.

She takes them. "So long as Van Eck's people burn with it." 

"They will."

"Then let's do this."

Kaz has a route planned out. With some space for deviation if Inej needs.

- The auditorium. She wants to see the stage go up in flames. And it'll be a good place to get a bigger fire going, anyways.

Done.

(She refuses to flinch, to look away.)

(She takes down the guards before even Tamar can, and once they've dispensed with stealth - she doesn't kill them, or even knock them out. She leaves them able to only crawl away as they burn.)

And once the fight begins for real -

Feilan meets them at the once grand doors into the theater. Even as the panicked staff try to shoot at them while escaping - she doesn't have her powers, but she's vicious all the same, and she knows just fine how to use a gun. 

Jesper is in his element.

As is Tamar - she positions herself to protect Kaz and Inej, as little as they might need it. 

Val's no slouch, either.

And then - a guard aims for Inej, who might not get out of the way in time -

Feilan snarls, and a body rises between him and his target, takes the bullet - then lunges, pulls the screaming guard to the ground - 

Rage crashes through her, followed closely by exhilaration - by life - she's been sick and hollowed out ever since the parem, her power not just gone but actively betraying her, sickening her - she's never felt so alive -

Bodies rise everywhere she looks. 

"Helvar!" Kaz shouts. "What the fuck are you doing?"