"It is," she says. "And if there's any locks on this boat... You could start me on it sooner rather than later, you know."

"I'll take a look."

"Thanks."

"Is that something you wanted now?"

"If you're up for it."

She pushes herself off the railing. "I'll go check the hold."

"Can I help look?"

"If you like."

To that, then.

Kaz finds an old padlock and a set of shackles.

The shackles are kinda interesting in another way.

So, lock picking! Inej has extremely minimal experience with this, honestly.

First thing to learn is the tools. This is Kaz's set, there's the wrenches, picks, hooks, and rakes. Each has a purpose, depending on what type of lock you're working on.

She listens attentively, and tries to guess at the purpose of a few.

The basic principles aren't too tricky to grasp.

Good - Inej will get the basics pretty quickly, then.

Then it's time to move on to actually getting the picks into the locks. Kaz works through one to demonstrate, then relocks it and passes it over for Inej to try.

It takes her a few tries and some corrections and advice and a lot of time to get it.

"This is harder than it looks," she says, sighing heavily.

"If it were easy, everyone would do it."

"And smiths would just invent better locks."

"Some say this has already happened."

"I'd be surprised if it hadn't."

"Oh, it has. No doubt about that."

"And then the Barrel invents better thieves."

"A wonderfully symbiotic relationship."

"Especially as we pull ahead of the crowd."