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“A gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse. …
It was Jesper who spoke first. “No mourners,” he said with a grin. “No funerals,” they replied in unison.”
In this passage from Chapter 28, Inej assesses the six participants in the heist, poised to break into the lavish party at the Ice Court. Through these brief characterizations, Inej identifies each member of the gang as an outcast. Each has been excluded from the polite society they are about to infiltrate. They are criminals, orphans, and captives, abandoned or stolen away from their homes and families. Yet the gang has also become a sort of family to each other, as they are the only people in the world they can count on. Their motto—no mourners, no funerals—reflects the unity they derive from their status as outcasts. For the gang, the heist is not just an adventure or an opportunity to get rich, but a way for these outcasts to assert power over the society that has rejected them.
