The thing that was Brendan crashes to the pier, laughing with an intensity such that even Dalen can't tell how much is due to his magic and how much is from the Shudder-induced madness.

"Heeheeheehee - you have, hah, no idea what's, hoho, coming, do you? Heeheehee . . . City shall burn, city shall rot, abandon what hope you have got!"

Brendan cackles in a sing-song tone, which seems to be the tipping point for Miz as she leaps onto the man and furiously hacks at him with her claws.
She picks up the pace with her strikes as the man continues laughing rather than howling in pain as his chest is shredded, black blood oozing from the wounds.
Finally in desperation, as Brendan's laughter begins to subside, she leans down and tears out his throat with her teeth.
(That last bite and the to-hit bonus from prone was literally the difference between Brendan hitting negatives and still being up right now . . . tough bastard!)

Miz had been holding back from employing her teeth as her alchemical knowledge gave her an awareness of the dangers of getting the blood of a man high on a Shiver-derivative into her mouth, but her desperation overcame her concern.
She spat out the man's tainted meat immediately as he breathed his last but she felt some of his blood ooze into the back of her mouth and down her throat, almost as if it moved with a mind of its own!?
Miz gagged and fell to her knees, looking about her surrounding wildly for a moment.

Spoiler: For Miz's Eyes Only
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For a moment after Brendan's blood finds its way down your throat you blink and see the world around you very differently.
Korvosa is burning - no, Korvosa is being consumed by flame, an inferno that stretches across the entire cityscape from the northernmost point on the island of Old Korvosa to the noble estates in South Shore.
Even from here along the river, you can hear the wailing chorus of screams from people as they and their loved ones fell victim to the flames, burning away to ash even though they should have died from asphyxiation long before then.

Since learning of the Great Fire that nearly consumed the city over two centuries ago before it was stopped by the heroism, leadership, and self-sacrifice of Saint Alika, one of the few Varisians respected and honored by even the Chelish citizens of Korvosa, you had wondered what it would be like.
To see a wall of fire washing across the city and burning away all the casual racism, the class-ism, that you had to put up with on a daily basis - perhaps on your darkest days you had even wished for something like this.
But no, this . . . this was a horror, a nightmare from which nothing would escape and no one would survive this time.
You were looking into Hell.

In the middle of this destruction a dark winged shape towers over the conflagration, impossibly huge, although you cannot make out the details beyond its size due to the haze of smoke plumes between you and the center, the cause, of this terror.
That is very good, for neither can it see you, you are sure, and yet the towering shape speaks.

I CAN SEE YOU, LITTLE RAT.

Only Gaedren *ever* called you his 'little rat", and although you are certain this was not some Shudder-infused Gaedren Lamm the use of that phrase made you feel even smaller than you already felt in the face of this. Insignificant. Powerless.

I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR. SO AFRAID. SO ALONE. BUT I CAN DELIVER YOU FROM THIS FATE. MAKE A PACT WITH ME AND I WILL GIVE YOU POWER BEYOND EVEN THIS. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU MUST DO.
COME TO ME. OR DIE WITH THESE OTHER RATS!

And then the vision abruptly ends, as you force your mouth open, bend out over the water, and . . .


And then, she does something that Miz has not done in many years, since an inexperienced street rat on her own ate a piece of trash that was too far gone to be edible.
She empties the contents of her stomach into the Jeggare River.
Included with the half-digested fragments of her last meal is a glob of thick black liquid which slowly breaks apart as it sinks into the darkness of the Jeggare River.
Miz retches again, washing her mouth out with a handful of dirty river water as nearby the water thrashes as the shark finally arrives and starts digesting its own meal of the thug that Brendan blasted almost into literal pieces.

While this drama is playing out, Silas cuts down the thug he was fighting, Dalen puts the last one to sleep, and Aliani goes back into the Fishery to collect the thugs, their weapons, and the children.
The question now was . . . what were you going to do now?

(7 of the 8 Brendan's Blackguards thugs are unconscious but alive, Hookshanks and Yargin are also savable if desired.
Giggles and Brendan are dead.
Gaedren's lair is basically stripped bare, although part of his treasure is likely in the boxes upstairs in the cart - you'll have to check those to determine what portions of his treasure you have also acquired.
Rheotric is off following Gaedren's boat at a safe distance as it continues to drift north down the river towards Old Korvosa.
There are 12 children present.
Staying here is unwise, as the whole Fishery is unstable after Brendan's little temper tantrum.
Plus, someone might burn it down given nobody actually likes Gaedren Lamm.)