Kael woke to clean light.
Not lantern light. Not Underchain gloom. Not the warm, perfumed dim of House Veyrn.
This was Guild light—white and patient, designed to make a body feel like a specimen even before anyone touched it.
He lay on a metal bench inside a moving box. The floor vibrated with wheels over stone. The air smelled of ink-stung oil and sterilized iron. A thin lattice of pale lines hovered an inch above his skin—containment geometry that didn't bruise, didn't bite, didn't rage.
It simply decided where he was allowed to exist.
His wrist crest sat cold under its casing. The edge where Seraphine's sunburst residue had clung was muted now, like someone had smeared ash over a burn. The pain wasn't gone—just managed, partitioned into something that felt like a polite ache.
A voice spoke from somewhere near his head, calm as a clerk.
"Collateral is awake."
Kael didn't lift his head. He tested his body first—shoulders, elbows, hands. There were no chains. No straps.
That was the Guild's cruelty.
They didn't need iron.
They had permissions.
A second voice answered, flatter. "Keep him that way. He's useful conscious."
Silex.
Kael's jaw locked. He forced his breathing slow. Control wasn't a feeling. It was a practice.
Footsteps. Soft. Measured.
Meros Hal stepped into his view, grey robe crisp, hair neat. He held a slate in one hand like it was a holy text.
Kael's lip curled. "You call this non-invasive."
Meros smiled politely. "You are not the subject."
Kael's eyes tracked the slate. "Then why am I here."
Meros's gaze didn't flicker. "Because you are inside the subject's collar clause. And because your crest variant is… instructive."
Kael felt it then—the thin pull behind his eyes. Not Dorian's silk, not Seraphine's sanctity.
A third sensation. A measuring. Like fingertips turning pages in his nerves.
Kael's breath stayed even. "Stop reading me."
Meros's smile warmed, like he'd been asked something charming. "No."
Silex moved into view behind him—black leather, hard eyes. A Warden-Crafter built like an answer to resistance.
Silex said, "Collateral has threatened enforcement. Marked hostile."
Meros didn't look at Kael when he replied. "Yes. That will be discussed."
Kael's throat tightened. "Where is Astra."
Meros's eyes finally lifted, and there was a flicker of interest there—like he enjoyed hearing her name said with that edge.
"Subject Astra Vey is in flight," Meros said. "Her witness seal broadcast her status. She is now eligible for compulsory acquisition."
Kael's jaw clenched so hard his molars ached. "You did that on purpose."
Meros's tone remained mild. "You assume malice. I assume statute."
Kael pushed a slow breath through his nose. "You assume you survive speaking like that in front of me."
Silex's mouth didn't move. "He's a Hound. He needs a muzzle."
Meros lifted a hand gently, as if soothing an animal. "Not yet."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Why not yet."
Meros tapped the slate once. "Because the subject's collar contains an internal stabilizer vow. That is unprecedented. It suggests she can create governance without owner authorization. The Guild requires the mechanism."
Kael's blood went cold. "You want her mind."
Meros's smile softened. "We want her contained."
Kael swallowed fury. "And me."
Silex leaned in, voice flat. "You are the key that makes her collar behave."
Kael's throat tightened.
Astra's collar listened to his voice because Astra had forced it to.
Now the Guild wanted that same leverage.
Meros turned the slate slightly. Kael saw a line of clean text flash across it—too fast to read fully, but one phrase burned anyway:
COLLATERAL BRIDGE: ENABLE OWNER-COMPATIBLE COMMAND PATH
Kael's stomach knotted.
"You're building a leash through me," he said.
Meros didn't deny it. "A bridge is safer than chaos."
Kael's voice went low. "Safer for who."
Meros smiled politely. "For the Empire."
The box jolted slightly as the wheels hit uneven stone. Kael felt the motion of the outside world, and with it a brutal awareness of distance.
Astra was out there.
Running with a Guild seal on her throat.
Bleeding trace.
Being hunted by silk and sanctity and statute.
And he was here—contained, cataloged, useful.
Kael's jaw locked. "You won't get her."
Silex's gaze sharpened. "We already did."
Kael kept his face still. But inside, something vicious shifted into place.
A Hound didn't need chains to be dangerous.
A Hound needed a target.
—
Astra didn't have time to be afraid.
Fear was a luxury that required stillness, and stillness was exactly what the seal on her throat wanted.
Orin's tunnels spat them out into a half-collapsed stairwell behind the old market like a mouth rejecting food. Cold night air hit Astra's face. The city above smelled of wet stone, spiced smoke, and people pretending not to notice how often the Dominion bled in public.
Her throat burned around the Guild witness seal. Every breath scraped.
Her interface flickered with clean, hateful calm.
STATUS: pain high, fatigue risingTRACE: 76.1%GUILD WITNESS: activeAUDIT LOCK: partialEVALUATION ROUTE: VELLUM — 00:06:40
They'd already burned minutes moving.
Juno crouched at the top step, peering into the market's edge. "Patrols," she whispered. "Not Hounds. Guild."
Orin's face was grey with anger. "They're early."
Lyra stood one step behind Astra, too relaxed for someone who had just confessed she carried old Guild ink in her throat.
Astra didn't look at her. She didn't give her that satisfaction.
"Vellum is a relay," Orin muttered. "They'll run the audit cell close to it to keep their grid clean."
Astra swallowed. "And Kael is in transit."
Lyra's voice was soft. "Yes."
Astra finally turned her head, eyes cold. "You're the safe signal."
Lyra's smile sharpened. "I'm useful."
Astra stepped close—close enough that Lyra's perfume cut through the damp. Close enough that the space between them became a private room made of breath.
Heat rose, fierce and deliberate.
"Then be useful now," Astra murmured. "You're going to walk into their line and make them look at you."
Lyra's brows lifted, amused. "A decoy."
Astra's mouth curved. "A beacon."
Lyra's smile didn't fade, but her eyes tightened. "You're asking me to get caught."
Astra didn't blink. "I'm asking you to choose."
Lyra laughed softly. "Gods. You make everything sound like consent."
Astra leaned in a fraction more, voice low enough to feel like a secret pressed to Lyra's mouth. "Because it is."
Lyra's gaze flicked to Astra's lips, then to the seal at her throat. Hunger and caution tangled there.
"And my price?" Lyra whispered.
Astra's pulse kicked. Kael's absence ached like a bruise under the heat. She forced herself not to flinch from it.
"You want access to my seeing," Astra said. "You'll get it—after Kael is free."
Lyra's smile turned slow. "After. Always after."
Astra held her gaze. "Agree, or walk away."
Lyra watched her for a beat—predatory-soft, calculating.
Then she stepped closer until her breath warmed Astra's cheek.
"Fine," Lyra murmured. "But I want a promise now."
Astra's throat tightened. "Say it."
Lyra's fingers lifted—not to Astra's collar, but to Astra's jaw, hovering there like a question.
"Look at me," Lyra said softly. "Just once. Like you're not thinking about him."
Jealousy flared in Astra—not at Lyra, but at the world for forcing desire into the same room as survival.
Astra didn't back away.
She met Lyra's eyes.
"Is this what you want," Astra asked, voice steady, and the consent in it was a blade.
Lyra's smile trembled, just slightly. "Yes."
Astra leaned in and pressed a brief kiss to Lyra's mouth—quick, controlled, all heat and no surrender. Then she pulled back before the system could turn it into a handle, before Lyra could turn it into a claim.
Lyra's breath caught. Her eyes glittered.
Astra's voice stayed low. "Now you owe me."
Lyra's smile was sharp and dazed. "You're cruel."
Astra's mouth curved. "I'm busy."
Orin made a sound of disgust behind them. "Are we done?"
Juno muttered, "I can't believe this is happening in a stairwell."
Astra didn't look away from Lyra as she spoke. "Walk into the market. Let the Guild feel you. Make them think you're the route."
Lyra's smile steadied, turning dangerous again. "And you?"
Astra's eyes narrowed. "I'm taking my Hound back."
Kael's words echoed in her head like a command she'd chosen: I need you alive.
Astra turned away before Lyra could see what it did to her.
"Orin," Astra said, "where can we hit the convoy."
Orin pointed with two fingers. "Old market lane. They'll take the cleanest curve past the Vellum relay post—there."
Juno's eyes sharpened. "I can dirty their grid at that curve."
Orin nodded. "And I can open a seam under the cart if I'm close enough to the foundation stone."
Astra touched her throat seal lightly—just the edge of metal, not the collar beneath. It hummed, hungry.
PERMISSIONS: Write(Self) available (risk extreme)PATCHES: Delay Loop ready, Ghost Command installed (slot empty)