Seraphine Lume stepped into the lane like the night had been waiting for her permission to breathe.
Her hymn wasn't loud. It didn't need volume. It threaded through the old market air and made every lantern flame bow, warm light bending toward her like worship. Behind her, pale geometry unfurled—Lumen ward lines that didn't look like chains until you realized they left no gaps for choice.
Inside the tilted Guild cart, Astra felt it in her collar first.
A tight, eager pulse.
Then in the witness seal on her throat.
A sharp, possessive hum.
Two systems recognizing a third authority—and arguing over who got to interpret it.
Silex's fingers were still at Astra's throat seal from his last touch, cold metal under cold intent. Kael's arm was around Astra's ribs, holding her upright, a shield made of breath and restraint. His voice had been in her ear a heartbeat ago—I will not let them take you—and the words still burned, hot and brutal, like a promise he'd have to bleed to keep.
Outside, Meros Hal's polite voice had just started a statute sentence.
Then Seraphine spoke, smiling.
"Good evening," she called gently. "I heard there was a soul in distress."
The lane went quiet in the way prey goes quiet when a bigger predator arrives.
Silex turned his head toward her, irritation sharpening his clean face. Meros's posture tightened, a clerk realizing the room had gained a priest.
Orin froze mid-motion by the foundation stone, palm still pressed to the scars, eyes hard.
Juno's wire disks hummed under the lane like angry insects refusing to die.
Lyra stood off to the side near the shuttered spice stall—hood down, throat bared, too calm. Her eyes glittered, watching Seraphine the way she watched everyone: as a ledger with a pulse.
Astra's interface flashed a line that made her blood run cold and then strangely steady.
CLAIM CONFLICT: TRIANGULATED — RESOLUTION REQUIRED.GUILD: EMERGENCY STATUTELUMEN: SANCTIFIED CUSTODYHOUSE VEYRN: OWNER CHANNEL ACTIVE (BACKGROUND)
Dorian's silk laughter brushed the edge of Astra's nerves, warm and hateful.
"My party keeps growing," he murmured.
Astra swallowed, throat burning around metal.
Seraphine's gaze found the cart opening—and found Astra. Her smile sharpened slightly as she took in the witness seal, the collar beneath it, Kael's arm around Astra like a vow he refused to name.
"Ah," Seraphine breathed. "There you are."
Silex straightened, stepping forward as if his body could enforce a boundary against sanctity. "Sister-Matriarch. This is a Guild audit action."
Seraphine's eyes didn't leave Astra. "And this," she said softly, "is a Dominion collar anomaly with a soul-signature mismatch and a collateral tethered through it."
Meros's polite composure returned with effort. "Your holiness. The Guild has priority when trace reaches hazardous thresholds."
Seraphine tilted her head, amused. "Priority is a convenient word for men who like taking without touching."
Silex's jaw tightened. "We have legal authority."
Seraphine smiled. "So does a plague."
The air shifted. Lumen geometry brightened, warm as candlelight, and the Guild grid lines in the lane hesitated like they'd tasted something they didn't want to swallow.
Astra felt the witness seal vibrate with interest.
The seal wanted "safe signal."
Sanctity looked like safety to systems that feared chaos.
Astra's internal stabilizer vow clenched like a fist: prioritize Astra's chosen ruleset until safe.
Safe wasn't real.
But Seraphine could make it look real, and that was dangerous.
Meros stepped closer, voice still polite. "We are stabilizing the subject to prevent catastrophic trace events."
Seraphine's smile warmed—wrongly kind. "Stabilizing," she echoed, like tasting the lie. "You mean acquiring."
Meros didn't deny it. His eyes flicked to the witness seal, then to Astra's collar as if he could see the profit margins.
Seraphine's gaze slid to Silex. "And you," she murmured. "You mean containing."
Silex's mouth flattened. "Containment is mercy."
Seraphine laughed softly. "Mercy that leaves a receipt."
Astra's throat burned. She could feel the systems around her—Guild, Lumen, collar—pressing into each other like blades in a drawer. If any one of them snapped, she would bleed.
Kael's arm tightened around Astra's ribs, just enough to steady her. His breath hit her hair. He didn't touch her collar. He didn't reach for the seal.
He held her upright with body and voice alone.
"Astra," he said low, rough, only for her, "don't let her near your throat."
Astra swallowed. "I know."
Silex took a step into the cart opening again, trying to reclaim dominance in the small, clean space. "Subject Astra Vey is under Guild emergency statute. You will step away."
Seraphine's smile didn't move. "No."
The word was soft.
It hit like a hammer.
Silex's containment geometry in the lane tightened reflexively, lines sharpening, ready to cage. Lumen warmth rose in response, threading into the lattice like gold poured through cracks.
For a heartbeat, the two systems clashed—clean grid against warm hymn.
The lane flickered.
Astra felt it as a sudden loosen in the pressure around her ankles.
Not freedom.
A seam.
Orin saw it too.
His eyes snapped to Astra. He lifted two fingers—sharp, point—toward the foundation stone under the cart's wounded wheel.
Now, if you can.
Astra's mouth went dry.
She had no Ghost Command stored for movement right now. She'd burned her hinges. Her trace was already screaming. Another write could trigger audit lock into something irreversible.
But she didn't need a big write.
She needed a small lie.
A lie shaped like compliance.
Astra focused on the witness seal on her throat. It hummed, eager, recognizing sanctity as a "safe signal."
A prompt flickered in her vision, clean and Guild-styled:
SAFE SIGNAL DETECTED: LUMEN AUTHORITYOFFER: TRANSFER TO SANCTIFIED EVALUATION NODE (OPTIONAL)
Optional.
A trap with a velvet label.
Astra swallowed blood.
If she accepted, the seal would reroute her into Seraphine's custody and call it safety. Kael would be collateral again. Seraphine's sunburst residue on Kael's crest would become leverage.
If she refused, the Guild would force it. And now the Church was here, ready to claim.
Astra couldn't outrun both.
So she did what she always did:
She made them fight each other while she moved.
Astra lifted her chin and spoke to Seraphine—loud enough for the lane to hear, calm enough to sound like a subject offering herself.
"Sister-Matriarch," Astra called, "I consent to sanctuary—if you state your claim terms in the open."
Kael stiffened. "Astra—"
Astra didn't look at him. Not yet. She couldn't let his fear make her hesitate.
Seraphine's eyes brightened with interest. "In the open," she echoed.
Meros's polite smile thinned. He heard the danger: claims spoken out loud became testable.
Silex's gaze sharpened, annoyed. "The subject cannot consent under hostile status."
Astra's mouth curved faintly. "Then stop trying to make my choices for me."
Seraphine's smile widened, pleased. "Very well," she said, voice carrying like a sermon. "My claim is sanctified custody for the protection of the soul and containment of heresy."
Astra's interface flashed.
LUMEN CLAIM: TERMS RECORDED