Boots and doctrine followed them like a scent.
Not the frantic chase of guards—measured steps, disciplined breathing, the kind of pursuit that didn't waste fear. Somewhere behind the stone, Lumen chanting threaded through tunnels like a slow blade being sharpened. Above it all, Astra felt the Marquis's pull—faint here, but tightening, reacquiring, patient.
Orin's hand stayed open at the Null Chapel archway.
"Last chance," he said again. "You step in, you owe."
Astra's collar pulsed in confusion. For the first time in hours, it didn't feel like a fist—it felt like a hand hovering, unsure where to land. The air around the archway was different. Quiet. Heavy. Like sound itself had to ask permission before entering.
Kael's hand tightened on Astra's wrist—steady pressure, not possession. His gaze held hers, fierce and controlled, offering her the only kind of choice the Dominion couldn't revoke.
He didn't tell her what to do.
He waited.
Astra inhaled once, slow.
Then she stepped over the threshold.
The world dropped.
Not physically—viscerally. Like the city's noise had been peeled off her skin in one clean motion. The damp tunnel smell faded. The pressure of RETURN loosened. Her throat stopped burning for a heartbeat, and that heartbeat felt obscene.
Her interface flickered, then steadied in the dim.
ENVIRONMENT: NULL ZONESIGNAL: NEAR ZERORECALL PATH: WEAKAUDIT: SEARCHING… (NO LOCK)
Astra's knees threatened to fold from the sudden absence of pain. She had lived under pressure so long the lack of it made her dizzy.
Kael stepped in after her—still holding her wrist. The moment his boots crossed the threshold, his posture changed slightly. Not softer. Just… less braced, as if the air here didn't accept Dominion commands cleanly.
Orin entered last, and Juno slipped in like a shadow, eyes on the tunnel behind them.
The archway sealed with a sound like stone swallowing breath.
Silence fell so hard it felt like a hand around Astra's throat—except it wasn't her collar. It was the chapel itself.
They stood in a chamber carved from old stone. No banners. No Lumen sunburst. No House Veyrn silk. Only scars of sigils etched into pillars and walls—older geometry, harsher lines. In the center sat a low dais with a shallow bowl of blackened metal, empty but expectant.
Astra's collar pulsed once, cautious.
Kael's wrist crest glimmered faintly, then dimmed, like it didn't like being ignored.
Orin exhaled. "Welcome to the Null Chapel."
Astra's voice came out rough. "It doesn't look holy."
Juno snorted. "Holy is a costume."
Orin approached the dais and rested two fingers on the black bowl. "This place doesn't worship. It records."
Astra's stomach tightened. "Records what."
Orin glanced back at her. "Debts."
Kael's voice was flat. "Get to the point."
Orin's smile didn't reach his eyes. "The point is you're loud out there." He nodded toward the sealed archway. "You came in with House Veyrn's thread on your throat and Lumen's doctrine sniffing your trail. The Null Chapel can confuse that—temporarily."
Astra swallowed. "And the cost."
Orin's eyes flicked to Kael's wrist crest. "Collateral."
Kael didn't move. "Me."
Orin nodded once. "You. And her." His gaze slid to Astra's collar. "Because the chapel doesn't accept one-sided bargains."
Astra's interface blinked with sterile calm.
CLAUSE OFFER DETECTEDREQUIREMENTS: WITNESS / COLLATERAL / CONSENTNOTE: SUBJECT CANNOT AUTHOR — EXTERNAL WRITE ONLY
Astra's throat went cold.
Not author.
External write only.
She wasn't "writing." She was being written on—by something else—if she consented.
Orin watched her face like he was reading a slate. "You see it, don't you."
Astra kept her expression calm. "I see enough."
Kael's hand tightened on her wrist. "Astra."
Her name was warning.
Astra didn't look away from Orin. "If I take this clause, it will sit on my collar."
Orin's smile sharpened. "Yes."
"And if I don't," Astra continued, voice steady, "the Marquis reacquires me. The Church tags me. The audit locks me."
Orin's smile softened into something almost sympathetic. Almost. "Yes."
Kael's jaw flexed. "What exactly does the clause do."
Orin tapped the edge of the black bowl. "It creates a null route. A mask over your recall thread. House Veyrn pulls, Lumen pushes—this clause makes both signals misread you." His eyes gleamed. "Like you're there, but not."
Astra's pulse kicked. "A ghost."
Orin's mouth curved. "Call it what you want. The chapel calls it Null Anchor."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Anchor."
Orin's gaze flicked to Kael's hand on Astra's wrist. "It needs one."
Juno leaned against a pillar, watching them like she was entertained and annoyed at the same time. "Nothing is free. Nothing is clean. Welcome to Underchain."
Astra's collar pulsed faintly—as if it disliked the word anchor, as if it knew it was about to be tied to something other than its owner.
Kael's hand loosened slightly, then tightened again—control returning.
"What's the price," Kael repeated.
Orin's voice went calm. "The anchor becomes claim-adjacent. Not owner. Not handler. A registered stabilizer inside the clause." His eyes flicked to Astra's throat. "When recall spikes, the clause consults the anchor first."
Astra's breath caught.
Kael's jaw clenched. "That puts my crest on her collar."
Orin's smile sharpened. "It puts your liability on her collar."
Juno laughed softly. "That's the part Dominion men hate. Liability."
Kael's gaze stayed on Orin, cold. "And your collateral."
Orin didn't blink. "If you break the clause, the chapel keeps the collateral."
Astra's stomach dropped. "Keeps it how."
Orin's smile turned thin. "Ask your interface."
Astra's vision flickered.
COLLATERAL TERM: LEASH-LINKBREACH CONSEQUENCE: FORFEIT ANCHOR CREST ACCESS (TEMP/UNKNOWN)WARNING: PAIN COST MAY TRANSFER
Transfer.
Pain.
Leash.
Astra's mouth went dry.
Kael saw her reaction. His gaze sharpened. "What did it say."
Astra hesitated, then chose the truth that mattered. "It can take you," she said quietly. "Not permanently maybe. But enough."
Kael's jaw flexed like he was biting down on something savage.
Orin spread his hands. "Underchain doesn't steal without terms. It just makes sure you pay."
Silence filled the chapel again, thick and hungry.
Astra felt the absence of RETURN like a drug. She didn't want to step back into the tunnels where her spine would become a puppet again. She didn't want to go back to Dorian's silk room. She didn't want Seraphine's sanctity.
She wanted a hinge that belonged to her.
Even if she couldn't write it.
Astra turned slightly, just enough to look at Kael. His face was tight with calculation, anger, restraint. His wrist crest glimmered faintly, like it knew it was being discussed like a price.
Heat curled low in Astra's body—dangerous, unwanted. The idea of him being tied to her collar was terrifying.
It was also… intimate in a way she didn't have words for yet.
Not romance.
War.
Astra swallowed.
"Kael," she murmured.
His gaze flicked to her mouth, then back to her eyes. "No."
Astra's mouth curved faintly. "I didn't say anything."
Kael's voice was rougher. "You're about to."
Astra stepped closer, slow and deliberate, and raised her hands—palms open, visible. Consent made obvious. Not for Orin. Not for the chapel.
For Kael.
"I'm asking," she whispered. "Not taking."
Kael went still.
Astra let her voice drop into that dangerous softness that made men underestimate how sharp she was. "If this clause masks recall… it buys time. Time is the only thing we can turn into leverage."
Kael's jaw clenched. "And the cost is my leash."
Astra nodded once. "And my throat."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Your throat is already owned."
Astra smiled without warmth. "Not in here."
Kael's gaze flicked to the silent stone around them. The Null Zone. The sudden quiet in her nerves. He felt it too—the collar's pull muted.
Astra leaned in half an inch, breath warming his jaw. "You said you wanted me alive."
Kael's throat worked. "Yes."
Astra's smile turned sharp. "Then let me buy it."
Kael's eyes flashed—rage at the idea, desire to refuse, fear of what refusal meant. He didn't like being used as collateral.
He liked even less watching her be dragged away.
Orin cleared his throat with theatrical impatience. "If you two are done mating around the decision—"
Kael's gaze snapped to him like a blade.
Orin lifted both hands. "Fine. I'll shut up. But the clerics outside won't."
As if summoned by the mention, a faint vibration passed through the stone—distant chanting pressing against the Null Zone's edge like fingers testing a lock. The chapel didn't let the sound in fully, but Astra felt the pressure.
Her interface flickered once.
EXTERNAL PRESSURE: LUMEN WARD PROBEHOUSE VEYRN OVERRIDE: SEARCHINGWINDOW: NARROWING