For a moment, I forgot what I was looking at.
The words hovered in front of me, pale but steady.
ACCOUNT LINKAGE DETECTED: KAEL YOREN
I expected something to happen. Pain. Lightning. Hands pulling me into the air the way the clan head had been taken.
Nothing did.
The courtyard was still chaos around me—elders shouting, smoke pouring from the broken side of the hall, people stumbling over debris trying to gather children and possessions that no longer mattered. None of them reacted to the lines hanging in my vision.
Elyra was still gripping my hand. Too tightly. I could feel her pulse through my fingers, quick and sharp.
"Kael." Her voice cut into my thoughts. "You look like you're going to fall over."
"I'm not," I said automatically.
The denial came too fast. She narrowed her eyes at me, but before she could press, another tremor ran through the courtyard. A chunk of tile slid down the main hall steps and shattered below. The elders clustered there tightened their formation instinctively.
I forced myself to breathe and focused on the floating words again.
CANDIDATE REVIEW: PENDING
AUTHORIZATION LEVEL: NONE
Authorization for what?
I didn't know how to interact with it. I didn't even know if I could. The message didn't respond to my stare, didn't expand when I tried to focus on certain words harder than others.
Then another line appeared.
MANUAL INTERVENTION REQUIRED
The phrase didn't feel like a threat. It felt procedural. Like something waiting on input.
Outside the courtyard walls, the sky groaned again. Lightning gathered above the main hall, but this time it didn't descend immediately. It hovered there, building, as if reconsidering its aim.
Elyra stepped in front of me so I had to look at her. "You keep staring at something that isn't there."
"It is there," I said before I could stop myself.
Her expression tightened. "What is?"
I hesitated. If I tried to explain it out loud, it would sound ridiculous. The middle of a clan collapse was not the time to insist that invisible writing had appeared in front of my face.
More text slid into view.
PRIMARY ACCOUNT: CLAN OF YOREN
DEFICIT REMAINS
My throat went dry.
Deficit.
That fit too well.
The barrier was gone. The anchor core had been seized. The clan head was taken.
If this was about balance, like Elder Sovan had said—if Heaven was collecting—
Then it wasn't finished.
Another line followed, and this time it felt heavier.
SECONDARY COLLATERAL OPTIONS AVAILABLE
I stared at that word.
Options.
Up until now everything had been statements. Notice. Default. Collection.
Options meant choice.
A wind swept across the courtyard, strong enough to scatter ash from the broken roof beams. The forming bolt above shifted slightly, its light concentrating toward the elders near the hall steps.
My father stood among them.
He wasn't looking at the sky anymore. He was scanning faces, counting, measuring positions, deciding who would move where if the strike fell.
I felt something cold move under my ribs.
The text adjusted again.
INTERVENTION WINDOW: OPEN
REQUIRED: SUBSTITUTE COLLATERAL
The bolt brightened.
Elyra followed my gaze upward. "That one's coming down," she said quietly.
She wasn't wrong. It wasn't wandering. It was focusing.
Another line appeared beneath the others.
ELIGIBLE ASSET: LIFESPAN
PROJECTED TRANSFER REQUIREMENT: 5.0 YEARS (MINIMUM)
For a second, I didn't understand what I was reading. Then I did.
My lifespan.
Five years.
The number looked small written that way. Clean. Manageable. Not fatal. Not dramatic. Just a subtraction.
Seventeen years old.
Five gone.
I tried to imagine what that meant and couldn't quite grasp it. I knew what death was. I had seen funerals. I had memorized the names on the ancestral tablets.
Five years wasn't death.
It was just less.
Less time later.
Less room for mistakes.
Less margin.
Another tremor shook the courtyard, and the bolt overhead sharpened to a narrow point. My father shifted his stance slightly, as though preparing to launch into a defensive array that he had to know wouldn't hold.
Elyra's fingers dug into my sleeve. "Kael, you're not even blinking."
"I know," I said.
My voice sounded distant to my own ears.
The message did not change.
It did not urge.
It did not explain consequences beyond the number.
It simply waited.
The word REQUIRED didn't blink, but it seemed permanent in a way the smoke and lightning weren't.
Five years.
If this was real—and I had no proof that it was—
Then not choosing was also a choice.
The bolt above shifted another fraction toward the hall steps.
I did not announce anything.
I did not promise the sky I would pay.
I focused on the line and thought, as clearly as I could:
Take it.
There was no flash of light.
No sound.
For half a heartbeat, nothing happened at all. I felt foolish.
Then something tightened behind my sternum, sharp but brief, like a thread pulled too quickly. My breath hitched. The sensation faded almost immediately, leaving only a strange hollowness in its wake.
The text updated.
TRANSFER CONFIRMED
COLLATERAL RECEIVED
OUTSTANDING BALANCE: REDUCED
Above us, the descending bolt faltered.
It didn't strike.
The light thinned and dispersed across the clouds, dissolving before it reached the courtyard.
A murmur rippled through the elders. Elder Maresh stared upward in disbelief. Even Elder Sovan looked momentarily uncertain.
My knees felt weak. Not collapsing—just unsteady.
Elyra grabbed my arm. "Kael?"
"I'm fine," I said again, though my voice wasn't steady this time.
She didn't believe me. I could see that.
My father lowered his raised hand slowly. His gaze moved across the sky, assessing, as though he expected another strike immediately.
The clouds still churned.
The pressure in the air hadn't vanished entirely.
And then the text shifted once more.
DEFICIT PARTIALLY SATISFIED
SECONDARY COLLATERAL REVIEW INITIATED
I felt the blood drain from my face.
Partially.
It had accepted five years.
It wasn't enough.
My eyes scanned the courtyard without meaning to—elders, masters, senior disciples. Assets.
The word made my stomach turn.
Another line burned into clarity.
CANDIDATE IDENTIFIED
ACCOUNT LINKAGE CONFIRMED: KAEL YOREN
The air didn't change.
No one else reacted.
But something had shifted, subtle and irreversible.
The strike had stopped.
The clan still stood.
And somewhere beyond the smoke and broken stone, whatever was calculating had just marked my name.