Seraphine's voice did not belong in stone.
It belonged in temples, in choir vaults, in places where sound was trained to kneel.
Here, inside the Null Chapel's throat, it came through the sealed arch like a blade pushed under a door.
"By sanctified right," she said, close enough now that Astra could feel the words vibrate in her teeth, "I revoke your false clause."
The chapel shuddered.
Not fear—offense.
The Null Zone pressed back like stubborn muscle. The air thickened, swallowing the edges of her words, but it didn't silence them. It fought the way Underchain fought: quietly, relentlessly, without permission.
Astra's collar warmed and tightened in the same breath, caught between a holy hand and a hidden one. The new weight inside her system—the Null Anchor—pulled at her nerves like a second chain laid over the first.
Kael's fingers were on her wrist. Not gentle. Steady.
"Move," he said low.
Orin was already leading them into the chapel's back passage, a seam in stone that opened like a mouth. Juno slipped in first, wire disks glinting between her fingers like coins that could buy blood.
Behind them, the sealed threshold flared again.
The black bowl on the dais hummed.
Astra's interface flickered—dim, then sharp, like the Null Zone was forced to admit something was changing.
STATUSTRACE: 32.3%NULL ANCHOR: ACTIVEANCHOR: KAEL RAITHE (COLLATERAL)LUMEN PRESSURE: INCREASINGHOUSE VEYRN OVERRIDE: SEARCHING
Searching.
Dorian didn't need to be here to reach into her throat. He'd built the collar to remember him.
Astra's stomach twisted. She forced her breath steady and followed Orin into the seam.
The stone closed behind them with a soft, final click.
The passage was narrow enough that shoulders brushed. Damp air slid over her skin. The Null Zone's quiet faded behind them, replaced by the Underchain's low hum—lamps, distant voices, water moving through veins of old stone.
Seraphine's doctrine didn't follow cleanly into the seam, but her pressure did—like a bright finger tracing cracks, trying to find the weak point.
Orin hissed, "Fast."
They moved.
The corridor sloped downward, then broke into a tight spiral stair carved into rock. Juno went first, light-footed. Orin followed, one hand on the wall, the other already reaching for a sigil-slate in his coat.
Kael stayed half a step behind Astra, guiding her by the wrist. His grip was a steady line through her nerves. The Null Anchor in her collar pulsed in time with it, learning his rhythm like a new language.
Astra hated how quickly it felt… right.
She didn't have time to hate it properly.
The chapel trembled again.
Stone dust drifted from above, faint and glittering in the lamp glow.
"Breach," Juno snapped from below. "They're cracking the arch."
Orin's jaw tightened. "Of course they are."
Astra swallowed. "Can the Null Zone hold?"
Orin didn't look back. "Hold is not its job. Confuse is."
Kael's voice was low at her ear. "And it did."
Astra's mouth went dry. "For how long."
Kael didn't answer.
That was his answer.
They reached the bottom of the spiral and spilled into a wider tunnel that smelled of smoke and metal. Iron struts reinforced the ceiling. Scar-sigils lined the walls like warnings scratched by people who didn't expect to be believed.
Orin stopped at a junction and pressed his palm to a scar-mark.
The air shifted.
Not quiet like the Null Zone—dense like a damp cloth thrown over a flame. Astra felt the collar's pull weaken another fraction. RETURN didn't disappear, but it dulled, its teeth less sharp.
Her interface flickered.
RECALL PATH: DEGRADED (GOOD)LUMEN PRESSURE: PARTIAL (WORSE)
Astra's pulse kicked. "They can still reach."
Orin's smile was thin. "The Church reaches everywhere it can justify."
Juno was already setting disks along the tunnel floor—small, crude sigil-tech that hummed faintly when her fingers released it. She moved like a girl playing with toys, and Astra knew better.
Kael's hand tightened on Astra's wrist. "Don't look at the floor."
Astra's eyes narrowed. "Why."
Kael's gaze flicked to her mouth, then back to the tunnel. "Juno's traps use attention as a hook. You stare, you remember. You remember, you leave traces."
Astra swallowed. "Everything leaves traces."
Kael's voice went rough. "Then leave fewer."
Heat curled low in Astra's stomach at the harshness of his tone. She hated herself for it. She loved the way he spoke to her like survival was a shared discipline.
They pushed deeper.
The tunnel narrowed into a cloth-hung corridor—Underchain living space bleeding into Underchain infrastructure. Astra caught glimpses through seams: a woman cooking over a low flame, a man sharpening a blade with bored patience, children's laughter that sounded too bright for stone.
Eyes followed Astra.
Her collar.
Kael's crest.
Astra kept her face calm, her posture upright, like she belonged anywhere she stood.
Orin led them into a low door reinforced with iron bands. Inside was a small room—bare stone, one lantern, a table marked with ink diagrams and burned edges. It looked like a place where decisions were made quickly.
Orin shut the door and pressed a scar-sigil on the frame.
The air thickened again.
Astra's interface dimmed, then steadied.
SIGNAL: LOWRECALL PATH: WEAK (MASKED)NULL ANCHOR: STABLETRACE: 33.0%
Kael released a slow breath.
Astra didn't realize she'd been holding hers until it left her in a shaky exhale.
Juno leaned against the wall, eyes on Astra. "So," she said, voice light, "you just put a Hound in your collar."
Astra's throat tightened. "I didn't put him anywhere. The chapel did."
Juno's grin sharpened. "Same difference."
Orin's gaze flicked between Astra and Kael like he was measuring the new geometry of their problem. "The clause bought you a fog mask," he said. "Not invisibility."
Astra swallowed. "Seraphine said she could revoke it."
Orin shrugged. "She can try. Lumen can't write into Null cleanly. But she can pressure it until something snaps."
Kael's voice went flat. "What snaps."
Orin smiled without warmth. "Your nervous system. Or his leash."
Kael's jaw flexed. His wrist crest glimmered faintly, like it resented being discussed as collateral.
Astra looked at it—then forced her gaze away.
Kael had warned her. Attention was a hook. She didn't need to help the system see him more clearly.
Orin stepped closer to the table and unrolled a fresh cloth map. "We need to move you again before the Church maps this pocket."
Astra's stomach dropped. "Again?"
Orin's smile was sharp. "Welcome to Underchain. The only permanent thing is motion."
Astra's collar pulsed weakly, as if it approved.
Kael's hand found Astra's wrist again, instinctive. "How far."
Orin tapped a node. "A deeper null pocket. Not a chapel—an old conduit where Dominion and Lumen both fail to handshake. But to reach it…"
He glanced at Astra's throat. "You need to stop broadcasting panic into your own system."
Astra laughed once, broken. "You want me calm."
Orin's eyes gleamed. "I want you functional."
Kael's voice cut low. "She's functional."
Orin's smile widened a fraction. "For now."
Juno straightened. "We have a bigger problem."
Orin's eyes flicked to her. "Speak."
Juno held up one of her wire disks. It hummed faintly, then spat a thin line of pale light—an ugly, jittering readout.
"Lumen mark attempts," she said. "They're throwing tags into the underways like nets. If one sticks to her signature—mask or not—they'll follow."
Astra's throat went ice. "A tag."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Can you jam it."
Juno shrugged. "I can jam signals. I can't jam faith."
Orin exhaled slowly. "Then we need a personal countermeasure."
Astra's pulse hammered. "Meaning."
Orin's gaze slid to her eyes, to the place he suspected her interface lived. "Meaning you use what you see."
Astra's mouth went dry. "I can't write."
Orin's smile turned thin. "Not out there."
Astra's stomach tightened at the implication.
Kael's voice was low and hard. "What are you suggesting."
Orin didn't blink. "That she edits herself."
Astra froze.
Kael's eyes flashed. "She doesn't have that permission."
Orin's smile didn't move. "Permissions change when systems panic."
Astra's collar pulsed faintly, offended.
Astra's interface flickered, like it had heard the conversation and wanted to show off.
Then the room's lantern flame bent sideways.
Not wind.
Pressure.
A soft, bright scrape against the walls—like a fingernail made of light dragging across stone.
Seraphine's hunt.
She was closer than the tunnels had admitted.
Astra's collar tightened. The Null Anchor pulsed hard, consulting Kael's presence like a stabilizer.
Kael stepped closer to Astra automatically, body angling to shield. His hand hovered near her throat, then stopped—waiting, even now.
Astra met his gaze.
Her breath shook.
She nodded once.
Kael touched her collar lightly.
Warmth spread through Astra's nerves. Her legs steadied. The pull of RETURN dulled further, masked by the clause.
Astra exhaled—and the sound was too intimate, too honest, for a room full of Underchain eyes.
Juno raised an eyebrow. Orin smiled like a man watching leverage form.
Kael's voice went low, only for Astra. "Don't let them use this."
Astra swallowed. "Then don't let me."
Kael's jaw flexed. "I'm not your owner."
Astra's mouth curved, sharp. "No. You're my collateral."
Kael went still.
Heat flashed in Astra's chest at the reaction—dangerous, immediate.
She didn't mean it as cruelty.
She meant it as truth.
Orin cleared his throat. "Enough."
Astra tore her gaze away from Kael and forced her mind back into strategy.
"Show me the tag," she said.
Juno frowned. "Show you how."
Astra tapped her temple once, not touching the collar. "In my vision. It'll look like a hook."
Orin's eyes gleamed. "There she is."
Astra hated being admired by predators. She used it anyway.
Juno held the wire disk out, and Orin pressed a finger to a scar-sigil on the wall. The air thickened and then thinned, like the room adjusted its own shielding. The lantern flame steadied.
Astra's interface sharpened—cleaner, brighter.
MODULE ACCESS: STATUS / RULESET / CLAUSES / TRACENOTE: NULL ANCHOR STABILIZING INPUTLUMEN TAG ATTEMPT: IMMINENT