The Underchain never warned you with sound.
It warned you with pressure—the moment air got cleaner in the wrong place, the moment law found a seam and started prying like it owned the stone.
Astra felt that pressure now, even with Orin's muffler humming and dead sand thick in the gutters. Her collar tightened in small hungry pulses, as if it could taste a higher authority approaching. The cloth wrap at her throat was damp where she'd dipped the witness seal; the metal edge still stung cold against skin, and the pain behind her eyes came in waves like debt collection.
In the center of her vision, the escrow timer ticked down in cold white.
HANDLER OVERSIGHT: ESCROW (WITNESS) — DELIVERY IN 00:09RECIPIENT: UNRESOLVED — REQUIRE WITNESS SPECIFICATION
Then another line slid in underneath, smooth as a blade finding ribs.
HOUSE VEYRN CLAIM DETECTED: REQUESTING EMERGENCY RECIPIENT OVERRIDE.
Her blood went ice.
Dorian didn't need a witness if he could force "emergency." Dorian didn't need privacy if he could name her distress as danger and call it protection.
Dorian's silk voice brushed her nerves, warm and delighted.
"Look at you," he murmured. "Trying to keep my toys out of my hands."
Astra swallowed hard and kept her face still. Panic was a scent. Predators loved it.
Kael stood close enough that his heat cut through the damp chill. One hand held her waist—asked for, steady—while his other hovered at her forearm like he didn't trust his muscles under recall pressure.
His voice was rough at her ear. "What."
Astra didn't look away from the interface. "Dorian is forcing an emergency recipient override."
Kael's jaw clenched so hard the muscle jumped. "He can't."
Orin barked a quiet laugh with no humor. "He's House Veyrn. He'll try anyway."
Juno's fingers tightened around a disk. The little wire coil clicked softly, like teeth. "How long."
Astra's vision flickered.
00:07…00:06…
Astra's throat burned. "Seconds."
Kael's grip tightened at her waist, grounding, not owning. "Tell me what you need."
Astra looked up at him.
His eyes were almost black in the dim. Furious, present, steady. He looked like a man walking on a wire with a chain around his ankle and still asking permission before touching the rope.
Heat flared low in Astra's belly—sharp, ugly, alive.
She used it.
"Consent," Astra said low, "to you holding me through the drain crawl."
Kael didn't blink. "Yes."
Orin spat, "Romance later—move now."
Astra dropped into a crouch beside the floor channel, where dark water slid along the stone like a slow vein. It stank faintly of iron and old spice. Not the Null Chapel's black water, but close enough to make the word feel like fate.
Orin slapped black paste in quick strokes along the channel lip—scar-sigils to smear signal, to turn the drain into a moving blindfold. Juno pressed a disk into a crack near the edge; it hummed low, dirtying any clean line that tried to form.
Kael stayed behind Astra, hand firm at her waist, bracing her without pulling her throat. He leaned close enough that his breath warmed her hair.
"Consent?" he murmured.
Astra nodded once, jaw tight. "Yes."
The timer ticked down.
00:04…00:03…
Astra swallowed blood and slid into the channel.
Cold water bit her thighs, then her hips, and the shock tried to steal her breath. The cloth at her throat went slick. The witness seal's edge kissed the water again, and pain flared behind her eyes like a bright wire lit.
She hissed through her teeth.
Kael followed immediately, body close behind hers, one arm around her waist—controlled, asked for—keeping her upright in the slippery channel.
"Breathe," Kael rasped.
Astra forced air in through her nose.
Orin moved ahead, shoulders hunched, muttering routes under his breath. Juno came last, disk in hand, eyes wide and hard.
Above the channel, stone groaned—distant, like boots finding a hollow. The city was listening.
Astra's interface flickered with water interference, text wavering at the edges.
HOUSE VEYRN EMERGENCY OVERRIDE: INITIATING…
Dorian's silk voice purred. "I'll make it simple, Astra. I'll choose for you."
Astra's teeth clenched. "Not today."
Kael's hand tightened at her waist, anchoring. His voice dropped, intimate and fierce. "Stay with me."
Heat licked up Astra's spine despite the cold water. "Consent," she rasped, half a warning.
Kael's breath hitched. "Always."
They crawled.
The drain narrowed, forcing Astra's shoulders lower. Cold water seeped into cloth and skin and made every nerve scream. The pain partition reservoir inside her throbbed dangerously, like it knew it would be asked to carry more.
Astra didn't let herself think about fainting.
Fainting was a door the system loved.
Orin stopped under a low grate and pressed his palm to the stone. He listened like the stone could confess.
"Two above," Orin whispered. "Clean rhythm. Hounds."
Juno's eyes widened. "They're already here."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Rusk moves fast."
Astra's interface stuttered again.
DELIVERY IN 00:41RECIPIENT OVERRIDE: PENDING (HOUSE VEYRN)
They'd bought time by diving into darkness, but the bomb was still ticking.
Astra's throat burned. "Lyra is the only witness who can specify a recipient."
Orin's mouth twisted. "And she's in their hands."
Juno whispered, "Or she's in on it."
Astra didn't answer, because she didn't know—and guessing wrong would kill them.
Orin traced a scar-sigil under the grate. The metal shuddered, then lifted just enough to slip through. Cold air spilled down from above—surface-ish, cleaner, dangerous.
Orin went first.
Astra followed, braced by Kael's hand at her waist. The intimacy of it—his body close behind hers in a tight crawlspace, his breath on her neck—made heat flare in Astra's belly like a cruel joke.
She wanted to turn and bite him.
She wanted to kiss him.
She wanted to shove him away to prove she wasn't owned.
She didn't do any of it.
She climbed.
Kael climbed after her, controlled, careful. He never touched her collar. Never touched the damp wrap at her throat. He treated her throat like a live blade that might cut both of them.
That restraint made Astra's chest hurt.
They slipped into a narrow maintenance crawl above the market understructure—old beams, damp stone, stale spice. Voices traveled strangely here. A whisper could become a shout. A breath could become a confession.
Orin held up two fingers: quiet.
Astra's interface flickered again.
DELIVERY IN 00:29HOUSE VEYRN OVERRIDE: READY — EMERGENCY RECIPIENT: HOUSE VEYRN
Dorian's silk voice softened, intimate. "Say nothing, and it's mine."
Kael's voice was low at Astra's ear. "Don't let him."
Astra swallowed. "I'm trying."
Orin opened another grate with black paste and scar-sigil, and they dropped into a deeper service throat that sloped toward where the Hounds had breached earlier. The air here carried a faint clean pulse—military channel residue, like the walls remembered Rusk's voice.
Kael flinched. His muscles tightened.
Astra felt it and stepped closer, shoulder brushing his chest, grounding him with contact that wasn't a command.
"Consent," Astra whispered. "Anchor."
Kael's throat worked. "Yes."
Astra placed her hand on his forearm—firm, deliberate—and spoke his name like a weapon.
"Kael."
His shoulders eased by a fraction.
Heat flickered, sharp and intimate, because watching him respond to her voice instead of command was the kind of power Astra wanted—chosen, not stolen.
Orin gestured ahead.
A narrow opening led into a low storage alcove half-flooded by seep water. Lantern light bled in from somewhere—cleaner than Underchain gloom, not full surface.
And there, in the shallow glow—
Lyra.
She wasn't bound.
She wasn't kneeling.
She was sitting on a crate like she owned the air, hair damp, throat bare, eyes glittering. Two Hounds stood near her—one at the door seam, one closer, posture calm but tense. Like guards who had been told not to touch the expensive thing.
Lyra's smile was bright and dangerous. "You took your time."
Orin hissed under his breath, "Gods."
Juno stiffened, fury and relief colliding in her face. "Lyra!"
Lyra's gaze flicked to Juno, then to Astra's damp throat wrap, then to Kael's wrist where the handler mark sat like a bruise made of law.
Her smile sharpened. "Hello, problems."
Kael took one step forward—controlled, lethal. "What did you do."
Lyra tilted her head. "I witnessed."
Kael's jaw clenched. "And now the leash is in escrow."
Lyra's eyes gleamed. "And not in Rusk's hand. You're welcome."
Astra's throat burned. "Dorian is forcing an emergency recipient override."
Lyra's smile thinned. "Of course he is."
The nearer Hound shifted, eyes narrowing. "This conversation is over. Witness Sable—declare the recipient."
Lyra lifted a brow. "Is that a request."
"It's an order," the Hound said.
Lyra's gaze flicked to his throat crest and her smile turned sweet. "From who."
The Hound's jaw flexed.
Astra felt the air tighten—military authority pressing for compliance.
Her interface flickered:
DELIVERY IN 00:18EMERGENCY RECIPIENT OVERRIDE: HOUSE VEYRN — PENDING
Kael's voice went low, urgent. "Lyra. Choose. Now."
Lyra's eyes slid to Kael and held. There was something there—temptation, irritation, a private amusement that made Astra's jealousy flare hot and ugly.
Lyra saw it.
Lyra smiled wider.
"Careful," Lyra murmured to Astra without looking away from Kael. "Jealousy makes you sloppy."
Astra's mouth curved razor-thin. "So does playing both sides."
Lyra's eyes glittered. "I'm not playing. I'm shopping."
Kael snapped, "Enough."
Lyra's smile didn't move. "Make me."
Heat snapped between them like a wire.
Astra forced herself back into strategy.
"Lyra," Astra said, cold and clear, "specify the recipient."
Lyra looked at Astra then—really looked. Her expression sharpened, calculating, for a heartbeat stripped of performance.
"Who do you trust to hold it," Lyra asked softly, "without becoming it."
Astra's throat tightened.
Trust was a knife you handed someone else.
Kael's hand found Astra's waist again—asked with his eyes, then held when she gave a tight nod. Warm. Steady. Grounding.
Astra's interface ticked.
00:12…00:11…