Orin hissed, "Decide!"
Juno's eyes were wide. "Astra, they'll find us."
Kael stared at Astra like he was fighting himself harder than any Hound.
Astra stepped closer, close enough that her breath warmed his mouth, and made the consent a blade.
"Kael," Astra said low, "do you consent to silencing my witness seal for sixty seconds."
Kael's throat worked. His eyes flicked to her damp throat wrap, then back to her eyes.
He forced his voice steady.
"Yes," Kael said. "If you consent."
Astra's pulse kicked. "I do."
Kael's jaw clenched.
"Ask me," Kael rasped, as if he needed the ritual to keep it from becoming ownership.
Astra held his gaze. "Kael, may you activate a seal-silence only. No collar lockdown. No posture. No agency reduction."
Kael's breath shuddered. "Yes."
Kael's focus turned inward for half a heartbeat—reading his options. His face tightened like he was swallowing poison.
Then he spoke, not to Astra, but to the system—loud enough to be recorded by nothing but stone.
"Activate witness seal silence—only," Kael said.
Astra's collar pulsed once—angry, then satisfied.
Her interface flashed:
WITNESS SEAL: SILENCED (60s)NOTE: LOCATION REPORTS BLOCKEDWARNING: SUBJECT AGENCY UNCHANGED (CONSENT TAGGED)
Astra exhaled hard.
It worked.
And Kael—Kael looked like he'd just punched himself.
"I hate that," Kael rasped.
Astra's throat tightened. "Me too."
Heat flared between them anyway—because he'd asked, because she'd consented, because they'd used the system's language without letting it write the meaning.
Orin swore softly. "Good. Move."
They moved deeper, fast and quiet.
For sixty seconds, they were less visible.
For sixty seconds, the city's clean eyes blinked.
But the proxy owner correction didn't disappear.
It watched.
It waited.
And then the sixty-second silence ended like a snapped thread.
Astra's witness seal vibrated under the cloth wrap, furious at being gagged and suddenly free.
Astra's interface flickered.
WITNESS SEAL: ACTIVENOTE: BACKLOG REPORT ATTEMPT LIKELY
Kael's jaw clenched. "It'll try to dump everything."
Orin hissed, "We can't take another chase."
Juno looked ready to scream.
Astra swallowed blood and forced her mind into cold angles.
"We need a new silence," Astra whispered.
Kael's face tightened. "No. I'm not—"
Astra cut in. "We need a permanent solution."
Orin's voice was grim. "There isn't one."
Astra's eyes narrowed. "There is. We change the destination of 'return to owner.'"
Kael went very still. "What."
Astra's throat burned. "If the system insists on returning me to an owner proxy under distress… then we decide what 'safe house' means."
Orin stared. "You can't rewrite that without killing yourself."
Astra nodded slightly. "I can't."
She looked at Kael.
Kael's gaze darkened. He understood immediately. "You want me to."
Astra swallowed. "Your voice. Your consent. Not a write. A declaration."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Rusk will contest it."
Astra's mouth tightened. "Let him."
Orin muttered, "You're going to redefine a Dominion safe route."
Astra's eyes burned. "Yes."
Kael's breathing went harsh.
Astra stepped closer, intimate as threat. "Consent," she whispered, "to naming a 'safe house' that isn't the kennel."
Kael's eyes locked on hers. "Where."
Astra's mind surfaced the only place that could be "safe" enough to repel Rusk and "holy" enough to resist Dorian's ownership claims—while also being a trap of its own.
"The Church," Astra said. "Seraphine's Lumen house."
Kael's face tightened. "You hate her."
Astra swallowed. "I hate cages more."
Kael's jaw clenched, fury and calculation colliding. "That's trading one chain for another."
Astra's voice went low, fierce. "Yes. But it's a chain we can negotiate in daylight."
Kael stared at her for a long heartbeat.
Then he did something Astra didn't expect.
He asked, like it mattered more than any strategy.
"Do you want me to take you there," Kael said, rough, "as an owner proxy."
Astra's throat tightened.
She leaned in, mouth near his, the almost-kiss sharp enough to hurt, and answered with deliberate clarity.
"No," Astra whispered. "I want you to take me there as my ally."
Kael's breath hitched.
Heat flared through Astra—dangerous, alive—because the way his eyes softened for half a second made her feel like something other than a subject.
Kael swallowed hard. "Then ask me."
Astra met his gaze. "Kael, do you consent to declaring a new safe destination: Seraphine Lume's house."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Yes."
Orin swore softly. "We're really doing this."
Juno whispered, "We're going to the Church."
Astra didn't answer. She couldn't afford the taste of that fear.
Kael inhaled, and spoke into the system like he was spitting on the kennel door.
"Redirect safe return destination," Kael said, voice hard. "Registered safe house: Lumen—Sister-Matriarch Seraphine Lume."
The air shuddered.
Astra's collar pulsed—confused, hungry, adjusting.
Her interface flickered hard, as if law itself had to swallow before it could respond.
Then—
RETURN ROUTE: UPDATED (PENDING VERIFICATION)DESTINATION: LUMEN SAFE HOUSE (SERAPHINE LUME)NOTE: COMMAND OVERSIGHT CONTEST POSSIBLE
Rusk's voice snapped through the link, colder now.
"No," he said.
Kael's teeth bared slightly. "Too late."
Rusk's voice stayed calm, but the calm was a blade now. "Owner proxy overreach. Correction will escalate."
Kael's body twitched—pain flare, sharp.
Astra grabbed his forearm. "Breathe."
Kael forced breath in.
Orin hissed, "We're moving before the contest resolves. Now."
They ran.
Through slick throats and dead-sand gutters, up a rusted ladder, across a maintenance crawl that smelled of spice and rat piss, and out into colder air that tasted like surface rain.
Astra's lungs burned.
Kael stayed close, hand at her waist, asking with his eyes whenever he could, holding when she nodded, refusing to let contact become control.
But the city's clean signal rose with each step toward the surface.
Astra felt the witness seal under her wrap vibrate like a hungry animal smelling prey.
And then the contest hit.
Astra's interface flashed mid-run, bright enough to make her stumble:
COMMAND OVERSIGHT CONTEST: ACTIVERESULT: RETURN ROUTE LOCKED — EXECUTE NOWDESTINATION: LUMEN SAFE HOUSE (SERAPHINE LUME)AUTO-EXECUTE IN: 00:00:03
Kael's grip tightened at Astra's waist.
Astra's stomach dropped.
Teleport. Forced route. The same cage—different walls.
Orin swore. "What."
Astra swallowed blood. "Return route executing. Now."
Juno's eyes widened. "We're going to—"
"The Church," Astra finished, voice tight.
Kael's breath hitched. "Hold onto me."
"Consent," Astra snapped.
Kael's voice was rough. "Yes—please."
Astra nodded once. "Yes."
The world pulled.
Not like falling.
Like being yanked by the spine through a keyhole.
Astra's vision tunneled. Her collar tightened in ecstatic pulses, finally being "returned" to somewhere it could obey. The witness seal hummed, thrilled by the clean channel.
Kael's arms locked around Astra's waist—firm, bracing—holding her through the violent shift without touching her throat.
Then the air changed.
Warmth hit Astra's face—candles and incense and clean stone. A distant choir note—real, not signal. The kind of sound that made the collar quiet down like it recognized a higher order than the Guild.
Astra stumbled, boots skidding on polished floor.
Kael caught her, steadying her upright.
"Consent?" he rasped.
Astra's breath shuddered. "Yes."
They were inside a chapel corridor—high arch, gilded sigil lines, Lumen wards etched into the stone like scripture. The air was too clean.
Too bright.
Too watched.
And standing at the far end, framed by candlelight like a saint carved out of threat, Sister-Matriarch Seraphine Lume waited with hands folded and a smile that didn't reach her eyes.
"Well," Seraphine said softly, "my Hound finally brought me a collar."
Astra's blood went ice.
Kael's jaw clenched, fury flashing. "Seraphine."
Seraphine's gaze slid over Astra's throat wrap, lingering like a caress made of judgment. "You look tired, Astra Vey."
Astra swallowed hard. "You look pleased."
Seraphine's smile sharpened. "I'm practical."
Then she tilted her head, as if listening to a voice only she could hear.
A faint hum answered—military clean, threading through holy wards like a knife through silk.
Rusk's channel.
Seraphine's eyes glittered.
"Oh," she murmured. "Captain Dain is on the line."
Astra's interface flickered once—just once—with a new, horrifying certainty:
SAFE HOUSE VERIFIED — AUTHORITY PRESENTNOTE: COMMAND OVERSIGHT CONNECTED VIA LUMEN CHANNEL
Seraphine took one slow step closer, smile still soft.
"Welcome home," she said—gentle as a blessing, sharp as a trap—"to a house that answers both God and Empire."