The hand that reached for Kael wasn't gloved.
It was bare skin and clean law—fingers catching his forearm like they already knew where the leash sat in his nerves.
Kael's crest flared bright as a brand.
The tunnel—wet stone, dead-sand grit, Underchain breath—shuddered as if the walls recognized authority and made room for it.
Astra's interface slammed a new banner across her vision, cold and calm:
ARBITER PROTOCOL: STEP 1 — SEPARATE PRIMARY HOLDERTARGET: KAEL RAITHEEXECUTING…
Kael's body jerked hard, not from the grip, but from the pull behind it—a force that didn't need muscle. His knees flexed like recall wanted to fold him. His teeth bared. His breath hitched once, sharp.
Astra moved without thinking.
Not to his throat.
To his voice.
"Kael," she snapped, stepping close enough that her shoulder hit his chest and her breath warmed his mouth. "Black water."
Kael's eyes found hers through the dark—furious, present.
"Black water," he rasped back.
The hand tightened on his forearm.
Astra saw the skin around Kael's crest casing twitch like something inside him had been hooked and yanked.
Juno's disk screamed once—dirty, biting static—trying to foul the clean line. Orin lunged, slamming black paste into the tunnel seam like he could smear law into blindness.
Lyra stood in their path, hood down, eyes glittering like she'd paid for this moment in advance.
"Ten seconds," Lyra murmured, watching Astra like she was tasting blood in wine. "Then they pop him out of your reach."
Astra's interface confirmed it with sick politeness:
STEP 1: EXTRACTION — 00:00:09
Nine seconds.
Kael's grip—his arm around Astra's waist—tightened by reflex, pulling her closer like the system wanted the subject secured before the holder was removed. He caught himself a heartbeat later, horror flashing across his face as he realized his body had moved like a command.
"Consent," Kael gasped, rough, forcing it out like it hurt. "To holding."
Astra's throat burned. "Yes. Hold. Don't claim."
Kael's arm steadied—warm, controlled—at her waist.
Astra looked straight at the hand on Kael.
Not a Hound's hand.
Underchain didn't smell clean like that.
This smelled like paperwork made flesh.
Astra's mind snapped into angles.
Arbiter didn't need boots. Arbiter didn't need permission. Arbiter needed a clean event.
A separation.
A custody chain.
Astra had one patch that was born for ugly timing.
Delay Loop.
The cost would hurt. The trace would spike. The penalty would bite later like teeth.
But she didn't have later if Kael vanished.
Astra turned her face toward Kael, close enough that the heat between them sharpened into something like a blade.
"Consent," she whispered, "to me delaying extraction with Delay Loop."
Kael's eyes burned into hers. "Cost."
Astra tasted blood. "I'll pay."
Kael's jaw clenched hard. "Yes."
The word landed like a vow he didn't want the system to own.
Astra used it anyway.
She reached into her UI like plunging a hand into cold water.
PATCH: DELAY LOOP — READYTARGET COMMAND: ARBITER EXTRACTIONDELAY: 00:00:06PRICE: TRACE + PAIN (REAL)
Astra didn't hesitate.
She fired it.
The tunnel lurched.
Not physically—structurally.
Like the world had tried to move and hit a delayed hinge.
Kael's crest flare stuttered. The hand on his forearm tightened, then faltered, as if the command behind it had been forced to wait.
Astra's interface updated with cold satisfaction:
DELAY LOOP: APPLIEDEXTRACTION DELAYED: 00:00:06PUNISHMENT PENDING
Astra's skull lit up.
Pain detonated behind her eyes like a bright wire being twisted. Her vision went white at the edges. Her trace screamed, hot as insects under skin. She bit down hard until her jaw ached, and forced breath through her nose.
Kael's arm at her waist tightened, bracing her upright.
"Stay," he rasped.
Astra bared her teeth. "I'm here."
Orin didn't waste the seconds. He slammed another scar-sigil into the wall seam and shouted low, vicious. "MOVE!"
Juno's disk hummed like an angry animal, and she threw a second one into the puddle at their feet. Water carried the dirty hum down the passage, smearing the clean lane the arbiter hand needed.
Lyra's eyes flicked to Astra's face—approval, predation, something else.
"Good," Lyra murmured. "You can stall gods."
Astra didn't answer. She couldn't afford to spend breath on Lyra.
They ran.
Kael moved with Astra, arm at her waist, guiding her through the slick bend without pulling her throat into danger. Orin sprinted ahead, black paste ready, slapping mufflers into every crack. Juno stayed tight behind, disks clattering, turning stone into static.
Behind them, the arbiter hand didn't chase like a person.
It continued, patient and inevitable.
Astra's interface flickered:
EXTRACTION RESUMES IN: 00:00:03
Kael's breath hitched. "Still pulling."
Astra swallowed blood. "I know."
They hit a split—two tunnels, one narrower, one wider. Orin didn't hesitate. He took the narrow one.
"Smaller," Orin hissed. "Harder to extract through."
Astra dove in.
The passage pinched their shoulders, forcing them close. Wet stone pressed cold against Astra's arms. Kael's chest was at her back, his breath hot against her neck in the cramped dark.
Heat flared low in Astra's belly despite the pain.
She hated it.
She used it.
"Consent," Astra whispered, teeth clenched, "to you anchoring me through the squeeze."
Kael's voice was rough, immediate. "Yes."
His arm tightened at her waist—steady, controlled—holding her upright as the floor sloped.
The interface flared again.
EXTRACTION RESUMES — EXECUTING…
Kael's crest burned bright.
He grunted, body jerking as if his spine was being grabbed and yanked toward an invisible doorway.
Astra saw it—the arbiter didn't need open space. It needed a definition of separation. It needed the holder to be "removable."
Astra's mind snapped to a sick thought.
If the system couldn't separate Kael without also separating Astra—if their proximity definition made them one "posture unit"—the extraction might fail, or escalate to Step 2.
Step 2 would be worse.
But Step 1 would remove Kael and leave Astra to House.
Astra chose the poison she could fight.
She turned her mouth toward Kael's jaw, close enough that the almost-kiss made his breath hitch.
"Kael," she whispered, intimate as a threat, "consent to locking posture: you and me, together. No separation."
Kael's throat worked. He understood what she was asking: make the system see them as a single measured event.
That was dangerous.
It fed the leash logic.
But it saved him from being taken alone.
Kael's jaw clenched. "Yes."
Astra spoke into the UI, voice low, deliberate, like a prayer she refused to kneel for.
"Compliance posture," Astra said. "Defined as standing within Guardian proximity. Guardian proximity is continuous contact at the waist."
Kael's arm tightened at her waist.
"Consent?" Kael gasped, rough.
Astra's pulse kicked. "Yes."
The system latched onto the definition like it loved the simplicity.
Astra's interface flickered:
POSTURE UNIT: LINKED (GUARDIAN + SUBJECT)NOTE: SEPARATION MAY TRIGGER ESCALATION