The corridor after the bazaar didn't walk with Dylan – it walked him. Bone tiles slid under his soles like a conveyor that charged by the heartbeat, every thump adding 0.01 % to an ambient rate he couldn't see but felt pressing on his ribs.
Ahead, a door grew out of the wall – oak, no lock, brass plaque flickering like bad fluorescent:
Next invoice: variable – due when thunder forgets your name.
He stepped through and the world shifted.
Not a room – a lecture hall inside a thundercloud. Desks floated on discs of condensed air, copper chains sparking every time someone breathed. Students filed in, thirty-eight living IOUs, all silent, all counting.
Dylan took seat #013 again – because of course it followed him. The desk wobbled, already invoicing his posture.
A figure materialized at the dais – not Ledger, not Valerian – something new. A silhouette stitched from ticker-tape and static, face a blank stock-ticker waiting for a crash. When it spoke the voice arrived inside his skull like a margin call.
"Welcome to the Interest Rate Hike. I am called the Broker. I sell futures you haven't invented yet."
The copper chains tightened, dragging every desk into a perfect circle around the dais. The ticker-face smiled, numbers crawling across its cheeks like living fine-print.
"Lesson one: leverage yourself. Lesson two: margin call yourself. Lesson three: survive the hike."
The chains released. Desks hovered, free-floating, each student now short one future.
> [Course: Interest Rate Hike – margin trading 101]
[Objective: leverage your future without becoming collateral]
[Tool: your strongest unlived memory]
A market board unfurled from the ceiling – floating parchment, blank columns labeled:
Asset | Liability | Margin Call | Survival Rate
Dylan's row populated instantly:
Asset: 1 thunder-clap (bookmark)
Liability: 1 favor owed to Well (compound 0.01 %/heartbeat)
Margin Call: variable – due when thunder forgets your name
Survival Rate: 0.0003 % (and falling)
Cute. He flipped the Lightning Fork, let it drink the ambient static. One charge left. Leverage incoming.
The Broker snapped his fingers. Every student shorted one unlived memory – first kiss, first victory, first sunrise – ripped out like un-cashed checks. The market board spiked – global interest jumped 0.05 % in thirty seconds.
Dylan's unlived memory was the echo of the storm he'd already lost – derivative debt, already repossessed. The Broker paused, ticker-face flickering.
"Derivative leverage. Risky. Approved."
The echo was shorted – a negative asset that balanced his negative liability. The market board re-wrote itself:
Asset: -1 thunder-echo (short position)
Liability: -1 favor owed (short position)
Margin Call: zero – perfectly hedged
Survival Rate: 51 % (and rising)
Arbitrage complete.
The Broker inclined his ticker-head – a stock-exchange bow to profitable risk.
"Student Thirteen balances. For now."
The market board flashed red – global interest spike incoming. The Broker opened his mouth – a vacuum that sucked every short position into the open market.
Dylan's negative thunder-echo was sold to the highest bidder – a girl who paid with one future victory. He received a micro-thunder-clap – a spark the size of a fingernail, crackling above his palm. Asset acquired.
The negative favor was bought by an anonymous bidder – paid with one future betrayal. He received a micro-betrayal – a silver spark that whispered secrets he hadn't invented yet. Liability diversified.
The market closed – liquidity locked, interest frozen until next bell.
The Broker bowed, ticker-face static. "Class dismissed until the margin calls again."
The floating lecture hall dissolved into ticker-tape, storm-clouds evaporating into silent numbers. Students walked away, pockets full of micro-assets, heartbeats lighter, debts heavier.
Dylan walked away, micro-thunder-clap warm against his palm, micro-betrayal whispering in his ear, smiling the way lightning smiles – brief, bright, already counting the interest on tomorrow's storm.
Interest never sleeps.
But for now, he walks – portfolio perfectly hedged, thunder on layaway, betrayal bookmarked for later.