Juno's eyes narrowed. "They're close."
Orin nodded. "So decide."
Kael stared at Astra for a long beat.
Then his gaze dropped to her throat.
Astra felt the impulse to tilt her chin up. To offer the collar like a battlefield offering a gate. She hated the instinct.
She did it anyway—slow, deliberate—making it her choice, not the collar's.
Kael's breath caught.
He lifted his hand toward her throat, then stopped.
Waiting.
Always waiting.
Astra nodded once.
Kael touched her collar lightly—two fingers, feather-soft. Warmth spread through Astra's nerves, smoothing the jitter in her muscles. Her breath shuddered, embarrassingly intimate, and she hated Orin for seeing it.
Orin smiled like he'd expected this.
Kael didn't look at him. His gaze stayed on Astra. "If I do this," he said low, "you don't use it to play games."
Astra's smile sharpened. "I don't play. I bargain."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Same thing."
Astra leaned closer. "Then bargain with me."
Kael's jaw flexed, then he gave a single, minimal nod.
Astra exhaled.
Orin stepped to the dais and slid the black bowl toward them. "Blood isn't required," he said. "Voice is. Consent is. Witness is."
Juno lifted her wire disk and held it up. "Witness."
Orin's eyes flicked to Kael. "Collateral."
Kael's hand tightened on Astra's wrist again—steady. "Fine."
Orin's gaze slid to Astra. "Consent."
Astra's throat tightened, but the Null Zone steadied her nerves. She forced her voice calm. "Yes."
The bowl's surface darkened, like it had drunk the word.
Astra's interface flared, sterile and bright.
CLAUSE: NULL ANCHOR — PENDINGANCHOR REQUIRED: NAME / TOUCH / INTENTWARNING: TRACE COST UNKNOWN
Kael's eyes flicked to Astra's face. "What's it asking."
Astra swallowed. "Your name."
Kael's jaw tightened.
Orin's smile sharpened. "Names matter. Underchain likes them."
Kael stared at the black bowl as if it were a weapon pointed at his throat.
Then he looked at Astra.
Astra held his gaze—steady, unblinking, consent woven with desperation.
Kael's voice went low, controlled. "Kael Raithe."
The bowl's surface rippled like water.
Astra's collar warmed—then stuttered, confused, like it had just heard an authority it didn't expect to be offered as an anchor.
The interface flashed.
ANCHOR REGISTERED: KAEL RAITHELINK TYPE: STABILIZER / LIABILITYCLAUSE WRITING: EXTERNAL
Astra's breath caught.
Orin's tone stayed calm. "Touch."
Kael's fingers were already at Astra's throat, but now the chapel demanded intention, not accident. Kael's thumb grazed her skin, light enough to be permission rather than claim.
Astra's pulse kicked hard.
Heat rose—sharp, shameful, alive.
Kael felt it. His jaw flexed. His fingers didn't move away.
Orin said softly, "Intent."
Astra forced air into her lungs. "He anchors me," she said, voice steady despite the tremor. "Not as owner. Not as handler. As stabilizer."
Kael's voice followed, low and hard. "I anchor her against recall. Against sanctified containment. Against audit lock."
The chapel's silence deepened, like it was listening.
Then the black bowl flashed a thin line of pale light, and Astra felt a pressure in her collar—not pain, not punishment.
A new weight.
Not on her skin.
In her system.
Her interface blazed.
CLAUSES (VIEW ONLY)— NULL ANCHOR: ACTIVE— RECALL MASK: ENABLED (INTERMITTENT)— BREACH CONSEQUENCE: COLLATERAL FORFEITTRACE: 31.8%
Trace spiked.
Astra flinched on instinct, then steadied. The cost was immediate—always.
Kael's fingers stayed at her throat, anchoring through the spike. The tremor in Astra's legs eased. The hook in her spine—the constant RETURN—didn't disappear, but it dulled into a distant tug, muffled like a voice behind thick cloth.
Astra exhaled shakily.
Orin smiled like a man who'd just won a bet. "Good."
Juno's eyes were on the archway. "Not good enough. They're still probing."
A faint pressure pressed against the sealed threshold again—Lumen ward code testing the Null Zone like fingers on a bruise.
Orin's mouth tightened. "Then we move deeper."
Kael's hand left Astra's throat gently. The warmth vanished, and Astra hated how quickly she missed it.
Kael took her wrist again, colder contact, safer. "Can you move."
Astra nodded once. "Yes."
Orin gestured toward a side passage behind the dais, a seam in stone that wasn't visible until you knew how to look. "This way. Null Chapel has a back throat."
Juno moved first, wire disk ready. Orin followed. Kael guided Astra behind them.
As Astra stepped past the dais, the air shifted—subtle, like the chapel was taking a final measurement of its new contract.
Her interface flickered one last time, cold and intimate:
SYSTEM NOTE: ANCHOR LINK IS TRACE-VISIBLE TO HIGH AUTHORITY.
Astra's stomach dropped.
She looked up at Kael sharply.
Kael read her face immediately. "What."
Astra's voice came out low. "The link… can be seen. By high authority."
Kael's jaw tightened. "Dorian."
"Or Seraphine," Astra whispered.
Orin laughed softly without humor. "Of course it can be seen. You think you can hide from gods with a clause?"
Kael's eyes went cold. "Then what did we buy."
Orin's smile turned thin. "Time. Confusion. A moving target."
Astra's collar pulsed once, and for the first time the pulse felt… different. Not eager obedience.
A wary recalibration.
Like the collar was learning a new hierarchy.
From the sealed archway behind them came a hard удар—someone striking stone with something that wasn't just a fist.
The Null Chapel shuddered.
Juno hissed, "They're breaching."
Kael's hand tightened on Astra's wrist. "Move."
Astra moved—fast, steady—feeling the Null Anchor clause dampen the pull of RETURN just enough to keep her legs hers.
Behind them, the chapel's threshold flared, and a voice cut through the stone like faith sharpened into law—Seraphine, close now:
"By sanctified right, I revoke your false clause."
Astra's throat went ice.
Kael's voice went low at her ear, fierce and intimate. "Stay with me."
Astra didn't answer with words.
She answered by squeezing his wrist back—brief, deliberate contact that said I'm still choosing.
And as the Null Chapel's new clause settled fully into her collar, Astra's interface flashed the final confirmation that made her blood run cold:
NULL ANCHOR COMPLETE — KAEL RAITHE REGISTERED AS COLLATERAL IN SUBJECT ASTRA VEY'S COLLAR.