The air in the Ebon Bazaar weighed on Lucien's lungs like soaked ash—thick and clinging, sour with something older than smoke. It didn't smell like fire anymore, not really. More like a burn rerun too many times until the cinders forgot their shape. Paper, sweat, old blood, and a worse thing nobody named but everyone smelled. Still, he dragged it down anyway, because breathing was mandatory here—even if it tasted like the underside of a dying god's boot.
A glyph flickered against his ribs—sharp, deliberate.
LEDGER UPDATE:TASK: Intercept Vara Orin — informant, trust-sensitive.LOCATION: Verified.OBSTACLE: Veil proxies closing. Two known, four ghost-pings.COLLECTIONS: Cal Miret (1 cycle overdue).WARNING: Cassian sigils detected within 600 meters.
The sky wasn't a sky, just a cracked glass pane stretched far above, bits broken where gray light leaked in like tired breath fogging up the whole rotten place. This wasn't Valthara Prime anymore. This was the other side of the thread—a step across the veil, the immortal underworld's dirty secret called the Ebon Bazaar. But Lucien thought "The Crawl" fit better. Because that's exactly what it did—it crawled through time, through memory, through you if you let it.
The crossing always left a trace. His coat clung damp to his frame, seams chilled with realmshift residue. The stone under his boots pulsed faintly, as if it remembered him. A few passersby looked twice, not at his face but at the way the air moved around him—like it was being warned.
Lucien didn't slow.
He moved like a man too stubborn to bleed. Like the thugs on his trail weren't six steps behind, teeth bared beneath borrowed faces. He wasn't here to lose them. He was here to bait them.
The Ledger pulsed again, this time under the skin.
DECOY ACTIVE: False trail cast at Undergleam Gate 3B.EST. CONFUSION WINDOW: 90 seconds.THREAT DISTANCE: Closing. Suggest confrontation or veil-cross exit.
He turned into an alley twisted between two rotting archways, ducked through the shadows of a collapsed altar, and slid through the back curtain of a weaver's stall. It was less a shop and more a patchwork shrine of bones and glowing thread—but he didn't stop. Another alley opened behind it, quieter, cut from stone that still hummed with old sigils. Vara would be close now.
He emerged into a half-collapsed atrium, ringed by ash-burned columns and whispers that sounded almost like prayers if you weren't listening too hard. Vara stood at the center, cloak wrapped close around her shoulders, hands tense at her sides. She didn't flinch when she saw him. Just narrowed her eyes like she already knew she'd regret this.
"You're late," she said, voice low, sharp. "Again."
Lucien grinned, tired and easy. "Only if you're still counting in mortal minutes."
She didn't smile. Didn't move. Just kept watching him with that quiet fury that had earned her both scars and survival.
"You bring it?" she asked.
He reached into his coat, pulled out the glass jar—the soul he'd lifted earlier, still pulsing dimly like a captured breath. Her fingers hesitated before taking it, eyes flicking once toward the alley behind him.
"You were followed," she said flatly.
"Decoy's active," Lucien replied. "But it won't hold. I need the name."
Vara's jaw clenched. "You don't get to ask favors when you're the reason my sister's missing."
Lucien's voice lowered, steel hidden beneath silk. "I gave you her last trace. That contract was already burning when I found it."
"She trusted you."
The Ledger twitched hard under his coat, glyphs flaring sudden and urgent.
WARNING: Emotional leverage compromising asset reliability.SECONDARY OUTCOME: Consider soul-binding or extraction.SUGGESTION: Exploit known trust bond for route info.DANGER: Cassian influence confirmed in market vault.
Lucien swallowed the guilt like broken glass. Her trust was a shield. One he needed. And maybe, just maybe, he didn't deserve it.
"You're right," he said, quieter now. "She trusted me. And I'll get her back. But I need that route or we both vanish in smoke."
Vara studied him, then the jar, then back again. Finally, she nodded, drawing a thin scroll from her sleeve. She passed it without flair. The moment the paper touched his palm, the glyph burned.
Cassian's cipher, scrawled in black thread across the edge.
Lucien didn't curse. Not aloud.
The Ledger reacted immediately.
ENCRYPTED: Cassian cipher.TRANSLATION: [I break what binds.]EFFECT: Corruption. Trace sigil left on Ledger shell.INTERNAL RESPONSE: Purging corrupted sector... failed.WARNING: BOND DAMAGE — VARA TRUST LEVEL DECREASING.
Lucien's throat tightened. The trap had already sprung. Cassian wasn't waiting. He was moving pieces underfoot while Lucien danced in broken glass.
He flicked the scroll into his coat and stepped back.
Footsteps scraped stone behind them.
The Veil thugs had arrived.
Six. Two from the Obsidian Gate. Four unknowns, faces veiled by glamor and old debt.
Lucien turned his shoulder toward Vara, voice low and bitter.
"When I tell you to run, don't look back."
"Don't you dare—"
But he was already moving.
His left hand dragged a pouch from his belt, scattering a thin arc of illusion dust—glimmering particles that danced like fireflies before erupting into three shadow-doubles of himself. They bolted in separate directions, each mimicking his stride, coat, and Ledger's hum.
The thugs paused—momentarily split.
Lucien used the gap. Grabbed Vara's shoulder and shoved her sideways behind a crumbled wall.
She screamed something—his name maybe—but it was swallowed by the clash of fists and flare of binding spells. One thug lunged, blade crackling red. Lucien ducked, twisted his body, and drove his elbow into the man's throat. The thug dropped, gasping. Another came in from behind. Lucien spun the Ledger into his grip and slammed its edge into the side of the attacker's head. Ink hissed against skin. A soul mark branded instantly.
The air vibrated.
BOND SECURED: Soul fragment extracted.NAME: Corvan Jett.STATUS: Deceased.COLLECTION DUE: Immediate — Veil marker.
The remaining thugs hesitated just long enough. Lucien grabbed Vara by the wrist, yanked her to her feet, and bolted down a spiral stairwell that cracked with every step. She didn't resist. Not yet.
Behind them, someone shouted—"He's got her!"—and the echo turned raw.
They burst through a final doorway. Light cracked around them—the veil seam shimmered.
Lucien shoved Vara through first, then followed.
The transition burned. Every time, it burned. Not fire. Not pain. Just the stretch of existence being rewritten, like his bones didn't quite fit between worlds.
They landed hard in Valthara Prime—specifically, an alley knotted between two collapsed housing towers in the Undergleam district. Neon screamed against the gloom. Smoke curled from vents that shouldn't even be active. Above, drone patrols blinked indifferent red.
Lucien let go of Vara, chest heaving.
She spun on him, furious.
"You used me."
His grin was gone. "I needed you alive. That was the only way."
"You don't even see it, do you?" she hissed, eyes wet with rage. "Every time you choose the mission. The network. The next damn favor. You leave us with the ash."
The Ledger pulsed again—not with orders. With accusation.
HER TRUST BREAKS.LEDGER NOTE: Bonded goodwill ruptured.WARNING: Long-term informant status unstable.SYSTEM MESSAGE: "Her hope stung."
Lucien looked away, jaw tight.
"I'll get your sister back," he muttered.
She didn't answer. Didn't stay.
He let her walk away.
When he turned back toward the street, the world had already moved on. Veil echoes faded. Drones hovered far off. But the scent of smoke remained.
A flicker at his coat's edge—the Ledger wasn't done.
SYSTEM ALERT:
MARKET NODE DESTABILIZED — District 12 Vault Breach.CAUSE: Cassian proxy interference.COLLATERAL: 31 soul contracts corrupted.RESPONSE: Local broker systems in disarray.
Lucien cursed under his breath.
"Cassian's chaos is my mess," he said, voice like ash ground between teeth.
The city pulsed in front of him, alive and gnashing. Somewhere above, the tower spires glinted with empty promise. Somewhere below, Cassian's network gnawed through the fabric.
He reached into his coat, tapped the Ledger spine.
"Show me what's left to salvage."
The cover flared with fresh glyphs. Names. Places. Threats.
He scanned it once. Then again.
His next move had to count.
A sting. A counter-strike. A way to bleed Cassian without breaking the city in half.
The Ledger's final message burned beneath his skin.
SYSTEM MESSAGE:"You're complicit.""Fix your flaws."
Lucien Blackmoore stood in the gutterlight, coat soaked through, eyes narrowed on the skyline.
He was bruised. He was hunted.
But he still held the Ledger.
With his pawns placed across the board, awaiting Cassian's next move.