The Catacombs leaned closer the way butchers watch good knives.
Lantern light tried to make edges cruel; Thomas let it make edges clear. Focus thinned like sugar in hot tea. He kept his palm where the wall kept the shadow. The Captain's weight re-argued its right to stand; the drain seam politely disagreed.
The pane relented.
[SEQ] Umbra Bind (I) — Success.
[SEQ] Umbra acquired: Red-Guard Captain (Vassal).
[SEQ] Traits: Guard Stance (block/parry), Lantern Call (taunt), March Memory (discipline aura).
Nothing fell. Something coiled at the edge of his attention instead—a new finger he could curl when a block must come from somewhere else. The wall cooled as if a breath had left it. The Captain straightened with the dignity of a man who had not noticed losing anything he could name.
Thomas did not test the Umbra. Testing tells the world you aren't sure yet.
Lantern light steadied. Echoes recalculated. Somewhere, the Catacombs adjusted a ledger: a tiny credit for not making a mess.
He moved before the place remembered to be offended. The corridor convinced itself into a stair. Up became a rumor that might be trusted. He climbed without granting trust. Skulls watched, tidy as anxieties put away when company comes. Twice he paused—once for a whisper that became a draft writing letters to itself, once for water practicing future leaks. He let both win.
A small chamber opened where the walls decided to be temporarily generous. Damp had licked a mural into a ghost—curved lines like ribs or waves. In the center, a stone marker wore its name to threadbare letters. NE and then erosion. Not enough to bring anyone back; enough to state that someone had been kept here on purpose.
Sequana pressed meaning into him, not pane but current: Do not promise the dead on my behalf.
I wasn't promising, he thought. I was taking attendance.
The stair learned up again. Chalk breathed into chalk. Threshold into threshold. The seam closed its mouth and pretended it had always been a floor that minded its business.
Room: kettle, patient. Chair: smug. Lamp: employed. Patricia's needle counted; Christian muttered agreeable obscenities at a screw that believed in freedom; Thibault's sleep made guard-dog noises—don't worry, just try me.
Thomas set two fingers on the wall where lantern ribs had drawn themselves earlier. Cold—river-cold—answered with excellent manners. The Umbra waited in that new mental slot, listening without interrupting.
The pane wrote quietly, as if proud and unwilling to embarrass itself.
[SEQ] Binding secured — Red-Guard Captain (Vassal).
[SEQ] Title achieved — Night Veil (3/3).
[SEQ] Effect: +Stealth after dusk; +Bind chance in dim light.
He allowed himself one smile that did not show teeth. Teeth invite the wrong gods.
He looked down at the chalk line. He looked at it, not over it. Pride had been a lever; lesson would be a hinge. Step after dusk costs more than step at noon. He filed it under expenses you pay only on purpose.
On the table, a wick leaned toward mischief. He pressed a breath of stay into the flame's skirt—no show, no sermon. It steadied as if it had chosen to behave. He preferred a world that took its own credit.
Patricia drifted through, half-asleep. She didn't ask. She set her palm on his head the way a person balances a ledger by touch and left the day's math at zero.
He padded to his pallet—the portion of floor that believed in him as furniture—and lay down the way a promise lies down when it's been kept. Under the boards, drips counted in a language they loved. Skull racks attended to nothing but tidiness. Somewhere deeper, a halberd dreamed about being a tree again.
The river's presence returned to his edge, satisfied like a landlord who had found nothing to fix this round.
Do not hurry brinks, Sequana said, which in rivers is affection.
I'll pay attention, he thought. That's cheaper.
A last pane made a modest financial note.
[SEQ] Ledger — Penalty cleared without collateral: +Credit (minor).
He let the night have him. Quiet paid; quiet returned with interest. He slept with a guard captain at his shoulder and a veil on the dark.