The world tilted and we also shank, th world shrank to wet brick and black water.
We shot beneath the bridge into a corridor the river had carved. The air dropped ten degrees, everything like cold iron and old ink. Our stuff scrapped a line of barnacles and then slid into the shadow where the light had stopped.
A figure crouched on the ledge,the knife it had cut the net slim with still in it's hand. Hood up, hands ink-stained,rings stacked to the knuckles, each set with a stone that glowed like a sleeping eye.
"Turn left," she said, her voice as dry as flint. "Before the current comes up again."
Rhea took the oar like her muscles had been commanded. We snaked around a pillar of slime and sigils and bumped the ledge. The hooded woman planted her a boot in the skiff and hauled us up in one motion like she had commanded the river.
"You two row like nobles," she said landing lightly. "Which is to say, very badly."
Rhea's blade was half up by reflex. The hooded woman tilted her head amused. "Put it away captain. If I had wanted you dead,I'd have let the net do it."
"Y-You know me," Rhea said, not a question.
"I know payroll formats," the woman replied. The hood fell back, she had dark hair in a lazy braid, a streak of white at the temple like a scar that was quite pretty. Her eyes were quick and not kind, she flicked me a look that pinned and filed me. "And a malfunctioning girlfriend."
"System," I said quickly, clutching the air where Als had been a second ago. "She's…she's offline."
The woman popped the knife from palm to palm, edge whirring when it caught dampness. "Name's Vesper Nettle. I sort of invoice rescues when I'm bored,walk while I decide whether I like you enough to overcharge you."
"Why did you help us?" Rhea asked.
Vesper's rings clicked against the bricks as she got up and jogged along the ledge, expecting us to follow her "Because the princess owes me a library,because the dragon is noisy and because I smelled purge code where it shouldn't be and I'm nosy." She glanced back at us with a crooked grin. "Mostly the nosy part."
Behind us, steam curled back into itself, the white fire dragon's roar rolled the stone like a big cat with an ugly purr. Somewhere above us, Charlotte's voice sent soldiers scurrying across a chessboard she thought she owned.
We ran, our boots slapping the water. The corridor pressed closez sigils etched into support so old they'd grown mildew. Rhea moved like a river, I moved like a rock not the brave kind. Alma was not there,she was silent and in a way it hurt.
"Status?" I whispered into the dark.
Nothing, nobody answered.
Vesper palmed a rusted door as if it were her pet and the pet loved her. It flinched open on hinges that didn't cry and had given up years ago. Inside, there was a chamber, shelves bolted to brick, jars with blue things asleep in them,a pit,a bed,a circle chalk on the floor that had been drawn, wiped and redrawn untill the rock had learnt its pattern.
Vesper kicked the door shut and slid three bolts. "You dragged princess's lattice with you," she said as if remarking about muddy boots. "Let me see the damage."
"Alma," I called. "If you can hear me, I need you.."
A bit of static whirled in the air with a blink of light then she stuttered into being at my side, half there,half air,eyes too bright in a face that wasn't completely there "Here," she whispered. "Kernel..43%...linked…stuck."
Rhea's breath left her in a sound I wanted to kiss but never would. Vesper raised her eyebrows. "Well, you're ugly," she told Alma, not insulting just honestly. "Who did this to you?"
"Charlotte," I said. "Purge lattice."
"Royal overkill..cute." Vesper flicked her rings, two lit mauve, one lime. She caught Alma's chin with a fingertip that didn't really touch and peered like a jewelry. "Splitter embedded in the ward frame. See that crawl in the wrists? That's a leash."
Alma swallowed,the motion glitches halfway. "It's…pulling me through.. the city. If I come apart enough times, there won't be a…me…to recompile."
"How long?" Rhea asked.
I didn't want an answer,the countdown in my vision obliged anyway, stuttering back to life.
[03:33] — 03:32 — 03:31…
Vesper whistled low. "Well, that's rude."
"You can fix it," I said, because sometimes you just have to be rude about hope and out loud too.
"I can buy you time," she corrected. "Two options, both bad. One,cut the leash at node level. That means breaking royal wards. You don't have the friends for that. Two, sheath the kernel."
"English," I said because I wasn't understanding any of the shit she meant.
"Put your girl in a scabbard," vesper said. She tapped her knife against the chalk circle. I build a pocket…half talisman,half coffin. She sleeps in there where the lattice can't chew, not dead, not alive, safe,ish.."
The word "coffin" didn't sit quite well in my chest. "Alma's eyes flicked to me,quick and guilty. "If I go under, you lose me, my voice, forms,borrowed sets..all of it."
"How long?" Rhea asked again, not to be cruel, but to keep us from drowning.
Vesper chews her lip. "If your princess doesn't find my hole in the river? Hours maybe a day. If she did mark you personally, like I think she did? Maybe minutes."
"Marked?" I croaked.
Vesper pointed at my forearm. I looked, thin lines of light crawled there under the skin, like lines drawn by someone with trembling hands…sigil fragments overlapping, threads that weren't mine.
"She handshook you when you were in the rookery," Vesper said. "Not your consent, your presence. That's how she piped purge code through you into your system girl, efficiently, evil and pretty." She grinned sideways "you must have said something that hurt her feelings."
" I declined to be her toy, her property." I said.
"Ah, I sees." Vesper snapped her fingers. "That'll do it."
Something thudded in the corridor outside like a large bird hitting a wall. Dust fell inside, the bolts in the door hummed.
"Time's up," Rhea said.
Vesper dragged a trunk with her foot and kicked the lid. Inside,there were talismans, bones in tidy bundles, bottles with seals like mouths. She tossed me a flat steal.charm the size of a deck of cards. "Kernel scabbard, unlovely but effective and costs pain."
"Whose?" I asked.
"Yours," she said. "You're the anchor, you'll hold the scabbard with blood. You pass out, she'll leak, you die, it's over for her."
"Do it," I said before I let fear took over me.
Rhea's hand caught my sleeve. "You sure?"
"No," I said. "Yes."
Alma's fingers hovered by my cheek like a touch. "I don't want to leave you," she said, small for once, not her bright, cruel teasing voice. "But if I stay, I come apart and it's still a loss for us."
"It's not leaving," I lied for both of us. "It's backing up."
She laughed, broken in the middle. "You're terrible."
"I'm me, always terrible." I said, it was supposed to be a joke.
"That too." She agreed teasing softly.
Vesper was already chalking sigils in quick, practiced strokes,tongue in her teeth. "Captain, you're on door watch. If it starts to sing at a pitch that makes your eyes feel like soup, throw that bone at the top hinge." She tossed Rhea a stick of knitted ivory. "If it bites you, don't sue me."
Rhea took position, blade low, body between me and the world like she was born to. The door vibrated again, the bolts creaked. Someone tested a spell on the far side and didn't enjoy how it tasted.
Vesper pointed at the circle. "Kneel, place the charm over your sternum. Left hand flat on it, right hand open for your system to hold. Do not move unless I tell you to. if you try to be brave, I'll kick you."