The system didn't ask Astra if she wanted a new war.
It just opened the paperwork in her eyes.
TRANSFER OFFER DETECTED — LUMEN CLAIM FILED ON ANCHOR COLLATERAL.
Astra's blood turned to ice. The plaza's smoke still swam in the lanternlight, Juno's interference humming under it like an insect trapped in glass, but the message was clean—too clean.
The Church wasn't just reaching for Astra anymore.
It was reaching through her.
For Kael.
Kael's knee was still on stone. His jaw was locked the way he'd been trained to lock it. The leash purred at that posture, satisfied by the simplest shape of obedience.
Dorian stood close enough for Astra to smell him—myrrh and expensive wine, silk and certainty. He watched Kael kneel like it was an art piece he'd commissioned.
Seraphine stood opposite, pale and composed, her smile bright as a blade left in the sun. She watched the same kneel like it was a sacrament about to be rewritten.
Rusk's stance tightened, caught between duty and disgust. The two Hounds behind him shifted in perfect mirrored readiness, waiting to be told which god to kill for.
Astra swallowed against the collar's pressure and made herself breathe.
Kael's knee hit stone. That was done.
Now the next six seconds could decide who owned the next six years.
Seraphine's voice carried, soft and terrible. "Collateral registered in an anomalous collar is subject to sanctified custody."
Dorian didn't even blink. "You don't get to file on my Hound."
Seraphine tilted her head, amused. "Then stop putting your Hounds inside other people's contracts."
Astra's collar tightened in ugly pleasure at being called a contract. The interface shimmered again as if hungry to help.
CLAIM CONFLICT: ESCALATINGLUMEN CLAIM: ACTIVEHOUSE VEYRN COUNTERCLAIM: PENDINGANCHOR STATUS: VULNERABLE
Kael's breathing went controlled and shallow. Astra felt the tremor in his thigh where muscle fought command. He was holding a line inside himself while three authorities pulled on the same rope.
Astra's mouth went dry. If the Church succeeded, it wouldn't "free" Kael. It would sanctify him into a new cage and call it mercy.
Seraphine stepped closer, one palm lifting in a slow sunburst sign. Her clerics weren't visible here, but her ward net was—clean pressure in the air, like a hymn forced into stone.
Kael's wrist crest dimmed for a heartbeat.
Astra's interface screamed.
SANCTIFIED SEVERANCE: RE-INITIATEDTARGET: ANCHOR COLLATERALTRANSFER: READY TO COMMIT
Kael's jaw flexed hard enough to crack teeth. A flicker of pain slipped through his mask.
Astra moved before fear could turn into freeze.
She slid half a step closer to Kael's side, close enough to be felt but not close enough to touch her throat. Her hand found his sleeve and curled in the fabric—human contact, not a handle. Consent made visible in the smallest way.
"Kael," she breathed, low enough that only he could hear. "Remember what you did."
His eyes flicked up—dark, furious, alive—then back down.
Astra whispered the conditional she'd planted in him like a seed. "If you kneel, you kneel only to protect me—then stand the moment I'm safe."
Kael's breath hitched once. He gave the smallest nod.
Dorian watched the exchange with faint amusement, like he enjoyed seeing Astra try to make her own rules.
Seraphine watched it with colder interest, like she was deciding which part of them to cut first.
Rusk's voice snapped, impatient. "My lord, this is—"
Dorian didn't look at him. "Quiet."
Rusk fell silent instantly. That was Dominion hierarchy: a man with forty years of blood on his hands reduced to a statue by a silk voice.
Seraphine smiled. "Your captain obeys you. Your Hound obeys you. And yet your subject keeps speaking."
Dorian's eyes slid to Astra. "Because she's charming."
Astra didn't flinch. She let the heat in his attention slide off her skin like oil. She had bigger problems than being desired by monsters.
Seraphine's gaze cut to Astra's collar. "Astra Vey. By sanctified right, do you accept the transfer."
Astra's throat tightened.
Accepting would hand Kael over with a clean signature.
Refusing would trigger escalation—through Kael.
Her interface helpfully offered the timer like a joke.
DECISION WINDOW: 00:00:18FAILURE: TRANSFER AUTO-COMMIT VIA COLLAR SAFETY PROTOCOL
Safety protocol.
The system called theft safety.
Astra's pulse hammered. She could feel Kael's governor load flickering, ready to spike again if any of them pushed.
Orin's voice hissed from the edge of the plaza, barely audible through smoke. "Astra—move!"
Juno's shadow shifted near him. Another disk glinted in her fingers, ready.
Astra didn't move yet.
She looked at Seraphine with a calm she didn't feel. "Do you always ask permission after filing the claim."
Seraphine's smile sharpened. "I prefer consent. It makes sanctity cleaner."
Dorian laughed softly. "Listen to her. She's adorable."
Astra's eyes didn't leave Seraphine. "And if I don't accept."
Seraphine's voice stayed soft. "Then the collar will protect itself. It will surrender the collateral to stabilize the anomaly."
Astra's stomach dropped.
So Seraphine wasn't threatening.
She was describing a mechanism.
A mechanism Astra had just helped build.
Kael's breath went tight. He heard it too. His hand—still around Astra's ribs from earlier—tightened just a fraction, reflexive, then loosened again.
He didn't touch her collar.
He didn't give them the handle.
Astra made a decision the way she did everything now—tactically.
She didn't accept transfer.
She didn't refuse it cleanly either.
She changed what "transfer" meant.
The door behind her eyes opened—Write(Self) already enabled, already bleeding trace. Another write would spike her hard, and Dorian would taste it instantly.
But she didn't have time for clean.
She had time for clever.
Astra focused inward, eyes half-lidded like she was simply breathing through pain.
The interface unfolded with clinical indifference.
WRITE (SELF): AVAILABLEWARNING: TRACE HIGHWATERMARK: ACTIVE
Kael's voice came low beside her, barely moving his lips. "Don't."
Astra didn't look at him. If she looked, she might hesitate.
"I have to," she whispered.
Kael's jaw clenched. "Then do it with a condition."
Astra's mouth curved faintly.
He was learning her language too.
She selected the target:
TRANSFER RESPONSE (SELF)
A new panel flickered—fresh, ugly, created by the presence of a filed claim.
IF TRANSFER OFFER DETECTED → DEFAULT: ALLOW COLLATERAL TRANSFER TO CLAIMANT
Default again.
Always default.
Astra hated default.
She wrote one line with shaking precision:
IF TRANSFER OFFER DETECTED → REQUIRE CLAIMANT TO PRESENT DIRECT PHYSICAL SEAL ON COLLAR SIGIL
Not a voice. Not a distant net. Not paperwork.
A physical seal—touch, proximity, risk.
And then, because Seraphine was clever too, Astra added:
UNTIL VERIFIED → HOLD COLLATERAL IN PLACE (NO AUTO-COMMIT)
Pain hit immediately—bright and invasive. Astra's knees buckled.
Kael caught her by the elbow, steadying without grabbing. His voice went low, fierce. "Breathe."
Astra forced air in through clenched teeth. Her vision went white at the edges.
The interface flashed.
WRITE (SELF): COMMITTEDTRACE: 61.4%WATERMARK: SEVERETRANSFER: PAUSED — VERIFICATION REQUIRED
The decision window disappeared.
The collar stopped trying to "protect itself" by surrendering Kael.
For now.
Seraphine's eyes narrowed sharply. She felt the pause like a door slamming.
Dorian's smile widened—delighted, predatory. "There she is."
Rusk's face tightened. "My lord, her trace—"
Dorian cut him off with a lazy glance. "I can see it."
Astra swallowed blood and lifted her chin, pain still ripping through her nerves. "If you want him," she said to Seraphine, voice ragged but steady, "come take him with your hands."
Seraphine's smile turned colder. "Bold."
Astra's mouth curved. "Tired."
Seraphine stepped forward—one pace, then another—until she was within reach.
Kael's posture tightened instantly. His knee was still down, but his body became a shield anyway—muscle memory choosing protection even in forced submission.
Dorian's eyes gleamed at that reflex. "Look at him," he murmured, pleased. "He kneels and still defends."
Seraphine's gaze slid to Kael's wrist crest. "A leash dressed as virtue."
Kael's voice came low, rough. "Don't touch her."
Seraphine's brows lifted. "You give orders while kneeling."
Kael's jaw clenched. "I give warnings."
Seraphine's hand hovered near Astra's collar.
Astra's throat went cold.
Not fear of touch.
Fear of what touch would mean: verification, transfer, sanctified severance.
Astra forced herself not to flinch.
Consent wasn't just yes.
It was the right to say no even when the world demanded yes.
Seraphine didn't touch yet.
She looked at Astra instead, eyes bright with doctrine. "If I place my seal," she said softly, "you will lose him."
Astra swallowed. "You'll cage him."
Seraphine's smile was almost kind. "I'll sanctify him. He'll stop bleeding for a Dominion that only knows how to pull."
Dorian laughed softly. "You think you're rescuing him. How precious."
Seraphine's voice hardened. "I think I'm taking him from you."
Dorian's smile didn't move, but the air around him sharpened—silk turning into wire.
Astra felt it in her collar: House Veyrn authority surging, eager to counterclaim.
Kael's knee began to rise.
Not because Dorian freed him.
Because Astra's condition was met.
Because the moment Astra wasn't safe—when Seraphine's hand hovered at her throat—Kael's own internal rule clicked.
Protect.
Stand.
Kael pushed up from the kneel in one smooth motion, controlled and violent, placing himself between Seraphine's hand and Astra's collar.
Rusk's eyes widened. "Raithe—"
Dorian's voice cut low. "Stop."
Kael's body jerked—half a beat of enforced stasis—then held.
Not full stop.
Not clean.
Astra saw it in his shoulders: he resisted just enough to keep moving.
Her interface flashed.
ANCHOR COMMAND CONFLICTHOUSE VEYRN: STOPKAEL SELF-GOVERNOR: OVERRIDE RESISTRESULT: PARTIAL COMPLIANCE