Silex's shadow filled the cart doorway like a closing lid.
"Choose," he said, flat as a verdict. "Sign… or watch him forget you."
Astra's breath caught.
Inside the cart, Kael's containment lines tightened a fraction—thin pale geometry hovering over his body like a polite hand deciding it was time to squeeze. He didn't cry out. He didn't flinch. His jaw locked, eyes burning into hers as if he could hold himself together by refusing to look away.
Astra's throat seal vibrated, eager.
Her interface flickered a neat prompt that felt like a knife placed gently in her palm:
SIGN TO STABILIZE COLLATERAL — OR COLLATERAL WILL BE SEVERED.
Severed meant erased out of the math. Severed meant Kael's anchor function ripped free, leaving him a clean weapon again—owner-compatible, Guild-compliant, easy to command.
Or worse.
Astra didn't know how deep "forget" went.
She only knew the people saying it smiled like they'd already tasted the outcome.
Outside the cart, the old market had erupted into scatter—shouts, lanterns jolting, stalls banging shut. Juno's disks were still humming somewhere low on the stones, dirtying the Guild grid just enough to keep it from snapping clean around them. Orin's seam under the wheel had turned the lane into a mouth, and the cart sat tilted like a wounded animal, one side panel torn open.
Astra stood in the opening, between clean white light and dirty night.
Between Kael's body and Silex's permissions.
Between her own collar's hunger and the seal's smug certainty.
Silex took one step closer.
Not rushing.
He didn't need speed. He had authority.
"You have ten seconds," he said.
Kael's voice came rough from the bench. "Astra. Don't sign."
Astra's eyes stayed on him. "I won't."
Kael's throat worked. "Then leave. Go."
Astra's mouth curved—small, savage. "No."
Kael's eyes darkened with something that hurt and warmed at the same time. "Astra—"
"Breathe," she whispered, stealing his word back and making it a vow. "Stay with me."
The containment lines tightened again, as if the cart itself disapproved of intimacy.
Astra's seal hummed in pleased anticipation.
Silex lifted his hand slightly, two fingers near his throat crest—ready to speak another clean command into the air.
Astra's mind snapped into motion.
She could fight him physically. Kael could fight. Orin and Juno could drag them into a seam.
But the cart's system prompt had teeth: sign or sever. If "sever" initiated, no alley trick would matter. Kael would be changed before they reached the mouth of any tunnel.
She needed a hinge.
Not a miracle.
A hinge.
Her Ghost Command was loaded—suspend seal broadcast for six seconds synced with Delay Loop. Useful, but not enough. Not against a severance designed to happen clean and fast.
Write(Self) was available.
Risk extreme.
Trace already screaming.
And the Guild witness seal sat on her throat like a second hand on the pen.
Astra stared at the hovering half-signed contract above Kael's bench.
COLLATERAL BRIDGE: OWNER-COMPATIBLE COMMAND PATH — ENABLED (PENDING)REQUIRES SUBJECT CONSENT: ASTRA VEY
Consent.
They were trying to turn her consent into a corridor.
So she would do what she always did when someone tried to force her choice:
She would weaponize the wording.
Astra kept her hands away from her collar. She didn't touch the seal. She didn't give Silex a movement that read like panic.
She spoke instead, calm and clear, voice carrying just enough to be heard over the market noise.
"Define severance," Astra said.
Silex paused.
It wasn't hesitation. It was irritation at being asked to explain a blade.
"Collateral anchor will be removed from your collar clause," Silex said. "Collateral will be stabilized under Guild custody. Your emotional attachment will be rendered irrelevant."
Rendered irrelevant.
Astra's stomach turned.
Kael's eyes flickered—rage, then a flash of something colder. Fear.
Not for himself.
For what "irrelevant" would mean to Astra's body, Astra's stabilizer, Astra's already-fraying mind.
Astra didn't blink. "And 'forget'?"
Silex's mouth barely moved. "The bridge will be enabled. His response pathways will be standardized."
Standardized.
A clean way of saying: We will wipe the parts that resist.
Kael's voice went low, lethal. "You touch my crest and I'll—"
Silex didn't look at him. "You'll obey. That is the point."
Astra felt something in her chest tighten until it hurt.
Not romance.
Not softness.
A hot, furious tenderness that made her want to burn the whole empire down with her own hands.
Astra's throat seal vibrated again. The system prompt pulsed, eager to force a decision.
Silex spoke, cool. "Five seconds."
Kael's gaze locked on Astra. "Don't do it."
Astra stepped fully into the cart, letting the side panel swing wider so her body blocked Silex's line of sight to Kael for a heartbeat.
Not hiding him.
Shielding him.
Choosing where the world was allowed to look.
Kael's breath hitched at the proximity. The clean light painted hard lines across his face—jaw clenched, eyes dark, sweat at his temple.
The containment lines hovered an inch above his skin, trembling slightly as if responding to Astra entering the grid's space.
Astra leaned close enough that her voice became private, but she didn't touch him yet.
"Kael," she murmured, "if I play compliance, it's not surrender."
Kael's throat worked. "Don't let them put ink in you."
Astra's mouth curved, sharp. "They already did."
Kael's eyes flicked to the seal at her throat, and his gaze turned murderous.
Astra softened her tone just a fraction—enough to make it hurt. "Use your voice."
Kael swallowed. "For what."
Astra's breath warmed his jaw. "To keep me mine."
Kael went still.
Heat flared between them—intense, electric, threaded with consent and a thousand unsaid things.
He didn't reach for her collar.
He didn't grab her.
He simply looked at her like a man choosing control over desperation, and it was the hottest kind of restraint.
"Astra," Kael said, low and deliberate, structured like law, "if you speak to them, you do not give them anything you cannot take back."
Astra exhaled slowly. "Good."
She let her fingers brush his knuckles—light contact, chosen, brief.
Kael's eyes shuttered for half a heartbeat.
Then he steadied again, jaw locking harder, as if he'd swallowed the feeling to keep both of them alive.
Astra pulled back and faced the doorway.
Silex stood there, patient as a guillotine.
"Two seconds," he said.
Astra lifted her chin. "I consent to stabilize collateral."
Silex's eyes narrowed slightly—approval.
Astra continued, calm. "Under Astra Vey's chosen ruleset."
The cart's projection flickered.
The seal at Astra's throat hummed—interested.
Meros wasn't in the doorway, but Astra felt him in the grid like a clerk listening for a loophole. The attendants' slates outside buzzed, catching every syllable.
Silex's mouth flattened. "Denied. Guild ruleset only."
Astra smiled without warmth. "Then you don't have consent."
Silex stepped closer.
The air tightened.
Astra didn't move.
She spoke again, clearer, louder—so the system would have to record it as a formal statement.
"I consent to a non-invasive stabilization that does not enable owner-compatible command paths," Astra said. "I do not consent to severance."
The prompt in Astra's interface stuttered like it had been slapped.
For a heartbeat, the cart's contract projection stopped being confident.
CONSENT: PARTIALDURESS FLAG: POSSIBLEACTION: REQUEST CLARIFICATION
Silex's eyes sharpened. "Subject is obstructing."
Kael's voice cut in from the bench, rough and steady. "She is negotiating."
Silex looked at Kael for the first time with actual irritation. "Collateral speaks too much."
Kael's jaw clenched. "Try to silence me."
Silex's hand lifted toward his throat crest again.
Astra's instincts screamed.
If Silex spoke another command, the containment grid could harden into a full cage. The severance could initiate. The seal could broadcast again.
Astra needed her hinge now.
She triggered her stored Ghost Command.
The world didn't change visibly. No lightshow. No dramatic collapse.
Just a subtle shift—like the seal on her throat inhaled and forgot to exhale.
SEAL BROADCAST CHANNEL: SUSPENDED (6.0s)