Cut Through the Static

Lucien moved through the underbelly of Nocturne Spire like a man who didn't care.

Vara stalked ahead, eyes sharp enough to cut the dark. Her posture was all muscle memory and old wounds, but Lucien clocked the stiffness in her shoulders. Tension without a name. Her fingers twitched near a cracked soul-charm hanging from her belt—still faintly pulsing with her sister's signature. Not a beacon. More like a flare halfway drowned.

"She's close," Vara muttered, not slowing. Her voice scraped out dry, like she hadn't spoken in hours.

Lucien brushed his thumb over the sigil etched into the back of his glove. The glyph pulsed a low blue glow, steady against the grime. "Your sister's soul-thread's still intact. I don't miss on soul-trails."

He offered her a wink that wasn't just bravado. It carried weight. She didn't look back.

The Ledger flexed against his wrist, heat blooming up like a heartbeat caught in a data loop.

Contract: Rescue – Vara's Sister: Unofficial Soul Status: Vital Thread Active, Integrity at 38% Hostiles Detected: Seven Iron Crows nearby Cassian Influence: Thread detected, minimal... unstable Ingress Map: Shadow Channel 4B viable Strategic Advisory: Initiate Boon Prep — Recommend: Displacement Glyphs, Cloak Tier I Emotional Overlay (Vara): Protective fixation. Guilt-stress spike. Likelihood of impulse deviation: 68%

Lucien tapped the inner palm of his glove. Glyphs answered like they'd been waiting to be useful. Shadows folded around them—not total invisibility, but enough to fool thugs who never looked past the barrel of their rusted guns.

"They think they own the dark," he muttered under his breath.

Vara gave him a glance, sharp and skeptical. "Let's not test how territorial they get."

The tunnel tightened, forcing them to duck beneath a jagged pipe. Graffiti scarred the walls—some of it fresh, some of it old enough to still bleed. Symbols stitched from soot and panic. Lucien caught the edge of a blood-crusted glyph above the next bend.

"Trip trap," he murmured. "Ceiling rigged. Don't breathe under it."

"I know how they work," Vara snapped.

She said it fast, defensive, like the reminder stung.

Lucien didn't press. He caught something flickering in her tone, not fear exactly. More like a confession dressed up as irritation.

He stepped ahead of her, visor filtering spectral residue in low contrast. The walls practically wept soul fragments—spattered traces, flickering echoes, fingerprints left behind by pain. Either the Crows were getting sloppy or Cassian was baiting something bigger.

The Ledger fed him new telemetry, cold and clear.

Proximity Markers: Traps confirmed — 3 activeSoul Fragment: Tracked 22.7 meters forward, 2.9 meters belowResonance Spike: Trauma-linked memory imprintProtective Boon Recommended: Spectral Mantle Dual Anchor variantLucien-Vara Emotional Thread Sync: 81%

They reached a junction cut into the flooring. Voices drifted up through a grate—laughter warped by pills and rot. Lucien caught Vara's sleeve before she could lean forward. Her whole body jerked like she was about to leap.

"We go quiet," he said. "I'll shield us when we hit the drop."

Vara looked at him. Eyes bloodshot, jaw tight. "I don't want her to see me like this."

"Like what?"

"Like I needed you to get to her."

Lucien didn't sugar it. "You didn't need me. You needed an edge. I just happen to be the scalpel."

She snorted. Half a laugh, maybe. Or something trying to be one.

They slipped into the underbelly. Holo-screens flickered with broken loops. A child's lullaby played on one, cracked and slowed. Pipes howled from deeper inside. Lucien guided them with the sigil, avoiding the perimeter rigging, each step laced in silence.

Then they found her.

The girl was curled on a cot, blanket tucked like a fortress around her body. Her soul-signature flickered erratic. Eyes wide and too old.

"Vara…?" she whispered.

Vara moved before Lucien could speak.

And that was when the air went wrong.

Lucien's Ledger surged.

ALERT: Cassian Proxy Detected Neuro-Trap Engaged — Tier II Paralysis Field Active Mindlock Script Inbound Companion: Compromised Recommended Action: Boon Cast – Spectral Mantle (Urgent)

Vara froze mid-stride. Jaw clenched so hard it cracked. Her body locked like a statue left in a storm. Her sister screamed. Somewhere in the corner, something shimmered.

The proxy emerged. Not shaped, just... implied. A shimmer made of code and static. The outline of a man, almost. Glass reflections and wet circuitry.

It laughed. Like a dial tone that'd learned sarcasm.

Lucien stepped forward, his body angled just enough to shield both sisters.

"Really?" he asked. "You drop a budget-class ghost just to waste my time?"

The proxy didn't speak. It fed on Vara's thread, draining through the air like someone siphoning soul through a straw.

Lucien reached inward. The Ledger met him halfway.

Spell Construction: Spectral Mantle Dual Anchor Detected: Lucien + VaraSoul Affinity: 88% Invocation Phrase: "Hope must cost" Mana Tax: 14% / Surge Threshold 3%

Lucien whispered the words.

"Cassian's toys are always broken."

He reached toward Vara, fingers etched in light. "Hope must cost."

The glyph burst from his hands. Light spun like ash in reverse. The boon wrapped around Vara, shattering the neuro-lock. She gasped as control snapped back into her limbs. Her eyes filled with tears she refused to blink away.

Lucien turned back. Glyphs still hot. He dragged one finger through the air, slicing the invocation sigil.

The proxy shrieked. Not a voice. A feeling. The absence of one. Then it imploded, smoke unraveling into nothing.

The Ledger quieted.

Proxy Neutralized Soul Anchor Stable Trauma Elevated – Companion Sync Required Quote Logged: "Her hope binds you." Cassian Response Delay: 36 Hours Advisory: Threat Posture Adjusted

Vara dropped to her knees beside her sister. Held her like she didn't know how to let go anymore. The girl sobbed into her coat.

Lucien didn't move. Didn't speak.

They left the den with silence riding shotgun. No alarms. No Iron Crows awake to sound them. Lucien had sabotaged the feed loop hours ago.

Outside, the neon haze looked cheap. The kind of color that tried to apologize for the truth it had to light.

Vara sat her sister on a bench. The girl stared ahead, mute. Lucien kept scanning the area. But his gut had already dropped.

The Ledger confirmed it.

Soul Link: Stabilized Residual Trauma: High Influence Disruption: Nocturne Slum – destabilized Reason: Proxy Detonation, Spiritual Feedback Loop Market Impact: Trade Route Collapse Forecast: 17%Suggested Action: Counter-Rescue in Veilshade, Immediate Note: Cassian has undermined your node. Strategic flank executed.

Lucien clenched his jaw.

Cassian hadn't just baited them. He'd mapped the fallout. Every thread of soul-energy Lucien traced back to the southern market was now frayed. What should have been a surgical lift had become a precision hit. Cassian hadn't gone for the throat.

He'd gone for the ribs.

Vara turned toward him, pale under the lights.

"You knew this was Cassian?"

"I suspected," Lucien said, voice low. "Didn't know he'd price your sister's freedom in trade routes."

Vara's expression didn't change, but her voice cracked. "You sure he did?"

Lucien didn't answer.

The Ledger pulsed beneath his skin, slow and accusatory.

Crew Trust Shift: -4%Morality Index: Drift Detected Forecast: Arc III Crew Stability at Risk Emotional Reinforcement Required: High Priority

Lucien looked toward Veilshade, where the next slum pulsed with unclaimed souls and risk. His next step waited there.

But so did the fallout.

And this time, he couldn't pretend it was just about power. He'd traded a clean cut for a messy rescue, and the cost wasn't just numbers.

It was trust.

It was Vara, holding her sister like she didn't trust the world not to take her again.

Lucien exhaled slow, fingers ghosting across the back of his wrist.

"Next time," he said under his breath, "we strike first."

The Ledger throbbed once, then displayed a single, static phrase.

Cassian will not wait.