Blood Is a Ghost

The Undergleam didn't sleep; neither did it denizens. 

Lucien stepped off the mag-rail platform with that particular brand of confidence that only came from knowing you had a monster leashed and nobody else did. His coat dragged the damp behind him like a stage curtain closing on better men. He lit a soulstick and waited for the smoke to make the first move.

Jyn landed beside him, rifle slung low but close. Her eyes were narrow slits of discipline—cutting, precise, and already locked on the stink of danger. She didn't twitch. Didn't need to. That quiet fury lived in her bones, and tonight, it had a name.

Lucien tilted his head toward her without breaking stride. "You sure this is where you want to go?" His voice was low, warm at the edges, like a coin flipping through fire.

Jyn didn't look at him. Her gaze hunted ahead. "Cassian's feeding my brother fairy-tale debt. He's still soft enough to believe in rescue."

Lucien exhaled through his teeth. "Cassian's always had a taste for family. Break one rib and the whole body limps."

The Ledger stirred at his wrist, heat blooming like a thought crawling up his spine.

Soul Tracking Initiated.Target: Jorel Vance.Client Relation: Jyn Vance.Soul-State: Coerced. Influence Layer: Cassian-Proxy 3rd Degree.Boons Corrupted: 1.Contract Breach: Confirmed.Syndicate Location: Verified. Risk Level: Tier IV Infiltration.Emotional Tether Between Subjects: Decaying.

Lucien tapped his thumb against the rune set into his glove, and the air shimmered with a low-frequency ripple. Glyphs flared across his vision, mapping sigil-webs and defensive pulses two blocks down. The place looked like a condemned injector den—rust over rust—but the Ledger's overlay told a sharper story: motion triggers, ward sensors, and at least one perimeter spell coiled to detonate on smell.

"We'll find him," Lucien said, and let a crooked grin bleed into his tone. "My stage. My rules."

Jyn didn't smile. She pulled her rifle tighter to her chest. "Then let's rewrite the script."

They moved quiet—shadows tucked between soundless alleys and humming wall grids. Lucien kept one hand near the Ledger, the other close to the bone-sigil stitched into his coat lining. Jyn took point. Every step she made felt like a dare to be seen.

The Ledger whispered again, its voice more insistent now.

Cassian Proxy Signals: Active (Intermittent).Soul Drift: Jorel Vance located 71 meters northeast.Internal Defense Status: Partial Activation.Projected Outcome: Betrayal Likelihood 78%.Warning: Emotional Collision Event Approaching.

Lucien clenched his jaw, just once. "You ever think maybe Cassian isn't corrupting people," he said under his breath, "just revealing how close they already were to folding?"

Jyn's reply was ice dipped in gunmetal. "Cassian's a crack in the world, Lucien. You don't fall through him unless you're already breaking."

That sat in Lucien's chest longer than it should have.

They reached the threshold. Lucien placed a flat hand on the outer wall, and the Ledger pulsed through the brick. A ward activated under his touch, flashing once in pale green. He etched a glyph across the seam, and the door dissolved like it was never there to begin with.

Jyn went first.

The hideout's interior was soaked in chemical light and rotten incense. The walls were grime-slick and lined with crates stuffed with serum vials and black-market mod rigs. And there, under the haze of old glamour, Jorel Vance stood with the kind of posture only desperation breeds. Loose limbs. Eyes unsure. A man hollowed out by someone else's promises.

"Jyn," he said, voice quaking like a wire under tension.

She lowered her rifle an inch, which meant everything and nothing. "Jorel."

Lucien stayed at the door, letting the Ledger trace every movement.

Soul Signature: Jorel Vance.Contract Detected: Tripartite. Coercion Layer: Deep-Seated.Cassian Influence: Embedded. Ambush Protocol Likelihood: Critical.Boon Trap Detected: Neuro-Lock primed.

Lucien's stomach turned cold. He pulled two glyphs from the tether on his coat and whispered them alive. "Jyn, back up. Now."

Her head snapped toward him. "What?"

"He's already wired. Cassian's using you as a trigger."

Jorel's panic surged. "No, I... he told me it'd protect her. That she was already... already marked."

He didn't finish. The air convulsed.

The ceiling detonated in violet light—nerve sigils spiderwebbing outward. A paralyzing pulse carved through the room. Jyn dropped like her strings got yanked, rifle clattering useless to the side.

Lucien didn't hesitate.

He spun the glyphs midair, weaving them into a shroud of spectral light around her. The magic flexed, peeled the trap sideways, and grounded it through the floor like lightning caught mid-fall.

Cassian's traps always wore elegance like cheap cologne—just enough shine to hide the poison.

"You're in the wrong theater, Jorel," Lucien muttered, voice sharp and frayed. "Cassian's lies don't hold weight under stage light."

The Ledger sparked, and heat flared across Lucien's hand.

Emergency Decoy Initiated.Redirecting Jorel Vance's Soul Signature to Veilshade Shell Node.Trap Feedback Loop: Terminated. Boon Hostilities: Neutralized.Mental Fallout: Temporary Disassociation. Subject may recover.

Jorel collapsed, eyes fluttering. He hit the floor with a breath like a drowned man.

Lucien moved to Jyn. She coughed, stiff but conscious. Her eyes flared with something colder than rage.

"You good?" he asked, already pulling her upright.

She nodded once. Then picked up her rifle like it hadn't betrayed her.

Lucien glanced down at Jorel. "You want me to end it?"

Jyn stared at her brother for three long seconds. "No," she said, voice quiet and burning. "But I want him to live with it."

Lucien respected that. Even if it was worse than death.

They moved fast, slipping into the under-tunnels as the hideout's outer ward cracked behind them. Lucien triggered a collapse glyph at the threshold. The tunnel mouth folded like a broken jaw.

Silence followed them until they stopped behind a Veilshade generator stack. Humid, dark, and private.

The Ledger blinked, its feed crawling up Lucien's vision.

Jorel Vance: Status – Stasis.Soul Leakage Detected – Crimson Market Route Compromise Confirmed.Cassian Activity Spike: +17%. Trade Disruption: Active.Crew Trust Metrics: Faltering.Recommended Action: Loyalty Binding Suggested for Jyn Vance.

Lucien leaned against the wall, hands buried in his coat pockets. "Your brother gave up route paths. Crimson Market's going to bleed for that."

Jyn stared straight ahead. "Figured."

Lucien pulled out a stylus. The glow from its tip buzzed faintly in the dark. "I can bind your loyalty with a clause. It'll keep Cassian out of your thoughts, if he tries again."

Jyn didn't move.

"You think I'm gonna betray you next?"

Lucien's voice was tired. Not wounded—just worn where the lies stopped fitting.

"I think," she said slowly, "you're scared. Of what happens when you start trusting people again."

Lucien smiled. Not the pretty kind.

"I think I'm trying not to lose the only ones left who haven't sold their souls yet."

She took the stylus. Signed the air.

The glyph flared, then vanished into her skin.

The Ledger whispered its judgment.

Clause Bound: Jyn Vance. Loyalty Thread Established.Emotional Fallout: Dormant. Resurfacing Likely.You Weave Fates.

Lucien slid down to sit against the wall. The cold pressed against his spine like an old hand.

"Family's a messy bet," he muttered.

Jyn didn't speak.

Behind them, the tunnel sighed. The city above didn't notice what had been traded. It never did.

But Lucien felt it in his bones—the thread tightening.

Somewhere out there, Cassian smiled, and that meant something worse was coming.