Wind knifed across the threshold.
Sykaion stepped through the vault's gateway and into a landscape that shouldn't exist—a terrain made of failed futures.
The Collector Territories stretched before him in jagged, unnatural formations: rusted skyscraper ribs curled into the sky like the bones of extinct empires; marble streets fractured into puzzle pieces; glowing red IOU markers drifted like leaves through sulfurous fog. Above, the sky churned with veils of shredded contracts, their clauses flapping like dead wings in a storm.
> [Zone: External Audit Expanse]
Designation: Collector-Controlled Territory
Threat Class: Terminal
Restrictions: System Defense Protocols Suppressed
Objective: Locate and Reclaim Arlyss Veil
Warning: Active Collector Agents in Region
The moment he crossed fully into the zone, his interface dimmed. No glowing markers, no directional pings. Just a persistent chill across his Phantom Feather mark—a slow, burning awareness like a compass guided by pain.
He tightened his grip on the last item he had: the half-spent Obsidian Coin, now cracked faintly down its center.
Every step into the dust left behind a print that shimmered and then vanished.
"System," he muttered, "any guidance?"
Silence.
Not even an error tone.
---
He followed the flickering sensation on his chest, navigating through bent alleyways of stone contracts and broken sigils. The deeper he went, the more wrong the world became. Trees grew made of shredded tax returns. Birds perched on balance sheets impaled on iron rods. Faint voices echoed in the wind—whispers of failed negotiations, severed trust, regret quantified into haunting melody.
Then he saw it.
A ruin shaped like a courthouse—or what had once been one.
It leaned sideways, half-swallowed by a ravine made of abstract debt. Arlyss's name shimmered faintly on a shard of glass embedded in the door.
And at its base stood a figure.
Not quite human.
Not quite machine.
Wrapped in a tangle of robes stitched from unpaid debts and overdue dates, the Collector Agent waited without moving. Its face was an abacus with no beads—just empty wire loops, clinking softly with every breeze.
> [Entity Detected: Auditor-Class Collector // Variant: Remand Warden]
Power Signature: Moderate-High
Status: Watching
Intent: Obstruct Retrieval
Vulnerability: Unconfirmed
Sykaion approached slowly.
"You're standing between me and a debt I've claimed."
The Collector's head tilted. A dozen contract slips rose from its sleeves like feathers, each etched with names and balances. One glowed:
Sykaion Kairo – Assumed Obligation: Veil, A.
Status: Active
Collection Window: Reopened
"You carry what is not yours," it said, voice papery and echoing.
"I offered collateral," Sykaion said. "The system approved it."
"That does not change her fate," the Collector replied. "Only the name on the receipt."
Its hand lifted, and the papers curled into a spiraling blade.
> [Combat Initiated: Trial Class Conflict – Debt Recovery Format]
Sykaion's Phantom Feather ignited.
But something was different this time.
The system shimmered.
> Ability Unlocked: Shared Burden
Activation: Passive
Function: Redirect incoming cost to self in place of bonded debtor
The Collector struck.
A blade of clausebound energy lashed toward him—seeking to extract memory, a fee of consciousness from Arlyss's soul.
It hit his chest.
He screamed.
Pain seared into his nerves—cold and bright, like being rewritten. Moments of his childhood flickered and warped: a day at the docks replaced by a blank; a friend's name dissolved into noise.
> Memory Cost Absorbed: 1.2 Years
Emotional Anchor Lost: "Cato"
System Debt Avoided: Veil, A.
He staggered backward, coughing blood.
But her name on the shard in the door… dimmed. Slightly.
"She's still in there," he whispered. "And you'll have to kill me to keep her."
The Collector tilted its head again. "Accepted."
---
The battle wasn't physical—it was transactional war. It struck with fees, levies, time penalties. Each attack came as a clause, twisting through the air. Sykaion dodged what he could, shielded what he couldn't. Every blow he took shaved away pieces of him—not just memories, but self-definition.
But with every defense, her signature on the door faded.
He was replacing her debt with his own.
One fragment at a time.
His legs gave out. He fell to his knees.
> Critical Status: Phantom Feather at 11% Integrity
Abstract Debt Threshold Approaching
"You will shatter," the Collector intoned, raising its hand for the final clause.
Then the system blinked.
> Passive Income Surge: $428
Origin: Roe, Gillean – Confidence Dividend Payout Triggered
Trait: Belief in Risk
A wave of warmth pulsed through Sykaion's chest.
Faith returned.
The Obsidian Coin pulsed.
His HUD lit up.
> Emergency Asset Option Available:
Deploy: "Feather Echo" – Channel Resonance from Linked Soul
Activation Cost: Shared Emotion
Recommended Emotion: Desperation
He thought of her.
Trapped in the glass. Giving him the token. Walking away like she expected to die someday and had already made peace with it.
He grabbed the shard in the door.
"Arlyss—wake up!"
The world cracked.
---
The Collector reeled as light tore through the courthouse, a fissure of white and gold. The door exploded into glyphs.
A voice echoed out—not his. Hers.
"You don't get to collect him either."
Arlyss Veil stepped through the smoke.
Her eyes glowed blue. Her hands held nothing.
And yet every debt slip around the Collector burned in midair.
"You're not supposed to be conscious," it said, retreating.
"I'm not supposed to remember either," she replied. "But he did."
Sykaion smiled faintly through bloodied lips.
Together, they stepped forward.
And the Collector vanished into mist.
---
The world faded again.
They stood in a void.
Only each other.
And a single line of system text:
> Featherlink Sustained
Shared Burden Stabilized
First Collector Defeated
Sykaion Kairo – Title Earned: Debtwalker, Rank I
She looked at him.
He looked at her.
Neither said anything for a moment.
Then she offered her hand.
"I guess we're not done owing each other yet."
He took it.
And the next gate opened—
to a city that wasn't their own.
To be continued in Chapter 9…