Silence.
Vault 01's hearth was cold. The scrolls were still. The golden skylight that once pulsed with distant currency systems had gone dark, veiled beneath a lattice of closed equations. Sykaion stood alone, heart drumming in a room that had once felt like sanctuary but now felt… repossessed.
> [Passive Income Stream (I) – Active]
Current Earnings: $3.12 (1.27 Abstract Credit)
Linked Debtors: 12
Status: One Outstanding Debt: Tier Alert – Red
He stared at the top of the Debt Ledger. Arlyss Veil's name blinked in crimson, a sigil beside it resembling a shattered quill.
"Pending Collection."
The words made his blood run cold.
"System," he said aloud, "define: pending collection."
> Definition: A debt incurred through contract, gift, or implicit transfer. If unbalanced within system parameters, the System may deploy a Collector or enact Equalization protocols.
Current Debtor Status: Voluntary Risked Memory Token – Not Repaid
"She gave me the token…" Sykaion whispered. "And now it's marked as a debt?"
> Affirmative.
He swiped the interface aside and sprinted through the vault, boots thudding on obsidian glass. Every shelf he passed dimmed in his wake, as if reacting to his desperation.
"Arlyss!" he called. "Where are you?!"
No reply.
He passed through the rune gate she once stood beside—now cold.
Through the auxiliary chambers.
Through the memory hall.
Nothing.
Then a soft flicker. One screen.
She stood within it, frozen in a moment: walking away from a burning market window, expression unreadable.
> Status: Debt Marked for Collection by External Party
Collector Class: UNKNOWN
Execution Timeframe: 3 Hours
Displacement Probability: 88%
He touched the screen. His reflection stared back at him, a stranger with fear in his eyes.
This wasn't just system balance.
Someone had claimed her debt.
He turned, hands curling into fists. "System. What options do I have to repay this debt myself?"
> Searching…
Eligible Actions:
▸ Offer Equivalent Memory Collateral
▸ Trade Active Income Stream
▸ Substitute Debt via Phantom Wager (High Risk)
▸ Initiate "Feather Duel" (Available Tier II Only – Locked)
None of it meant anything to him—yet.
He knew one thing: if he waited, the System would erase her. Or worse—repurpose her soul into abstract liquidity.
"I'm not letting that happen," he muttered.
> Confirm: Offer Collateral to assume debt of Arlyss Veil?
"Yes," Sykaion said. "All of it."
> Collateral Registered:
Memory Anchor: Slum Survival
Passive Income Stream (I)
Trial Clearance: Gregor Banc (Sealed Temporarily)
> Debt Transferred.
Collection Clock: Suspended
New Status: Debt That Breathes
Risk: Undefined
Bond Status: Featherlinked
The vault shook.
A long, low tone echoed from the walls like a warning bell in a drowned cathedral. Glyphs lit up across the ceiling in shifting copper and ivory patterns.
> You have invoked a Forbidden Protocol:
The Debt That Breathes
You now share consequences, fates, and redemption arcs with the linked soul until balance is reached.
System Note: This bond cannot be broken without loss of self.
The hearth re-ignited.
But the fire burned black.
---
Somewhere else—
In a chamber beneath the Black Audit Bank, a figure in bone-white robes turned its head.
Its ledger flared.
Its mouth moved, though it had no lips.
"A Featherlink… so early?"
Across its desk, Arlyss Veil sat unconscious in a glass chair, a band of quantum ink wrapped around her wrists.
Her aura pulsed faintly.
The figure reached out, fingers made of folded bills, and touched the bond.
It burned.
"No… not an artificial pact. A living one."
The Collector leaned back in its throne of declined transactions.
"Sykaion Kairo. You've offered yourself."
It smiled.
And set the clock to resume.
---
Back in the vault, Sykaion fell to his knees as flame seared across his chest—a second mark forming over the first.
> Phantom Feather – Evolution in Progress
Tier 1.5 – Debt-Bound Catalyst
New Ability: Shared Burden
Effect: Absorb injuries, moral debt, or memory loss in place of a linked entity (Arlyss Veil)
He gasped as the pain stopped.
Her name pulsed on the screen again.
This time no longer in red.
Just pale gold.
Waiting.
And from the walls, soft music began to play—a lullaby of ledgers, numbers sung by children who never aged.
"I'm going to find you," he whispered. "And I'm going to pay this in full."
> Quest Unlocked:
Claim Her Back
Objective: Locate Arlyss Veil in the External Auditor Territories
Subgoal: Survive Next Collector Encounter
Reward: Phantom Feather Fragment (15%)
Cost of Failure: Loss of Anchor / Permanent Debt Displacement
Sykaion stood.
The vault door opened again.
This time, it led not to a trial, or a test—but a wasteland of shattered marble, shattered contracts, and forgotten promises.
Where Collectors hunted the broken.
To be continued in Chapter 8…