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The tunnel went dark except for one lamp.
Mara still had the knife at his throat. Rowan could feel the Ledger burning around his wrist, counting something down. Three minutes. Two and a half. He didn't know what happened at zero, but the last flash had been clear enough. Mara dies, Veyrhold falls.
"Start talking," she said. "Why do you have my brother's mark?"
Rowan kept his hands up. "I don't know your brother."
"Liar." The blade pressed harder. "He sent one message before they took him. One picture. That mark, exactly like yours. Black band, red edge, the split in the middle. Don't tell me it's coincidence."
"It's not." Rowan swallowed. The mark pulsed. He could feel it pulling at something inside him, like a hook in his chest. "But I didn't ask for it. I woke up on your wall with this thing already on me. I don't know who put it there."
Mara's eyes narrowed. "Veyrhold doesn't have Ledger tech. We barely have working gates. Where'd you really come from?"
"I told you. I dropped."
"Dropped from where? The sky doesn't just hand out enemy commanders."
"I'm not a commander." Rowan's voice came out harder than he meant. "I was an analyst. Third-tier. I wrote reports nobody read and got blamed when the predictions went wrong. Then I woke up here, and this thing started giving me orders."
She didn't move the knife. "What kind of orders?"
"Work with you. Or the city dies in three days."
That got her attention. The blade shifted half an inch. "Work with me."
"Yeah."
"The commander you're supposed to kill."
"Apparently the Ledger has other plans."
Mara let out a short, bitter laugh. "That's a new lie. I'll give you points for creativity."
"I'm not lying." Rowan met her eyes. "Look at the mark. It's counting down right now. You die, I fail, the siege breaks through, and whoever's running this thing moves on to the next city. That's what it showed me."
"Showed you."
"Yeah. Like a vision, but worse. I could feel it."
Mara stared at him. The lamp flickered. Somewhere above them, something heavy hit stone. Debris, maybe. Or a body.
"My brother said the same thing," she said quietly. "That the mark showed him things. Futures. Costs."
"Where is he now?"
"Prisoner. Somewhere in your chain of command." Her jaw tightened. "I was ordered to take Veyrhold. Kill the command staff, occupy the upper district, secure the Ledger if we found one. But the orders don't match the tactics, and half my supply lines got cut before we even marched. Somebody wanted this siege to happen, but they don't want me to win it."
Rowan's mind kicked into analyst mode. Contradictory objectives, sabotaged logistics, a field commander kept in the dark. "You're bait."
"I know I'm bait." Mara's voice went cold. "I figured that out two days ago. What I don't know is what they're baiting."
The Ledger pulsed again. Two minutes.
Rowan felt the hook pull tighter. "We don't have much time. The count's still going."
"Count to what?"
"I don't know. But the last time it hit zero, it unlocked something. Gave me a skill."
"What skill?"
Rowan hesitated. Showing her was a risk. Not showing her was worse. He pulled up his left hand. The mark split open, and a line of text burned in the air between them. Faint, red-edged, flickering.
**FIELD TRIAGE — RANK 1. COST: ONE MEMORY.**
Mara read it. Her face didn't change. "What's it do?"
"Heals, I think. I haven't used it."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't know what memory it takes."
She pulled back an inch. Not far, but enough. The knife stayed where it was. "Ledger tech doesn't run on nothing. My brother said every skill had a price. You pay in blood, or time, or something you can't get back."
"Yeah. That's what I'm afraid of."
Mara looked at him for a long moment. Then she lowered the knife. "Fine. Truce. One lamp, one conversation. You try anything, I open your throat."
"Deal."
She stepped back and leaned against the tunnel wall. That's when Rowan saw the blood. Dark, spreading across her left side, just under the ribs.
"You're hit."
"I know."
"How bad?"
Mara glanced down. Her face stayed neutral, but her breathing was shallow. "Bad enough. Gate shrapnel. I've had worse."
Rowan didn't believe her. The stain was growing. "You need that closed."
"I'll live till I get back to camp."
"No you won't." The Ledger flared. The countdown hit ninety seconds, and a new line appeared under the skill. **WARNING: ALLY CRITICAL. TRIAGE WINDOW CLOSING.**
Mara saw it too. "Ally."
"That's what it says."
"We just met. I still think you're lying."
"Yeah, well, the Ledger doesn't care." Rowan moved closer. "Let me see it."
"No."
"Mara—"
"I said no. I don't know what that thing does. For all I know, it'll burn me out from the inside."
"Or it'll save your life."
"Why?" Her voice cracked, just a little. "Why do you care if I live?"
Rowan stopped. That was a fair question. He didn't have a good answer. "Because the Ledger says you die and the city falls. Because your brother had the same mark. Because I don't think either of us knows what's really happening here, and I'd rather figure it out with help than alone."
Mara stared at him. Sixty seconds.
She let out a breath. "Fine. Do it. But if this kills me, I'm haunting you."
"Noted."
Rowan pressed his left hand over the wound. The mark split wide, and the skill text burned brighter. He felt the pull immediately. Not in his wrist. Deeper. In his head.
The Ledger reached in and took something.
**MEMORY COST ACCEPTED. EXTRACTION COMMENCING.**
It started small. A face he couldn't quite remember. Someone from the war college, maybe. Then a room. A briefing. The details blurred, then dissolved. He tried to hold on, but the Ledger ripped it away like paper in a fire.
The memory was gone.
And the wound closed.
Mara sucked in a sharp breath. The blood stopped. The torn skin knit itself back together, fast and clean. When Rowan pulled his hand away, there was nothing left but a thin white line.
"What the hell," she whispered.
Rowan stumbled back. His head felt hollow. He knew something was missing, but he couldn't say what. A name. A moment. It was just gone.
"What did it take?" Mara asked.
Rowan shook his head. "I don't know. Something from before. A briefing, maybe. Or a person."
"You don't know."
"No. It's just—" He pressed his palm against his forehead. "It's not there anymore."
Mara looked at the mark on his wrist, then at her own side. The wound was gone. Completely. Like it had never been there. "That's not healing. That's theft."
"Yeah."
She pushed off the wall. Tested her weight. No pain. "I don't like this."
"Me neither."
The countdown hit zero.
The Ledger flared one more time, and a new message burned across Rowan's vision.
**SYNCED ALLY: MARA QUILL. SURVIVAL LINKED. MUTUAL FAILURE CONDITIONS ACTIVE.**
"What does that mean?" Mara's voice was tight.
Rowan read it again. "I think it means we're stuck together."
"Stuck."
"If you die, I fail. If I fail, you die. Something like that."
Mara swore. It was creative. "I knew this was a trap."
"It's not a trap. It's worse. It's a system."
"What's the difference?"
"A trap, you can break. A system—" Rowan looked at the mark, at the faint glow still pulsing around his wrist. "A system runs until someone shuts it down."
Above them, something exploded. The tunnel shook. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and the lamp swung on its hook.
Mara grabbed her knife. "We need to move."
"Where?"
"Out. I saw a maintenance shaft two turns back. Should lead to the lower district."
"Should."
"You have a better idea?"
Rowan didn't.
They ran.
The shaft was narrow, rusted, and older than the wall. Mara went first. Rowan followed, half-blind, the Ledger still burning faint lines of text across his vision. New skills unlocking. New costs tallying. He ignored them. Right now, he just needed to not fall.
The shaft opened into a cellar. Stone floor, low ceiling, crates stacked against the walls. Mara dropped through first, landed quiet. Rowan came down hard, stumbled, caught himself.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"Lower district. West edge. If we're lucky, we can—"
The door exploded inward.
Six soldiers poured through. Veyrhold colors. Blades out. And in the center, a man with a broken nose and a captain's insignia.
Soren Dax.
He saw Rowan and stopped.
"Traitor," Soren said.
Rowan couldn't breathe.
Mara's knife came up. Soren's blade followed.
And the Ledger flared one more time.
**NEW OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE CONTACT. FAILURE COST: TOTAL.**