Chapter 974: Threshold
Back at the penthouse the world did its best to be ordinary. The tower still split the horizon like a stake through cloud, but the street below chose calm. Tea carts at corners. Quiet inspectors with actual clipboards.
Valeria stirred as soon as I stepped into my room—cool and steady, a presence under my skin.
’Frame check,’ she murmured in my head. ’Plates firm. Flex points live. Edge copy is clean.’
’Good,’ I answered. ’Stay light unless I call.’
Erebus uncoiled from the shadow by the dresser like ink remembering it used to be a man.
’Ledger open,’ he clicked along our line. ’Null-Cant tuned low. No singing unless you are already bleeding.’
’Prefer not to bleed,’ I thought back.
I packed like I was going to a meeting, not to a myth. Plain clothes that moved, no plates. A clean sheath at my hip, the real edge sleeping in bone. A steel ring for a stylus, because the first tool is a sentence. No charms the tower could call a promise.
On the wall, I wrote two lines with a stub of wax—my mother’s habit, my teacher’s rule.
"Tonight, this is a home scene."
"Words are heavy only when carried kindly."
If I listened too long, I would not leave.
Douglas knocked and came in without waiting. My father’s hands are thick with the kind of work that keeps food on tables. He took one look and did not pretend anything was fine. He pulled me in and cracked my back.
"You are still my boy," he said. "Be smart. Be boring."
"I will," I said into his shoulder.
Aria rushed in next, hair half tamed, eyes too bright. She is only a year younger.
"I am not saying don’t go," she said. "You’d go anyway. Just... please don’t let it be smarter than you."
"I’ll insult its grammar," I said.
"Good," she said, and punched my arm too hard. I let her win that one.
Alice stood at the door for a count of three, as if measuring the air. Then she crossed the room and took my face in both hands the way she did when nights were bad and money worse.
"Verbs," she said.
"Verb first," I said.
She kissed my forehead. "If it offers beauty, it lies. If it offers reason, it lies bigger. If it offers mercy, it steals. Don’t bargain."
"I won’t," I said.
She nodded once and let me go. The air thinned.
Stella had been building courage in the hallway. She came in like a small storm and tried to break the plan by hugging it. I caught her and held on.
"I know you have to," she said into my neck. "I hate it. I still know."
"I’ll be careful," I said. "I’ll be boring."
She sniffed, pulled back, and dug in her pocket. "I made a thing," she said in a rush. She held up a bracelet of elastic cord and matte beads. Tiny lines were carved into some of them.
"It does nothing," she said. "Like, actually nothing. But when you look at it, your brain pauses to check the pattern and that buys a half second. For not saying a dumb sentence."
"It’s perfect," I said, and put it on. It felt like armor that did not look like armor.
"Ice cream when you come back," she said, trying for a grin.
"You promise not to make bad deals," I said.
"I promise," she said, fierce.
She hugged me again and then went to stand with Alice, small hand finding big hand like it had a map.
The six women waited by the door. The fight had been at the palace. This was not that.
Reika came first. She fixed my collar and did not pretend she wasn’t memorizing my face. "You feel the tug, you come home."
"Yes."
Rose pressed a small strip of blue paper in my palm, inked with one curve. "Seam breaker," she said. "One time. Only if you must."
"Understood."
Rachel met my eyes. "First line to me before you say it. If I raise my hand, you wait. No hero speeches."
"Agreed."
Cecilia held out an envelope. "Authority, signed," she said. "Even gods read paper."
"Thank you," I said.
Seraphina set two fingers over my pulse. "Breathe. Four in, six out. Count out loud if you must."
"Four in, six out," I echoed.
Luna said nothing. She pressed her forehead to mine for one slow breath, then stepped to the window and kept watch. She was staying back by choice. Purelight second, not first.
We rode the lift to the garage. The hovercar doors sighed open. The motorcade slid into a city that had chosen quiet.
At the third ring, tea steam curled from carts. Weather advisory banners ran gentle text. Inspectors actually inspected. Transit slowed without alarms. People walked their dogs and went home because the air felt a bit like rain. Boredom was winning.
Near the cordon the crowd wasn’t a crowd. Rachel’s teams moved like people you trusted to tell you where not to stand. Seraphina’s cold made jackets zip. Reika checked the rope three times and then a fourth. Rose drew and erased and drew again on the ops screen. Cecilia’s messages popped on district slates in a friendly font. Quinn stood behind Adeline, who looked like a calm law. Everett walked the lane shaking hands and sending people home by first name.
The base of the tower looked like nothing for three steps and like wrong for the fourth. Light thinned. Sound lost edges. The skin of the structure wasn’t stone. It was letters hiding in curves, oil pretending to be water.
I stood at the seam and lifted my hand to the empty air above it. One last margin line where only I would see it.
"We go to keep the city boring."
Valeria rested in my bones. Erebus thinned to a whisper. Reika tied the rope to my belt and to the anchor ring. Rachel clipped the pulse lead to my wrist. Seraphina checked temperature. Rose showed me the little blue curve again and then put it back in my palm. Cecilia slipped the envelope into my inner pocket and tapped it once.
Adeline stepped up beside Quinn. "Second Hero," she said. "We hold."
"Thank you," I said.
I turned to my family. Douglas folded his arms and made a face that meant pride and also that he still wanted to ground me. Aria lifted both fists like an idiot and then laughed at herself. Alice did not speak; she mouthed one word: "Verbs." Stella pressed both hands over her mouth like that could keep her from crying, then pulled them down and gave me the fiercest glare a twelve-year-old has ever made.
I breathed with Luna. Four in. Six out. Quiet moved through my chest and stayed.
I looked at Reika. Her jaw was stone. "Lines," she said.
"Lines," I said back.
I stepped forward. Light bent. The rope pulled once as if the world wanted one more vote. Then it eased.
One more breath. Four in. Six out.
I crossed the seam and went into the tower.