The courtyard felt like it was shrinking. The rhythmic hiss of the steam-pipe was the only sound in the sudden silence that followed Vane's revelation. Mara stood by the crystallized crate, her small hands trembling as she clutched the edges of her threadbare cloak. The fear in her eyes was no longer the vague, confused anxiety of a child who didn't understand her own body. It was the sharp, crystalline terror of someone who had just realized she was being watched by wolves.

Vane took a single step forward. He kept his movements slow, his hands open and away from his weapons. He tried to look like the savior he was pretending to be, but the silver light still lingering in his eyes made the lie difficult to maintain.

"Mara," Vane said, his voice low and steady. "We aren't here to hurt you. But the people who are coming for you will. They're less than a mile away. We have a carriage waiting at the terminus. If we leave now, we can disappear before they even reach this sector."

Mara didn't move. Her gaze flickered between Vane and Valerica. She saw the grime on their clothes, but she also saw the way they stood. They didn't have the slumped, defeated posture of refinery workers. They looked like the people who lived in the high-walled estates, the ones who only came to the hubs when they wanted to break something.

"You're lying," Mara whispered. Her voice was thin, but it carried a strange, vibrating resonance. "You're with the Overseers. You saw what happened to the crate. You want to take me to the factories."

"The factories are a paradise compared to where Gareth will take you," Valerica said, stepping beside Vane. She tried to soften her expression, but the natural authority in her violet eyes was hard to suppress. "Mara, we know about your power. We know about the crystalline lattice. We have people who can help you control it. But we cannot stay here."

Mara's eyes narrowed. The air around her began to hum, a high-pitched, glass-like frequency that set Vane's teeth on edge. "Stay away from me. I don't know you. I don't want your help."

She turned to run toward the narrow alleyway that led deeper into the maze of tenements. Vane didn't even have to use [Flash Step]. He simply moved, his Rank 4 Sentinel physique making the distance between them irrelevant. He appeared in her path, his shadow falling over her like a shroud.

Mara gasped and lashed out. She didn't have a technique. She didn't have a spear or a sword. She simply thrust her hand forward, her S-Rank Authority reacting to her panic. The air between them didn't just freeze; it transformed. A jagged wall of solid, prismatic crystal erupted from the cobblestones, growing six feet high in the span of a second. It was beautiful, lethal, and perfectly designed to impale anyone in its way.

Vane didn't flinch. He didn't even draw his weapon. He focused the Silver Fang mana into his palm, the liquid mercury shimmering as he slapped the side of the crystal wall. The Absolute Severance didn't just break the glass; it rejected the law that created it. The wall shattered into fine, harmless dust before it could even fully manifest.

Mara stumbled back, her amber eyes wide with shock. She had never seen anyone just erase her "curse" before. She tried to manifest another barrier, her small heart hammering against her ribs so hard that Vane could hear the frantic rhythm.

"Mara, stop," Vane commanded. "You're wasting mana you don't have. You're going to burn your channels out before we even leave the courtyard."

"Leave me alone!" she screamed. She reached for a pile of iron pipes, her intent trying to crystallize the metal into shards she could throw.

Vane looked at Valerica. She was watching him, her brow furrowed with concern. She wanted to talk the girl down. She wanted to use the noble diplomacy her mother had taught her. But Vane could feel the vibration in the ground. The mechanical thrum of the Imperial boosters was no longer a distant echo. They were three blocks away, and they weren't slowing down.

"We're out of time," Vane said.

"Vane, wait," Valerica started, her hand reaching out to stop him. "She's terrified. If you force this, she'll never trust us."

Vane didn't look at her. He didn't have the luxury of earning trust. He was a King of Puddles, and he knew that sometimes, the only way to save a life was to take away its agency. He shifted his weight, the Argent Horizon's grace making his movement a blur.

He slipped past the girl's defensive flail, his hand moving with the precision of a scalpel. He didn't use the Silver Fang. He didn't need a conceptual law to handle an untrained twelve-year-old. He simply applied a sharp, targeted pressure to the carotid artery in her neck, a technique he had mastered in the Oakhaven gutters long before he knew what an Authority was.

Mara's eyes rolled back. The jagged hum in the air vanished instantly as her consciousness flared and died. Vane caught her before she hit the crystallized crate, her small, light frame sinking into his arms.

The silence returned, heavier than before.

Valerica stood frozen, her eyes fixed on the unconscious girl in Vane's arms. Her face went pale, a mixture of shock and a growing, sharp indignation. "What did you just do?"

"I saved us ten minutes of arguing that we don't have," Vane said. He adjusted Mara's weight, slinging her over his shoulder as if she were a piece of gear. He felt the rapid, shallow breathing of the child against his back. "She's a Rank 1 Initiate, Val. She wouldn't have survived the first five minutes of a chase. Now, she's luggage. Luggage is easier to move."

"She's a human being, Vane!" Valerica snapped, her voice low but vibrating with fury. "You didn't even try to talk to her. You just... you kidnapped her. You treated her like an asset to be collected."

"That's exactly what she is right now," Vane replied. He started moving toward the back of the courtyard, his eyes scanning the rooftops. "Gareth is three minutes away. Do you want to explain moral philosophy to him while he's putting a collar on her neck? Or do you want to get to the groves?"

Valerica didn't move for a heartbeat. She looked at the crystallized crate, then at the girl's small, dangling hand. The "Rat" was standing right in front of her. Not the partner she had sat with on the terrace, but the cold, calculating thief who viewed the world as a ledger of gains and losses.

She felt a surge of heat in her chest, the Celestial Heart reacting to her anger, but she forced it down. She knew he was right about the timing. She knew Gareth wouldn't negotiate. But the way Vane had done it, the casual, effortless ruthlessness, made her feel like the ground was shifting beneath her feet.

"This isn't how we do things," she whispered.

"It's how I survive," Vane said, not looking back. "If you want to be a goddess, do it in the groves. Right now, we're in the mud. Start running, Val. Or I'm leaving you behind, too."

He didn't wait for her. He vaulted over a rusted iron fence and disappeared into the shadows of a warehouse district. Valerica let out a sharp, frustrated breath. She hated the logic. She hated the necessity.

But she followed.

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