The Extra's Rise

Stormgate was already moving when we arrived: warders trading posts, engineers packing cables into tidy coils, gulls writing sloppy arcs over the sea-line. The day after a big job is when things usually slip—fatigue, pride, shortcuts—so we treated it like a stubborn door: steady pressure, no yanking.

Kade stretched out on the grass with a stethoscope to the earth like he was dozing. "Spine's on-note," he said at last, rolling to his knees and rapping a pylon's base twice. "Still honest."

Seraphina planted two tripods and ran a drift check. The new dots fell over the old ones with boring precision. "Zero-point-one two," she reported, not hiding the little smile that line of numbers buys her. Rachel adjusted a warder's brace, then kidnapped the woman for hot tea and gossip, because healing sometimes needs a cup and a laugh. Captain Vyr slid her perimeter two meters without asking anyone's permission; that's her version of "good morning." Cecilia killed a back-channel supply route a noble's cousin kept trying to resurrect. Reika stood in the blue-tarp lane even though we didn't need it today; tradition has weight, and she likes weight where it belongs.

We hopped by warp to the coast. Salt in our noses, tide marks like old scars on rock. The sea-line held. Local crews looked five years younger than yesterday—easier shoulders, longer breaths. A ward clerk insisted we take a pastry box "for the Saintess." Rachel accepted, of course. I guessed fillings while I chewed. "Orange peel and almond," Seraphina said, not looking up. She's never wrong about food.

Last stop: the inland spine. Wind combed low hills, fences wrote old cursive across fields. A farmer leaned on a gate and tipped his hat the way you do when somebody moved furniture for your mother without scratching the floor. Felt right.

By late afternoon we were in the small throne room—no court, no cameras. Marcus wore working clothes with a formal pin. Lyralei wore the calm that keeps a continent steady.

"We won't pretend this made the world safe," the queen said. "But it made it safer. That matters."

"On behalf of the South," Marcus added, looking straight at me, "thank you for keeping the ground from breaking."

"We kept it boring," I said.

He smiled with his eyes. "That's everything."

He handed me a small velvet case. Inside: old gold, dragon and laurel, a simple line across the bottom—Guardian of the Line. I don't wear medals, but I held that one with two hands. It wasn't about me. It was about a ring of people who made dawn quiet.

Concord formalities ran clean. Two paragraphs that made trial membership real, signed by the right hands. Rose slid a folded clause sheet into my pocket—"no one sues anyone if we stick to this." Cecilia checked the signatures like they were charges on a ledger. Lyralei closed the book. "Work resumes tomorrow," she said. Best sentence in any palace.

The side balcony gave us air and the wide line of the river. Valdris looked like light on water. Stella hit my ribs at speed and hugged like I'd been gone a month.

"You were boring," she said.

"The most."

"Good." She shoved up her slate. A convoy-time problem wore two clean solutions and a scribble that said solved twice. I kissed her hair. "Perfect." She made a face. "Almost."

My fiancées collected me one by one. Seraphina tapped my wrist twice with her pencil—checkmark. Rachel leaned into my shoulder, the kind of quiet that makes the rest of the world drop a gear. Cecilia slipped a card into my pocket: three bullets about VIPs and cordons for the next phase. Rose arrived late from a call, tucked a paper into my other pocket, and murmured, "Stick to this schedule and the lawyers die of boredom." Goal achieved.

Ian dropped out of a warp with hair full of wind and a grin he tried to hide. "Routes held. Lucifer says he'll pretend it was all him."

"He can have the story," I said. "We'll keep the truth."

Lucifer wandered by to steal an orange slice like it was a Northern ritual and asked if Deia and Seol-ah could send people to build air corridors up north when we clone this work. "They're calmer than I am," he confessed. "Use them." We would.

When the balcony thinned, Lyra found me. Tiamat stood a pace behind her, watching the river's silver line like it still had old answers in it.

"My brother," Lyra said. No preface, just the load that matters.

"We'll help when you ask," I told her, "and when I'm not a liability."

"You're not a liability," she said, steady. A breath. "You're not enough for where he is yet. Keep walking the way you're walking, and you will be."

"Understood."

"Good," Tiamat said softly—her version of a hug.

"Thank you for today," Lyra added, meaning the discipline. We'd all agreed to be small so the world could be steady.

"We'll be here," I said. "And we won't break the world doing any of it."

"That is our rule," she agreed.

The palace kept breathing. Crews filed out with clean gear; the Guard shifted posts by the book; engineers laughed over soup. I walked the med line. Rachel was sorting clips in tens. She glanced up and gave me the nod that means "enough for now." Cecilia texted a single word—eat. Reika leaned in a doorway, arms folded, eyes on the hall like a wall you order custom. Seraphina lifted a synced clock like a trophy; we were on the tenth.

A small vibration in my in-ear shifted the light of the day. Reika's voice came quiet and flat, the way important news tries to be polite. "Tycho Base is humming wrong. Chief Imani can hold idle, but the yard wants the wrong note."

Conversations around me thinned without anyone saying "hush." I checked Rachel; she was already pocketing a med kit. Luna had her gloves and that look she gets when a space needs calm. Cecilia's eyes flicked, counting steps between jobs and gate. Seraphina's pencil tapped a time we hadn't yet agreed on and then stilled.

"Courtesy alerts," Reika said. "Sending to South, North, West, East, Central. And the Seven."

"Short and honest," I said.

She sent: investigating our lunar yard; no assistance needed; will report if status changes. Replies came back green across the board. The Viserions' seal blinked first. The Windwards and Creightons chimed together out of habit or design. The Ashbluffs answered in a single word—received. Mount Hua and the Kagus sent a joint nod. Slatemark's stamp arrived with a neat "stand by." The Seven returned a simple "noted."

I squeezed Stella's shoulder. "Homework general?"

"Aye, sir." She gave me a look that said I was on breath duty later. Fair.

Rachel brushed my wrist. "Fours," she said. I breathed in fours.

We took the service corridor down to the Ouroboros chamber. Bone rings slept in their cradle like coiled river stone. Engineers on shift stood at respectful distance—no gawking, no whispers. Good crew.

"Core only," Reika said at the threshold. "Me, Arthur, Luna, Rachel, Seraphina, Cecilia, Rose. Erebus shadows. Chief Hale meets us inside."

Tiamat caught my forearm. "Keep it small. No Grey. Calm first."

Lyra stood in the arch's wash. "I'll watch your wire from Valdris. Call and I come. If you don't call, I am pleased."

Valeria slid to my palm, plain and balanced. She wouldn't be needed for cutting; she likes being present anyway. Erebus's shadow leaned long across the stone and then folded in, quiet and ready.

The rings turned. Air leaned. The floor made room for a circle of black and silver—the Moon held up to a mirror. We stepped forward into Tycho's light, not to make noise, but to keep something important quietly honest.

No speeches. Next job.