Lily appeared in the doorway with the consent key.
The freed beasts from the sorting bay followed her. They did not attack the people. Each moved towards the exit along the route Mira had managed to open before deleting the archive.
Lily pressed the transparent plate to the broken panel. One recess lay beneath my palm; the other was behind the glass beside Styx.
"The key will accept only a decision made at the same time," Mira said over the link.
I placed my hand on it.
The System tried to answer for the queen again. This time the key rejected the substitution.
"Styx," I said. "Do you want to come back?"
Not 'obey'. Not 'come to me'. Not even 'we have to leave'.
Kane rose by the far wall. The basilisk was wounded, but golden rings were already gathering around the cage. Styx had only seconds left.
She looked at the blood reservoirs. At the dead eggs beneath her legs. At the captain who had reached the tower with a scorched wing.
Then at my palm.
Styx touched the key.
"I do."
The transparent plate flared red. The golden rings flew apart, and the glass lost its solidity. Styx passed through the wall and fell into my hand.
The System returned, but the lines were different.
"Voluntary contract confirmed. Master status revoked. Bonded party: Rex Wang. Bonded party: Styx.
Compulsory commands unavailable. Accelerated evolution restricted. Shared sensations and mutual confirmation retained."
Beyond the tower, only a few captains responded, those who had accepted Styx's new signal for themselves.
I could no longer raise the swarm with a single command.
Styx could ask them.
Kane struck the Crown's emergency switch.
"Then we will see how long your freedom lasts when the city starts to die."
The shard of the titanic core discharged. Black light filled the lower laboratory. The Void Dragon roared, but this time Leon stood beside him of his own free will.
Kane directed the energy not into Styx, but into the city's external channel.
The Crown's first impulse passed through the tower.
Every freed beast stopped at once.
White lines lit around their necks. The old contracts Lily had not yet managed to transmit became chains again.
One beast turned on its former owner and attacked.
Then a second.
The impulse passed into the city.
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