Kane produced my debt contract.
The original had survived the fire and the purge of the archive. The heavy paper bore my parents' fingerprints, the Li family seal and the child heir's mark. The debt of three million passed to me along with the right to all the Wang family's property.
"Your parents entrusted the inheritance to the city themselves," Kane said.
"They paid for its safekeeping."
"The keeper is responsible for an item until the debt is paid. The heir is responsible afterwards."
He pressed the contract to the Crown.
The pain returned to my wrists before I saw the chain. My fingers opened, my sword fell, and my body took a step towards Kane. The System recognised me as part of the collateral because the contract had been signed before I came of age and had never been challenged before the Guild.
A second step.
A confirmation line opened before me.
"Transfer inherited creature to temporary owner."
Styx was not bound by the contract. I was.
If I touched the line, Kane would have the right to claim that I had transferred her willingly when the city was under threat.
I tried to stop my hand. My muscles would not obey.
Styx touched my neck. Her parasite ability opened a familiar path: she could enter my nervous system and wrest control of my body from the contract.
After Arden, I already knew the price.
One more complete intrusion would mingle our memories. I might no longer know where my fear ended and her hunger began.
My finger rose towards the panel.
I agreed.
Styx went under my skin.
She did not pull my hand back. Instead, she opened the memory she had carried since the first day.
The dead end. My closed hand. A drop of blood on the dead egg. Brutus in the mud. Lily beneath the tree. The Wildlands. The copper whistle. The laboratory where I had first asked Styx what she wanted.
The contract bore down on my muscles, while the memory restored to my body reasons that could not fit into an inheritance receipt.
I stopped my finger a few centimetres short of the confirmation.
Kane strengthened the seal. The paper caught fire around the edges.
"Memory does not invalidate a signature."
The red point above the circle blinked.
One captain relayed an image of a document from the living archive. Lily sent the record through his independent core, and Rem authenticated it with his own seal.
It was the original deed transferring the egg.
It contained no living creature. The egg was listed as dead biological material with no assessed value. The Li family received the right to store a sealed container, but not to dispose of whatever might one day awaken inside it.
Kane immediately produced the later version. It already contained the phrases 'potential beast' and 'heir's collateral'.
Both versions bore the same date.
The Crown could not determine which signature carried greater legal force. But it could see that the claim of ownership had appeared after the transfer.
The white chain around my arm loosened.
I snatched my finger back.
The contract did not disappear. It split into two incompatible versions and lost control of my body.
Styx emerged from my neck.
Part of my memory went with her.
I knew I had killed Brutus, but I could no longer remember his face. I remembered the room in the slums, but the colour of the door was gone. The memory of my first hunt held the sound of wings, with no sky above them.
Styx lay on my palm, searching for what she had lost as well.
We had preserved ourselves, but we had not come back whole.
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