The Soul Brokers Game

Meanwhile, Undergleam smelled like melted copper and wet smoke; like some god had tried to cauterize a wound and did a devastating job. It was alive in all the wrong ways. Breathing like a predator and watching like a thief.

Lucien adjusted his coat, flicking one gloved hand against the Ledger; it immediately responded like the device had become part of his pulse.

"Scan for shadowbind activity. We're not alone."

"Pulse detected. Five contacts. Tracking initiated," the Ledger responded in its cool, neutral tone. Glyphs unfurled across Lucien's vision like frost etching over glass, mapping out silhouettes behind crates, two tucked low behind a broken column, another scaling the pipes overhead.

"Smuggler Dax: presence confirmed. Current status: evasive. Soul marker: flagged. Boon potential: moderate. Loyalty ranking: subthreshold. Motivation: preservation. Risk of betrayal: medium-high."

Jyn moved beside him, crouched low. Her blade stayed out but low, an extension of her fingers more than a threat. Her breath didn't shake, but her eyes were like shards of something brittle about to snap.

"You trust this Dax?" she asked. Her voice carried grit, but there was an edge of something quieter beneath it. Not fear—something older than fear. Grief with claws.

"I trust his price," Lucien answered. "And his fear of me."

The Ledger pulsed, its interface adjusting. "Soul integrity: brittle. Contract viability: high. Fold probability under pressure: eighty-nine percent. Stress response likely to reveal unfiltered intel within one minute."

"That's the plan," Lucien muttered, his hand brushing across a dull burn on the rail as they rounded into the lower hollow.

The corridor widened, opening into a market scraped together from rusted steel and lost hope. Flickering soulfires guttered in old glass cages, casting uneven shadows across warped stalls and frayed synthcloth awnings. Heat shimmered off the floor like the place exhaled through its bones.

Ahead Dax leaned against a vat of synthbrew, twitchy and pale. The man looked like he'd already lost two nights of sleep to ghosts he owed.

Lucien moved first, slow and measured. Everything about it was deliberate, just enough of a show to remind Dax where this power rested.

"Dax."

The smuggler twitched like someone had kicked a loose wire. "You came. Didn't think you would."

"You've got something I need. And you're running out of friends."

Jyn stayed back, quiet as if waiting for an excuse to become violent. Her gaze swept the perimeter, clocking exits, threats, variables. She didn't need to say anything. Lucien could feel the weight of her calculation.

He stepped in closer, just enough to smell the fear bleeding off Dax like spoiled wine. "Spies in Undergleam. Names. Movement trails. Source tags. Now."

Dax flinched. His hand ghosted toward the knife at his side.

Lucien tapped the Ledger with two fingers. A low pulse rippled outward, almost imperceptible. Glyphs spiraled like chains in the air, winding into patterns that only meant one thing.

"What... what is that?"

"A promise," Lucien said. His voice had flattened. It wasn't a threat. It was a fact.

"And a deal."

The Ledger flared brighter now. Its tone shifted, crystalline and cold. "Valthamur's boon engaged. Offer structured. Contract initiation complete. Awaiting soulmark acceptance."

Dax's pupils dilated. He didn't nod, but the decision etched itself in the muscle of his shoulders and the way his jaw dropped open just a little too wide. The glyphs flared in answer, spiraling onto his arms like iron tattoos, branding the contract directly into his soul's echo.

"Veracity chain in place," the Ledger confirmed. "Lies will initiate binding backlash. Consent recorded. Soul integrity under continuous surveillance. Breach thresholds established."

Lucien stepped in. Not aggressive. Not loud. Just close. "You lie, I unmake you. You speak true, I break your chains."

Dax shivered. "Okay. Okay, fine. There's a proxy hub... down by the old rail station. Masked sigils, half-mirror terminals. Cassian's nesting in it. I don't know how deep it goes, but it's his. Smells like him."

The Ledger pulsed. "Veracity: ninety-one percent. Cadence deviation: negligible. Soul strain increasing. Memory recall incomplete. Continue interrogation."

Lucien's tone didn't change. "Names."

Dax's teeth clicked. "Ril. Thorn. A girl with no eyes. They call her Morrow."

"Confirmed aliases linked to Cassian proxies," the Ledger replied immediately. "Last recorded intel: Ril sighted at Eastlight Docks, Thorn entered Phael Quarter through blackgate access, Morrow's trace ended near Spineglass Bunker two nights ago. Status of agents: volatile."

Lucien angled his head just enough for Jyn to catch the words. "That enough for your brother's trail?"

She nodded once, jaw tight. She didn't look at Lucien. Didn't look at Dax either. Her attention was fully on the wound this place had become.

The Ledger surged again. "Cipher detected. Cassian's mark etched into stone beneath east stairwell. Configuration analysis: hidden detonation glyph interwoven with delay echo. Activation likely set to respond upon exit or contract breach."

Lucien turned. His eyes locked on the glyph that shimmered like oil on iron. It didn't belong. Too precise. Too careful.

"Cassian's chaos persists," Lucien muttered.

The Ledger's tone dropped into something almost sympathetic. "Her hope binds you."

Lucien froze for a beat. Looked at Jyn. At the hairline cracks around her resolve. She wasn't just hoping. She was holding herself together with the thought of something worth finding. That kind of hope made people fragile.

He had the intel. He had Dax's soul wrapped tight. But the trap pulsed behind them.

"Dax's soul over Jyn's," he said. Quiet. Like he didn't mean to say it aloud. But he did.

The Ledger pulsed. "You are complicit."

Lucien stepped toward the wall, peeling off one of his glyph stencils and marking the trap in reverse. His hands moved with muscle memory. Blood-magic, counter-warded, shielded to spike at the first trigger. A backdoor laced with its own barbed edges.

"Trap layering complete," the Ledger reported. "Cassian cipher tethered to decoy glyph array. Return signature inverted. Surveillance spike active. Bait deployed."

Behind them, Jyn crouched beside a rusted conduit. Her hand pressed against the relay as if it could bring her closer to something not quite here. Her eyes widened.

"He's here. My brother... his echo's in the conduit. He's close."

Lucien didn't move to comfort her. He didn't know how. Instead, he nodded once. The nod of someone who had chosen not to say what the odds really were.

The Ledger chimed in. "Residual soul pattern confirmed. Echo unstable. Shattered tether identified. Boon application pending."

Lucien stepped back, the taste of ash already forming in the back of his mouth.

Jyn didn't look at him. Not fully. Her hand lingered on the glyphs, as if she could reach through them and pull something back. Something she had never really stopped looking for.

The Ledger hummed low again. "Informant Dax: soul contracted. Status: flagged for review. Market crash recorded. Proxy agent triggered breach sequence in Spineglass hours prior. Emergency protocols advised."

Lucien didn't flinch. "Cassian's pulling faster. Sloppier too."

"His damage compounds," the Ledger replied. "Your counters are delayed."

Lucien didn't argue. He was already walking. Already thinking about the next fire. The next ruin. The next thread Cassian had knotted into the web.

The Ledger's voice followed him like breath in his bones.

"Her hope stung."

He didn't answer that either. Just kept walking.

"Contract archived. Countermeasure strategy: queued. Boon remains active. Warning: emotional variance approaching threshold."

Lucien adjusted his coat again, thumb brushing across the back of the Ledger, its heat now almost familiar. A pulse, a whisper, a ticking thing counting down the space between debts.

"Let it sting," he said. Walking off into the night, carrying the weight of one more soul.