Chapter 150: She Hasn’t Met Someone Like Me
They climbed in silence for a long time. The only sounds were the soft scrape of boots on metal and the faint creak of the great chain itself. Wind that did not exist on the ground pulled at their clothes and hair.
Halfway up, a loose chain swung close. Three bound figures rode it, their bodies fused into the links. One of them turned its head toward Lucy and opened a mouth that no longer had a tongue. A dry rattle escaped.
Lucy’s hand went to her blade. Levi glanced back once. "Ignore them. They cannot act unless she pulls the chain."
The rattle faded. The figures swung past and vanished into the lower levels of the city.
At last the great chain met a wide platform of black metal that jutted from the underside of the floating city. Levi pulled himself onto it first and turned to help the others up. The platform was empty except for a single open archway leading into the city’s lower wards. The metal under their feet was warm and slightly soft, as if it breathed.
They stepped through the arch.
The lower city was a maze of narrow streets and suspended bridges made of the same living metal. Chains of every size hung from the structures above, some taut, some swaying. Bound souls walked the streets in slow, endless circuits. Their feet made no sound. Iron collars and wrist cuffs connected them to the nearest large chains by thin linking threads that glowed faintly white.
None of the bound looked at the group directly. Their eyes stayed fixed on the path in front of them.
Vespera’s voice was quiet. "She has already seen us. These are only the outer bound. The ones closer to the spire still remember how to fight."
Levi kept walking. The five women stayed close behind him. The golden barrier of the Sovereign Domain expanded just enough to keep the thin white threads of the nearest chains from brushing their skin.
They moved deeper. The streets climbed in gradual ramps and stairways of metal that shifted slightly underfoot. The pulse of the city grew stronger. White light glowed from windows and open doorways, but no living voices came from inside.
At a wide intersection a single figure stood waiting.
It was a woman once. Now iron chains wrapped her from throat to ankles, the links sunk into her flesh. Her eyes glowed the same cold white as the linking threads. When she spoke, the voice that came out was not her own.
"Sovereign."
The word echoed from every chain in the intersection.
Levi stopped. "Mother of Chains."
The bound woman’s mouth moved again. "You have taken three of my sisters and the northern queen. You walk into my city with their marks on your skin and their seed still inside them. Turn back. The chains here are not like the ones you broke before."
Levi smiled. "I did not come to turn back."
The bound woman tilted her head. The chains around her body tightened with a soft metallic sound. "Then climb higher. I will be waiting at the top of the spire. Bring the five with you. I want them to watch when I hang you beside the last Sovereign who tried."
The white light in her eyes died. The bound woman collapsed to her knees and then to the metal street, the chains that had animated her going slack. Around the intersection every linking thread dimmed for a moment before returning to its steady glow.
Lucy stepped up beside Levi. "She is confident."
"She has never met me," Levi answered.
He looked up. Between the towers and bridges the highest spire was visible now, wrapped in moving chains that coiled and uncoiled like living things. White light burned at its peak.
Serakel’s third eye opened fully. "The pressure will only increase the higher we go."
Isha’s slimy skin had begun to dry at the edges from the constant drain of the domain. The Reverend Mother Superior’s remaining white fabric was stained with the iron-scented air. Vespera walked in silence, the last traces of green light gone from her living eyes.
Levi started forward again. The group followed.
The streets grew steeper. More bound souls filled the paths, their linking threads thicker and brighter. Some of them turned their heads as the group passed. A few opened their mouths as if to speak, but no sound came. The Mother was holding them back for now.
They crossed a long bridge of living metal that spanned a sheer drop into the lower wards. Chains hung beneath it like vines. Far below, the bottomless pit still waited.
On the far side of the bridge the architecture changed. The metal grew darker and more organic. Openings in the walls pulsed like slow heartbeats. The white light took on a colder edge.
A second bound figure waited at the base of a wide stairway that climbed toward the middle levels of the city. This one was male, or had been. Chains pierced his shoulders and hips. His voice, when it came, was the same as the first.
"Last chance, Sovereign. The spire is sealed. Only those I permit can enter. Your women will wear my chains before the day ends. You will hang."
Levi walked past him without answering. The bound figure did not try to stop them. The stairway waited.
They began to climb.
The higher they went, the stronger the pressure became. The golden barrier of the Sovereign Domain burned brighter under the strain. Levi’s Aether drained in a steady trickle, but the mark on his chest held.
[Aether expenditure: 450 per minute]
[Outer barrier holding]
[Warning: Direct confrontation with primary domain authority approaching]
At the top of the long stairway a wide plaza opened. The highest spire rose directly ahead, its base wrapped in coils of thick chain that moved without wind. A single set of black metal doors stood closed at the foot of the spire. No handles. No visible lock. Only the chains.
Levi stopped in the center of the plaza. The five women formed a loose half-circle behind him.
The doors of the spire did not open.
Instead every chain on the plaza and the surrounding towers lifted at once, the links turning toward the group like the heads of snakes.
The Mother of Chains was done sending messengers.
Levi’s Sovereign Sigil flared gold.
"Stay behind me," he said.
The first of the chains struck.