Chapter 573: Two Hungry Hands

Lucan knelt beside the exposed engine scar at the clinic’s edge while the new frost shelters were taking shape outside, the return marks stirring beneath the surface near his hand.

Cessy crouched opposite him with her claws above the dust.

She had drawn one hand around a narrow handle, its fingers curling toward the route beneath Ouro before she added a second grip pulling from the other side.

Lucan looked from the picture to the three marks Vella had uncovered along the scar, recognizing the opposed strain where their lines crossed.

"They are not holding it together," he said.

Cessy dug the second hand deeper into the dust.

"Two hands fighting over the same handle."

The nearest mark tightened as if the engine disliked the description, its lower turn dragging against a straighter demand laid through the heart network above it.

Lucan followed that lower curve with his eyes, stopping short of the place where his own burned administrative scar had begun aching in answer.

The old route wanted the engine pulled toward the Underworld connection.

The straighter line wanted the same engine obedient here.

One grip would have to yield for the other to finish closing.

Cessy tapped the dust beside the hand she had given the lower curve, leaving a little hollow where her claw touched ground.

"He may break the handle before he loses it."

"Or keep reaching after the other hand is gone."

She gave Lucan a flat look.

"That would be familiar."

He could not argue with that part.

Vella held the exposed scar clear with violet along its outer edge, her gold still close around the older operator sitting beside the guard within the clinic.

The three marks had risen into view where the engine’s damaged surface opened, their different directions visible without anyone having to answer the deeper pull.

Cessy put her palm against the first mark’s crossing portion, giving its recoil a place in the flesh it already recognized while keeping her claws clear of the central line.

Vella watched the connection settle beneath that hand.

"There."

Cessy scored across the mark with one claw.

The lower curve snapped back into her forearm before the cut had finished brightening, a dark burn climbing over the place where her administrative brand had already been severed.

She made a short sound through her teeth, her other hand pressing hard into the dust beside the unfinished drawing.

The first mark went still.

Lucan reached toward her wrist before stopping his hand beside it, waiting until she turned the arm enough for him to see the depth of the fresh burn.

"I have it," she said.

He looked at the skin before answering.

"I can see that."

Cessy gave him an irritated little smile, the expression lasting only until she lifted her burned arm away from the exposed scar.

Vella laid a narrow dressing against the damaged place while the witness beside the clinic recorded the first cut and the recoil Cessy had taken through her local body.

The second mark had started drawing itself tighter during the pause, its upper line reaching toward the note Ferra’s fixtures kept failing to complete.

Lucan took the ordinary knife the clinic attendant offered him, testing its grip with his right hand before setting his left palm at the crossing point Cessy indicated.

The engine recognized that contact too quickly.

Heat ran beneath his skin before he brought the knife down, the old scar along his arm tightening around the place where the new return tried to find purchase.

He cut the line at its shallow bend.

The recoil struck through his palm with a pull that seemed determined to take his elbow back through it, his knife hand stopping flat against the safe edge before the blade could slip.

His vision narrowed around the second mark.

He kept looking until its upper demand broke away from the lower curve, the two opposed lines losing their joined grip beneath his hand.

Cessy caught the knife’s handle only after he turned it toward her, taking the ordinary blade from his shaking fingers while he lifted his burned palm clear.

She set it beside the attendant’s clean cloth.

"Second," the witness said.

Lucan nodded at the count with his jaw closed, letting Vella press the dressing around his palm before he tried opening the hand again.

The old report corner inside his coat rubbed against his chest when he shifted, its small surviving edge feeling absurdly intact beside the flesh he had just spent.

He thought of the blank place he had refused to fill.

The engine had a much less patient way of asking.

Cessy followed his glance toward the coat before looking back at the third mark, her own burned wrist held close while the remaining line drew a deeper breath.

"Still keeping it?"

"Yes."

"Then keep your hand too."

He almost laughed at that, the effort catching against the pain before it reached his mouth.

The third mark crossed both of the first two paths, its recoil gathering toward the same shared point that had made Cessy draw two hands in the dust.

Cessy pressed her left fingertips below the burned wrist while Lucan set his right palm on the opposite side, each taking the return that reached through their own crossing flesh.

Cessy brought her free right claws across the exposed center.

Lucan felt his share strike up through his wrist as hers drove her shoulder back, both of them staying against the scar until the divided recoil had spent itself in their bodies.

The third mark broke between them.

For one breath he heard nothing except his own rough inhale, the engine’s three severed demands leaving a cold space where they had been fighting over the same grip.

Cessy’s fingers shook against the dust.

He put his shaking hand beside hers without taking it, giving her something close to reach when she was ready to lift her claws from the ground.

The witness recorded the third cut with both names beneath its recoil, his chalk pausing when a deeper mark began showing through the quiet left behind.

Vella moved her violet edge away from that new line.

"Leave it."

Cessy lifted her hand at once.

Lucan did the same, the fresh pain making the careful withdrawal feel much slower than the movement itself.

With their hands clear, Vella stepped to Didi’s waiting palm just outside the clinic, taking the prepared wrapping from the attendant beside the door.

The fourth mark stayed beneath the exposed scar instead of rising to meet their blood, its waiting shape turned toward the central cradle through a line that had not completed its last loop.

Cessy looked from that gap to the mark’s inner curve, her expression losing the last trace of the smile she had used on her brother.

"It needs the body to accept the seat."

Lucan followed the unfinished loop toward the cradle direction on the local map, finding the shape of the expected answer within the part that was still open.

"Ash."

The name made the witness look up from his slate.

Vella returned from wrapping Didi’s hand as the name reached the doorway, her eyes narrowing while she came back to the untouched scar.

Cessy pointed above the mark without touching it, tracing the direction that kept its unfinished loop aimed toward the cradle.

The witness set that bearing against his map, recording the fourth mark separately from the three cuts whose recoil still burned along their arms.

Lucan lifted one loose rind from the safely severed second mark with the clean cloth, folding it before putting that physical evidence into a different pocket from the report corner.

Hajin reached the clinic from the cleared shelter approach as the first copied warning went out, his five Rings passing through the doorway above the fresh dressing on his right hand.

Cessy showed him the two grips she had drawn in the dust, then the fourth mark waiting beneath the opened engine scar.

"Underworld and Concord are competing for it," she told him, "this last one is waiting for Ash to accept the cradle."

Hajin looked toward the north service access before returning his attention to the untouched line, his face settling into an expression Lucan had learned to distrust on the engine’s behalf.

"Get that warning to the doors."

The witness copied the proof for the council while the waiting runners took the cradle warning, their feet carrying it toward the actual child beneath North.

Lucan watched one runner hesitate beside the mark-rind he had pocketed, the man’s eyes moving toward the report corner visible at the edge of his coat.

"You kept something from them."

"Your choice is in what you refuse to send back," Lucan answered.

Hajin looked at him across the scar without offering another oath to put in the report, his gaze dropping instead to the burns both siblings were carrying.

[ Specialized rescue work EXP: 0 ]

Cessy pushed herself upright beside the cold marks, accepting her brother’s offered forearm only after she had found a place her burned wrist could rest against it.

Dust had stuck to the damp edge of her dressing, leaving the two hands she had drawn smudged beneath the place her body had needed support.

Lucan kept that ruined corner visible when the witness copied it, the crooked line looking more honest than a clean redraw.

A second guard quietly joined the north watch after the warning arrived, taking his place beside the first while the Watcher kept Ash close on the service ledge.

Lucan saw the child through the access opening as the runner named the cradle’s want, a single shiver passing beneath the blanket before Ash leaned closer to his mother.

At eight minutes fifty seconds, the fourth mark remained untouched under the clinic scar, its open loop still waiting for a child’s answer.