Chapter 949 - 949: Sennik Makes The Band Carry Her Shoulder

Sennik's red support ring bent toward the empty yard.

Talli held it against the ration stake with both hands. The padded strap above Sennik's left shoulder pulled tight enough to flatten the cloth beneath her jaw.

Across the maintenance turn, the White Reaper's forming shoulder faced the stretched line.

Jade's borrowed hand rose from her side.

White fingers reached toward the chain around her living hand. She pressed the borrowed wrist against her stomach and called the rule before either skeleton touched her.

"Borrowed means my hand waits until I choose its next contact."

Ty opened the chain link around her living palm. He kept his jaw on the third link and every rib around the White Reaper wrist.

"Your hand receives no help from mine until you request it."

The borrowed fingers stopped short of Ty's chain. Jade could still feel them trying. The pull entered her elbow and worked beneath the shoulder where bone had replaced flesh months earlier.

Her living thumb dug into the borrowed wrist. The pressure gave her something plain to command: skin holding bone, one hand holding the other, both still attached to Jade whether the Reaper respected that fact or not.

She folded the arm against her coat.

"Talli, keep Sennik's ring outside the maintenance turn."

Talli's answer came through the speaking tube beside the hatch.

"I can hold this ring until my elbows break, but her shoulder strap has started taking the yard's down beneath her jaw."

Sennik spoke past the cloth under her jaw.

"Nobody cuts that strap while my fingers answer."

Nessa set her cutter on the dirt. Her right arm hung crooked where the shoulder pin had left the harness. The recovered field finger dragged from her wrist chain toward the loose black band beside Ty.

"My cage copied Jade's hand and every bad direction it touched afterward."

"Your cage kept the copy after we removed the original pressure."

"It keeps everything I would rather forget, including this yard."

For Talli, Sennik pressed thumb to index, then middle. Her ring finger wandered halfway down and quit where everyone could see it.

"Put the cage on my red ring and make it carry the old direction."

Talli refused before Nessa reached the maintenance hatch.

"Your shoulder remains inside my rail. I will not trade it for her arm because the yard offered us a convenient exchange."

"You are trading nothing until I stop closing these fingers."

Sennik opened her hand and repeated the count. The ring finger still lagged, but it moved.

Across Ty's sternum, the white route tightened whenever the forming Reaper shoulder gained another joint. No clean break showed between Sennik and the missing stake.

Moving the direction required another object willing to keep it.

Jade disliked the word willing. The black band had no mouth, while Nessa had already said yes with a shoulder she could barely lift. Jade kept the thought behind her teeth and watched Nessa choose again.

Todd reached the yard carrying both staff sections. Nana's red cord remained around the capsule piece. He drew the plain section from beneath it and laid the wood across Nessa's open harness.

"East wash owns all nineteen names, and local workers kept the slate."

"Then give Nessa the plain staff without moving Nana's evidence."

Todd threaded the section through Nessa's shoulder loops where the pin had bent free. The fit left a hand width of wood beyond each side.

"This staff survived worse owners, so your shoulder gets one careful turn."

Nessa leaned into the wood. Her right arm lifted by two inches before the cage pulled it back toward the white floor.

"Careful turns became unavailable when the hand entered Ty, but I still choose which part of me pays for this one."

At the ration brace, Talli moved Sennik's red support ring beside the tube. Meya passed a thin clinic line through the hatch without crossing the white floor. Todd tied it around Nessa's cage wrist using Jori's doubled fourth loop.

Sennik saw the knot through Talli's mirror.

"Jori cheats the third turn, and Todd copied the correct mistake."

"I have been insulted by that knot across two worlds already."

Nessa pulled the recovered field finger onto the black band. Its stored grip closed around one square punch and dragged her shortened ring finger with it.

The cage needles under her sleeve shifted toward Sennik's red ring.

Talli put two fingers beneath Sennik's right hand.

"Close on each strap tooth, and I stop when any finger fails."

"My ring finger answers late, so wait for the complaint."

Talli moved the shoulder buckle one tooth.

Sennik's thumb closed. Index followed. Middle and ring arrived together after the red ring scraped half an inch toward the yard.

The White Reaper's shoulder pulled against Ty's ribs.

One cracked rib slid from his chest and entered the new white joint. The Reaper caught the damaged chain hole with two fingers and tried to draw the bone through.

Ty's right hand caught the rib. His jaw tightened on the chain passing around it.

"That bone stays put until Jade approves renovations."

"I have several complaints and none permit giving it away."

Jade hooked her living hand through the free chain link. Her borrowed hand lifted again, reaching for Ty's trapped rib.

"Borrowed hand, take Nessa's cutter handle and remain outside Ty."

The white fingers fought her through the first inch. Jade caught the borrowed wrist with her living hand and forced it down. Her palm closed around Nessa's cutter without touching the band.

The Reaper lost the borrowed hand's reach into Ty's ribs.

He tore his cracked bone free of the forming shoulder and locked it under his sternum. The movement widened the fracture along its chain hole, leaving one end lower than the other.

Talli moved Sennik's buckle another tooth.

Nessa's cage arm rose against Todd's staff. The wood bowed across her shoulder. Needles pushed beneath the sleeve until their points lifted the cloth in six places.

Her thumb lost the field finger's chain.

Todd caught it before the recovered bone left the band.

"Your cage keeps the direction while my hand keeps its tool."

"Keep your hand outside the square punch unless you want the same shoulder."

Todd shifted to the wrist chain and left the punch untouched.

When Sennik tried the count again, her ring finger failed halfway. Talli locked the buckle before the red ring could steal another inch.

"Her fourth finger stopped. Every strap stays here."

"Wait through one count because feeling returns slower than pride."

Talli waited.

Sennik opened the hand, shook it once against the rail, and closed again. The ring finger reached her palm.

"Move one final tooth and put my shoulder on ration red."

Talli pulled the buckle.

Meya turned the red support ring around the ration stake. Nessa bit down on her harness strap while the cage copied the missing direction. Todd's staff bent until its end struck the dirt.

The recovered field finger closed completely around the black band's square punch.

Sennik's white line left her shoulder.

It crossed the maintenance hatch, passed Jade without entering her eye, and wound around the loose band. The white route ended inside the empty yard.

Sennik's shoulder dropped one inch into Talli's hands. The joint stayed angled toward the missing stake, but the ration brace took its weight through the red ring.

"My shoulder remains damaged, and my fingers still belong to me."

"Clinic Five records both before anybody calls this a cure."

Nessa tried to lower her right arm. It stayed raised against Todd's staff, pointing toward the oldest empty socket.

Todd shifted one palm under the staff. Nessa tried to glare at the help, but the cage dragged her chin toward the socket too. She settled for stepping on his boot.

"The cage kept her old direction and took my shoulder with it."

"Your arm follows the band until we unload that copy safely."

Jade kept the cutter in her borrowed hand. White fire moved up her wrist and stopped beneath the split eyelid.

Across the table, the White Reaper forced its second shoulder through Ty's chain. A skull assembled above both shoulders with one hollow missing over the right eye. Its white blood pulled toward Jade's face.

Ty wrapped his chain around the Reaper's neck before the skull finished turning.

"You wanted one fight, so keep every borrowed road outside it."

The Reaper reached above the yard.

A scythe handle entered its palm. The blade followed with a dark edge that removed a strip of dirt without throwing any aside.

Before it could swing toward Ty, the oldest empty anchor socket knocked four times.

A black work line climbed from the hole and wrapped around the scythe handle.