Chapter 950 - 950: Griswald Sends A Dead Worker Through The Socket

The black line jerked the Reaper's scythe toward Nessa.

Ty's chain bit into his jaw. Three ribs followed the white wrist before his right hand caught the table edge and stopped the rest of him.

The uneven rib under his sternum shifted lower.

Jade kept Nessa's cutter inside her borrowed hand and moved with the pull. Her boots stayed beyond the white floor.

"The line wants the band, and the scythe happens to be closer."

Ty tightened the chain around the Reaper's neck. Its unfinished robe pressed through his ribs and filled the gaps between them with white fire.

"Death used to bring its own weapon choices."

The oldest socket knocked beneath the dirt.

A shoulder pushed through the square opening. Black cloth covered it. An iron belt followed, then a blank helm dragged sideways against the socket rim.

The person inside hung from the belt without helping the climb.

Jade's damaged eye opened another fraction. White blood rose from the lower lid and pulled toward the Reaper's hollow brow.

"The body died before reaching us, but something inside still travels."

Ty gave the chain one link. The Reaper turned with him. Its scythe stayed caught in the black line, blade aimed at the loose band around Nessa's recovered field finger.

Meya crouched beside the yard tube and saw the helm come through.

"That frame belongs to our missing foundation crew."

She scraped dirt from the worker's right boot with her roof knife. Three nursery hinge nails held a wedge beneath the heel, each one bent over at a different angle.

"Corven Lask repaired that boot after Ruvan refused him another sole."

Ruvan lowered his recall knife. The dead worker had a name now, which made the seventh account plate look cheaper on his chest.

The dead worker's first arm cleared the socket. Four circles had been punched above the helm's left ear, the same work mark Dema still wore. A brass plate covered the worker's chest belt. One long cut crossed six shorter cuts beneath a damaged crown.

Cava's hand went to the old scar under her sleeve.

"Griswald's seventh account fitted that return plate. It collects unfinished foundation addresses after the stone arrives."

She kept looking at Corven while the work line dragged his belt across the socket.

"I carried plates like this for Griswald, changed the addresses they carried, and left before any socket showed me whose body finished the delivery."

Todd shifted his foot against Nessa's staff brace.

"You stayed this time, so tell us what the hooks collect next."

Ruvan stood at the maintenance turn with his recall knife ready.

"The stake left with three bands. What remains here?"

Cava pointed at the loose band without stepping onto the white floor.

"Rillhold still remembers where the stake served, which rooms it held, and every worker tied beneath it. Griswald bought the stone and left that address behind."

Ruvan pulled the maintenance gate until only the speaking tube and recall slot remained open.

"Keep the yard shut. Nobody follows that body."

Two hooks opened from the dead worker's palm. Black line ran through the wrist and moved the fingers one joint at a time.

The hooks reached Nessa.

Todd planted both boots around the plain staff section across her harness. Her right arm pulled along the wood until her shoulder lifted against the collar.

"Release that finger before hooks take your cage."

Nessa closed her usable hand around the wrist chain.

"That finger carries my missing team, Sennik's direction, and the first mistake this captain left where I could reach it. Pick something cheaper than all three."

Todd dropped his weight behind the staff. The wood pressed Nessa's coat against her neck, but her boots stayed on the dirt.

The first hook caught the black band's square punch.

Sennik cried out through the clinic tube. Her voice came rough around the cloth under her jaw.

"The old pull just found my shoulder again, and Talli has not approved the reunion."

Talli answered from beside her.

"Ration red still holds your weight. Keep every finger moving while they cut the other end."

Ty sent a chain loop around the black line. The work braid flattened between two links and pulled his skull toward the socket.

His right hand stayed on the table. He had no second hand to waste on a captain's rope. The missing one still held Tovan's cup somewhere beyond the freight road, which made the choice easy and the distance harder to ignore.

The Reaper's white fingers closed around one of Ty's ribs.

Its scythe moved another inch toward Nessa.

Ty bit the chain harder and rolled his spine around the Reaper's forming chest. His cracked rib dragged against the scythe shaft. The fracture opened along the old chain hole, sending the lower end beneath the Reaper's arm.

Pressure entered Ty through the broken hole and settled behind his green eye. His chain had carried worse, though usually with a second hand available to keep his jaw attached. He moved the right one closer to the Reaper's elbow and trusted his teeth with the rest.

"Jade, the captain can have death's attention or my remaining good hand."

"Keep your hand because the dead worker already volunteered the captain's equipment."

Jade moved the borrowed arm across her body. The white fingers carrying Nessa's cutter tried to turn toward Ty as his fracture widened. Her living thumb pressed into the wrist until the blade faced the dead worker instead.

"Let the black line finish pulling, then turn the Reaper toward the helm."

Ty loosened one chain link.

The work line took everything it had been denied. Scythe, white wrist, and Ty's ribs moved toward the band. The dead worker came farther through the socket, both palm hooks fixed around the square punch.

Todd's staff bowed across Nessa's shoulder.

Cava caught the worker's chest plate with the severed recovery jaw she had kept from Griswald's crew. Its teeth closed over the crowned mark.

"This plate returns to the seventh account, so I am changing its delivery again."

She pulled sideways.

Corven turned between Nessa and the Reaper.

Ty hauled his chain in with his jaw. His right hand left the table long enough to shove the Reaper's elbow above the dead worker's shoulder. Three ribs closed around its waist and kept both bodies inside the white floor.

The Reaper looked through Ty with the hollow above its right eye.

Its scythe had been used by another hand.

White fingers changed their grip.

The blade crossed the blank helm, chest plate, and iron belt. A strip of Corven's body disappeared beneath the dark edge without blood reaching the ground. The palm hooks fell with the loose band still caught between them.

Meya said Corven's name into the yard tube. Talli repeated it from Clinic Five, followed by Sennik around the cloth under her jaw. Ruvan cut the name into the dirt beside the socket with his recall knife.

Todd dragged Nessa backward. Her right arm remained aimed at the cut body while the staff carried the shoulder after her.

Ty closed his ribs around the Reaper again. The damaged one refused to line up beneath his sternum. He trapped it with his right wrist and kept pulling anyway.

The missing strip through Corven stayed open.

Black rail ran where lungs and spine had been. Square punches traveled between the cut edges, followed by fresh scrape marks from Rillhold's three vanished bands. Beneath Griswald's crown, a brass order plate rode the next section.

Cava read it while her recovery jaw remained attached.

"The seventh hold receives the last foundation address before fixed delivery begins."

"Fixed delivery means the stolen stake has not reached its final ground."

When Ruvan drove his recall knife through the loose work line, the braid split around the blade and continued through Corven. A second cut divided rope on the yard side while the prison side kept feeding black fiber from the open body.

The road inside Corven remained wider than Ruvan's knife.

Beyond the missing chest, Rillhold's oldest stake traveled point first along a prison rail. Four blank helms walked beside it under separate belts. Three bodies gave Jade's damaged eye nothing.

The fourth carried a white ending that pulled toward the scythe.

Jade caught Ty's chain with her living hand.

"One worker still lives behind the stake, and the Reaper has already found them."

On the far side of Corven's wound, a living hand closed around Rillhold's oldest stake. Two fingers had been tied to the stone with ration cloth, and both still tightened whenever the prison rail tried to carry it farther.