Chapter 366: Aren’s Current Cut

Meva opened the fermentation hall for Aren and kept her hand on the door.

The pull took his coat first.

Cloth tore at both shoulders. He went through with Mara’s handle against his chest and landed inside the command ring.

Meva released the door before culture pressure reached her arm.

Iron closed between them.

Thirty-one return pipes entered the hall above Aren. Each pipe carried a household collar report and a command that tried to reopen it.

The ring turned around him on waist-high teeth.

Black Grass grew between those teeth, cut apart, and grew again before the next rotation.

Aren put Mara’s handle into the center slot.

The first tooth engaged local maintenance.

The second engaged command culture.

The third pointed toward the outside drain.

He turned only the first tooth.

Far Anchor’s maintenance returns dropped away from the ring. Household calls became clear enough to separate.

"Meva Tal, roof collar three," a voice said through the nearest pipe.

"Beni Ora, steam branch eleven," said another.

Twenty-nine more followed. Aren repeated each name into his chest radio.

Tali recorded them from Cairo.

"Thirty-one current keepers," she said. "No combined permission."

"That count is correct."

"Give me your current body report."

Aren looked at his left sleeve.

Black roots had entered the torn cloth but not his skin.

"No skin cut yet; the door is closed and my manual grip is secure."

The ring forced the handle backward.

Aren braced both feet against separate teeth. One carried Mara’s old disposal line. The other carried current maintenance steam.

He kept his weight on the current tooth.

"Collar three ready," Meva called.

Aren turned her return a finger-width away from command culture.

Meva closed her household collar.

The ring tried to reopen it and found no relation.

"Three free," she said.

Tali entered the report.

Beni called next.

Aren moved his hand around the grip. The handle had warmed enough to blister his palm.

"Return Eleven is offered now."

"Its current keeper accepts the cut."

He separated the return.

Beni closed it from his side.

"Return Eleven is free of command."

Two route limbs hit the hall together.

The command ring tilted. Aren’s maintenance foot slipped between teeth and broke at the ankle.

He fell against the handle without releasing it.

Pain took his breath. His radio struck iron and opened every channel.

People across thirty-one sites heard him drag the broken foot out of the gear gap.

"Body report," Tali said.

"Left ankle trapped, now clear. Cannot bear."

"Can you reach the exit now?"

"Door is behind command pressure."

"You have not answered my question."

Aren looked back.

The iron door had buckled inward. Black roots covered its slot. Meva could not open it without joining the ring.

"I have no current exit."

Tali repeated the statement for the record.

She did not rename it sacrifice or tell him to continue.

Keeper Four called ready.

Aren offered the cut.

The work continued one relation at a time.

At collar Seven, the route body sent Ridge road through a return pipe. Asphalt struck Aren’s shoulder and dislocated it.

He changed hands.

At collar Nine, culture pressure filled the hall to his knees. His broken boot rooted to the floor.

He cut the leather away and left the foot uncovered inside the gear frame.

At collar Twelve, Mara’s outside drain opened by one tooth.

The uncounted trench appeared in the hollow center.

Pale-armored workers dragged an injured person under sheet metal. Route debris had buried one end. A child beat both hands against the metal from underneath.

The drain pulled at the disconnected command material around Aren.

One more tooth would send it through.

"Outside population visible," Aren said. "Current contact. Drain prohibited."

"Count?" Tali asked.

"Seven visible. More under cover."

A pale-armored worker saw him through the ring and raised a cutting tool.

The tool struck the opening from the far side.

Mara’s third tooth cracked.

Aren used the impact. He bent the disposal tooth against the ring until it broke from the handle.

The drain closed.

The command culture lost its easy exit and flooded back into the hall.

Roots reached Aren’s waist.

"Drain disabled," he reported.

"Body report," Tali said.

"Culture contact below waist. Current speech intact."

Collar Thirteen was not ready.

Its keeper, Davi Sen, had two children attached to treatment steam and one culture root through his own lung mask.

"If I close, the mask stops," Davi said.

"You can refuse," Aren answered.

"Does refusal keep the ring alive?"

"Your return remains under command. Others can still separate."

"Then pass my return and continue."

Aren passed him.

No pressure campaign formed around Davi’s choice. The count retained one occupied relation.

Collars Fourteen through Twenty broke free.

At Twenty-One, the ring grew an arm from Cairo tray metal and closed a hand around Aren’s chest.

His radio picked up a rib breaking.

He kept the grip turned.

Caleb’s voice entered the channel from Foundry.

"Foundry force is available after your acceptance."

Aren studied the hand around him. Any outside compression would load the ring through his body and could turn the disposal remnant.

"I refuse that force here."

Caleb accepted the answer without asking again.

Keeper Twenty-One cut free.

Twenty-Two had died before reaching her collar. Her daughter, Lasa, stood there under current contact but had never maintained the branch.

"I know the latch," Lasa said.

"Do you know what stops?"

"Kitchen heat, wash water, my father’s chest line."

"Can your father answer for himself?"

Her father answered through the pipe.

"I accept stopping my chest line."

Lasa became keeper for that cut only. Aren separated it after both voices completed.

Twenty-Two went free.

The route body’s hand tightened.

Aren could no longer feel his legs.

Tali asked for a report.

"My speech and grip remain current; I have no lower-body report."

"Aren, give me one answer."

"Record the cut, Tali."

"I am recording every local cut."

Twenty-Three through Twenty-Eight separated.

The command ring slowed. Each lost return removed one tooth from its support, but the remaining three carried more culture pressure.

Davi’s Thirteen stayed occupied.

Twenty-Nine refused because six treatment beds would lose air.

Thirty cut free.

Thirty-One belonged to Meva’s roof crew as a shared return. Seven workers argued across its pipe while the ring crushed Aren against the center slot.

Meva stopped them.

"One at a time. State what you lose."

They named heat, wash pressure, two seed beds, one breathing line, and command access to every freed collar.

The breathing-line worker refused.

Meva offered a clay bellows from the roof. Beni carried it by hand to the worker’s room.

The worker tested three breaths.

"I accept while Beni remains on bellows."

The other six accepted their own losses.

Aren offered Thirty-One.

Meva closed it.

The ring split across its widest tooth.

Command culture remained attached to Thirteen and Twenty-Nine. Resident maintenance remained attached there too.

Aren turned the broken handle past its stop and separated the ring around both occupied returns. He left those two outside the cut with their current keepers.

The freed command section closed around him.

"Twenty-nine free relations," he said. "Two locally retained. Resident maintenance outside command cut."

Tali repeated every number.

"Can you release Mara’s handle now?"

"No, the ring holds it."

"Can any current worker reach you?"

Aren watched the iron door disappear behind black roots.

"No one can reach me."

"Give the final current body report."

His chest no longer moved under the route hand.

He could still press the radio with one thumb.

"Aren Vale, SSS Seven and current worker; the manual release is engaged and Thirty-One is closed."

Tali said his name back.

Meva said it from the roof.

Beni said it through Eleven.

No copied chorus entered the channel. Each current person spoke once from a known route.

Aren held the handle until the last freed collar reported no command pressure.

Tali received the final report.

"All twenty-nine verified."

Aren let out one breath.

The ring completed its turn.

His radio transmitted the impact, then no body sound.

Tali called him three times under current contact.

Meva opened the outer door after culture pressure fell. The hall contained a split ring, Mara’s handle locked in the center, and Aren’s body under the command section.

No route opening remained around him.

Meva touched two fingers to his neck.

"No pulse. Current death verified."

Tali recorded the time on Far Anchor’s clock and Cairo’s clock without converting one into the other.

The bearing assigned to SSS Seven went empty.

Across thirty-one sites, the route body lost its command culture.

Its disconnected limbs kept moving.