Chapter 6: I Took the Packlord’s Dominion—and Twelve Blackfang Bowed

Chapter 6: You Want to Buy a Road? Then Help Me Drive the First Anchor

The pebble bounced once off the broken edge.

Then disappeared.

Cassian waited.

No sound came back.

Only the dawnlight far below caught the falling stone for an instant before swallowing it.

He looked across the first gap again.

Still too far.

Predator Step could get him halfway.

The abyss could handle the rest.

Cassian had no interest in that arrangement.

He crouched and ran one hand over the cracked stone near the edge.

Solid here.

Across the gap, the fallen column still looked usable.

Two anchor points.

Exactly what he had thought yesterday.

The problem was no longer mysterious.

He needed cable.

A silver-white notification appeared.

[Newcomer Divine Essence Ranking]

[Cooperation Proposal Received]

[Sender: Rowan]

Cassian stared at the name.

Then laughed.

"Convenient."

Yesterday, Rowan had wanted three years of Cassian’s future and forty percent of his resources in exchange for keeping an F-rank Lord alive.

Today, Cassian was standing in front of an ancient divine war road—

and Rowan was coming to him.

Cassian opened the proposal.

The first line was short.

[The previous rescue contract is no longer applicable.]

Cassian’s smile widened.

"Good start."

The next line appeared.

[You have proven that F-rank does not mean waiting to be rescued.]

[This is a procurement trial.]

No vassalage.

No forty percent.

No right to enter his territory.

Rowan was offering ordinary route-survey equipment through the ranking system’s blind-transfer relay.

Two sealed deliveries maximum.

No people.

No divine objects.

The sender would not see the destination.

In return, Cassian had to provide one anonymous load test.

Terrain type.

Stress reading.

Nothing more.

Cassian looked across the gap.

He did not trust offers built around the words nothing more.

But he trusted steel cable more than empty air.

"Fine."

He accepted.

—

When Cassian returned to the Shrine, an unmarked gray case sat beside the Core.

Veyra looked at the case.

Then at him.

"Rowan."

It wasn’t a question.

Cassian crouched beside the box.

"Apparently first place attracts useful things occasionally."

"And things that try to kill you."

"So far, the ratio is poor."

He opened the case.

Inside were:

A palm-sized manual ratchet.

Six meters of thin braided steel cable.

Two ordinary iron rock pins.

One mechanical tension gauge.

No divinity.

No hidden glow.

Just metal.

Cassian picked up the ratchet and fed the steel cable through it.

Click.

The teeth locked.

He pressed again.

Click.

Clean.

Simple.

Useful.

Cassian liked it immediately.

Six meters was nowhere near enough to cross the gap.

But Rowan had just proved he could get real field equipment.

That mattered.

Cassian looked at the cable in his hand and felt a small stab of envy.

Rowan wanted tools?

Someone found them.

Rowan wanted people?

Someone waited for his order.

Cassian was ranked first and still carried a bent piece of enemy chain as his best weapon.

Pretending the difference didn’t exist would not make him richer.

Another part of the proposal opened.

[Lightweight Survey Kit Reserved: 20:00]

[Return within the reservation window:]

— [Terrain Classification]

— [Tension Reading]

— [Optional Cropped Image]

[Reward:]

— [40m Lightweight Steel Cable]

— [Folding Winch]

— [6 Quick-Biting Anchors]

Cassian’s eyes stayed on forty meters.

That could change the road.

Then he read the exchange.

[If you voluntarily post one external transport request unrelated to your Core within the next seven days, Rowan receives first opportunity to quote.]

[You are not required to post a request.]

[You are not required to accept Rowan’s quote.]

No coordinates.

No access rights.

No exclusivity.

Cassian checked it again.

The timer had already dropped below nineteen minutes.

Veyra watched him.

"What does he want?"

"Proof his cable touched something other than my floor."

Cassian lifted the gauge.

"One load reading. Maybe one cropped image."

Veyra’s eyes moved to the cable.

"You opened the road. Who you bargain with is your decision."

Cassian waited.

There was obviously another sentence.

She gave it to him.

"But the Third Formation is not yours to sell."

Cassian’s jaw tightened.

The distant banner scar would be the easiest proof that the road mattered.

One image.

Rowan would immediately understand this was not ordinary ruined terrain.

Maybe he’d raise the value of the deal.

Maybe he’d send better equipment.

Cassian looked at Veyra.

She did not look away.

For a moment, irritation won.

She wasn’t carrying the equipment.

She wasn’t finding him a way across.

Yet she was putting a limit on the best information he had.

Then another thought arrived.

Cassian hadn’t even reached the banner himself.

Why should Rowan see it first?

He closed the case.

"He’ll get stone, cable, and a number."

Veyra’s fingers eased slightly against the divine seat.

"No banner."

Cassian stood.

"No names."

He lifted the case.

"And if he can identify your army from a rock and a tension reading, we have bigger problems."

Veyra’s mouth almost moved.

Almost.

Cassian pointed at her.

"I saw that."

"You saw nothing."

"That’s usually what people say when I saw something."

He left before the timer could lose another minute.

—

Sixteen minutes remained when Cassian reached the broken road.

He chose a sun-fused ledge well away from the direct dawnlight.

The first hammer strike knocked away ash.

The second exposed harder stone.

The third drove one test pin deep enough to bite.

Cassian threaded the six-meter steel cable through the ring and looped the other end around a heavy slab.

He attached the tension gauge.

Then pulled the ratchet.

Click.

The cable tightened.

The slab scraped across stone.

Pain tore through his right shoulder.

Cassian stopped using that arm immediately.

"Still there."

The wound had not magically healed because he wanted a bridge.

Annoying.

He changed his stance and used his legs and left side to work the ratchet.

Another click.

The gauge settled.

Enough to hold the static weight of one adult.

Cassian stared at the taut cable.

It worked.

Not a bridge.

Not yet.

But steel had bitten into the ancient road and held.

His pulse quickened.

"Good."

He opened the return attachment.

Terrain:

Sun-fused stone.

Broken unsupported span.

Upward radiant heat.

Tension reading.

One tightly cropped image of stone, pin, cable, and gauge.

No coordinates.

No banner.

No Veyra.

No territory name.

Six minutes remained.

Cassian looked at it.

Probably enough.

His finger moved toward send.

Then stopped.

The image still had a timestamp.

Rowan knew when the proposal had been accepted.

With both times, he might estimate how far Cassian had traveled from the Core.

Cassian removed it.

A golden reflection showed beside the pin.

Dawnlight.

He cropped it out.

The cable angle still revealed a horizontal gap.

Another crop.

Cassian checked the image again.

Stone.

Cable.

Gauge.

A number.

No direction.

No scale.

No useful background.

The warning bar was almost empty.

He pressed send.

[Reservation Window Expired.]

[Lightweight Survey Kit Released.]

Cassian froze.

The words stayed there.

He tapped the kit.

Gray.

Unavailable.

For three seconds, he said nothing.

Then—

"Fuck."

His voice vanished into the abyss.

The exchange had been good enough.

He had kept shaving away one possible clue after another until there was no time left to make the exchange at all.

A new message appeared.

[Anonymous Data Received.]

[Disclosure Within Agreed Scope.]

[The Lightweight Survey Kit Has Been Assigned to the Next Request.]

Cassian stared at the final line.

Forty meters of light cable.

A folding winch.

Six fast anchors.

Gone.

He wanted to know who had received it.

He also knew that wasn’t the important question.

The important question was who had lost it.

Cassian closed his eyes once.

"Hm."

He hated lessons that came with a price tag.

Another proposal appeared.

[Fallback Equipment Available]

— [Fixed Manual Winch]

— [20m Coarse Steel Cable]

— [4 Ordinary Rock Bolts]

— [Iron Hammer]

— [2 Rolls Clean Bandage]

— [Equipment Oil]

Heavier.

Shorter.

Slower.

Still useful.

Cassian read the exchange again.

Same terms.

Rowan received one priority quote on one external transport request Cassian might voluntarily post within seven days.

Nothing else.

Cassian accepted.

Losing the better tool had been one mistake.

Refusing a usable tool because his pride hurt would make two.

He had no interest in paying twice.

—

The second gray case landed beside the Core with a heavy thud.

Veyra looked inside.

Then at Cassian.

"Where is the lightweight kit?"

"Someone else has it."

"Why?"

Cassian pulled out a roll of clean bandage and began replacing the dark cloth around his shoulder.

"Because I decided Rowan shouldn’t be able to recognize the timestamp."

Veyra waited.

"Then the dawnlight."

She kept waiting.

"Then the direction of the cable."

Veyra’s eyes dropped to the enormous fixed winch.

Cassian followed her gaze.

"Yes."

Silence.

"Say it."

"I haven’t said anything."

"You’re enjoying this."

"A little."

Cassian gave her a flat look.

Veyra’s mouth moved by the smallest amount.

That was definitely a smile.

Very small.

Cassian hated that he had earned it.

"I protected the secret," he said.

"You did."

"And now I get to carry that."

He pointed at the heavy winch.

"You do."

Cassian stared at her.

"Your support is overwhelming."

"You made the decision without me."

"Exactly. Which means I can’t even blame you."

"That appears to trouble you more."

"It does."

Cassian secured the bandage and stood.

The lightweight kit was gone.

He wasn’t going to pretend otherwise.

He grabbed the fixed winch.

Veyra looked toward the east passage.

"You could leave the road alone."

Cassian lifted the winch onto his shoulder.

"Too late."

"The first gap has already cost you."

"Then I should make sure I bought something."

He picked up the tool case.

"Come back alive."

Cassian glanced at her.

"That sounded almost kind."

"It was financial advice. You’ve already wasted one kit."

Cassian laughed.

"Much better."

He carried the equipment east.

—

By the time he returned to the ancient road, the heavy winch had made his shoulder hate Rowan, the equipment market, and several basic laws of weight.

Cassian set it down beside the tested ledge.

Then he selected one of the ordinary rock bolts.

Placed it against the sun-fused stone.

Raised the hammer.

CLANG!

The sound rolled down the ancient battle road.

Second strike.

CLANG!

The bolt drove deeper.

Third.

CLANG!

Only half the ring remained exposed.

Cassian stopped.

Checked the stone.

No spreading crack.

He attached the fixed manual winch.

Fed the twenty-meter coarse steel cable through the bolt.

Then pulled.

The cable tightened with a deep metallic hum.

The bolt held.

Cassian pulled harder.

Still held.

He rested one hand on the winch.

Yesterday, there had been nothing here he could grip.

Just a broken road.

A bottomless gap.

And a distant banner belonging to a past he couldn’t reach.

Now there was iron in the stone.

His iron.

The cable was too short to cross.

The winch was heavier than the one he had wanted.

The gap still existed.

None of that changed one fact.

He had put the first anchor into the road.

Cassian ran his hand over the bolt ring.

Rowan had provided the metal.

Rowan had not chosen where it went.

Rowan had not crossed the Chain Gate.

Rowan had not seen the banner.

Cassian had turned first place on the ranking into something he could physically grab.

That felt better than the number itself.

He worked the winch one more notch.

Click.

The sound echoed over the abyss.

Cassian smiled.

"One anchor."

His eyes lifted toward the far side.

"Now let’s see what it takes to get the rest of me over there."