The living chain pulled again.
Dane’s broken root took the jerk. Pain burst through the four party channels before the chain had finished tightening. Tess’s pulse stumbled beside the cut in her left forearm. Holt lost the bandage knot and caught it on his next breath. Brant’s cracked sword rang against stone when his right hand seized. Rod two struck Dane’s split left hinge, slipped, then bit back into place under Vera’s burned grip.
Rod three rang in its floor seat under the ring’s recoil. Ada struck it back from outside the four party channels.
Brackenvault lowered his socket.
Both base pins carved forward through Dane’s underside. The left hinge opened around rod two, and his wounded tongue dragged over the lower teeth. Shield rims hammered together at the right breach. The warder with two packed fingers shouted once when the torn front shield kicked into his hand.
Dane reached for the pins with his permanent 0.08%. They kept cutting. The temporary lease stopped at his mouth and gave him no hold on the socket.
"Stop the bleed-through," Brant said.
"I close it, we lose the mind trace and the mouth lease." Rod three grated while Ada fought it back toward center. "He goes under the feed order again."
"How many pulls before one of us does something stupid?"
The next contraction answered for her. Vera’s rod drove too deep and widened the hinge before she corrected. Holt cinched Tess’s wrap hard enough to pull a hiss from her.
"One can be enough," Ada said.
The link burned Dane’s condition into every party channel.
/==[ Party Link: Pain Bleed ]==\
| Source: Bound Mimic Asset\
| Injury Shared: Root Fracture / Hinge Tear\
| Hunger Backwash: Rising\
| Distance Relief: Unavailable\
| Link Stability: Paid By Witnesses\
==[ Clerk Note: Mercy Has Maintenance Costs ]==/
Hunger followed the pain.
Tess’s blood reached Dane first. His lid pressed upward toward her bandaged pulse, and the ring passed that want back to her before Holt could finish the knot. Her pulse jerked away. Holt’s warm wrist replaced it near Dane’s rim before linen resumed its scrape.
The target changed.
Dane’s tongue rose without permission. The lower teeth entered the holes he had made in it during the rescue, and conversion fluid warmed the seam beneath his lid. The feed search pulled harder when Holt’s wrist replaced Tess’s blood as the nearest living route.
Vera’s burned grip moved with the same appetite. Rod two drove inward, asking the damaged hinge to open wider. Brant’s sword left the floor, clearing the rim when it should have guarded it.
Dane flattened his torn tongue and spent the mouth lease on keeping his teeth behind the wood. His warning reached the others as pressure to close tangled with appetite for the hand still wrapping Tess.
Holt swallowed. "He’s fighting it."
"Keep your wrist out of the answer," Brant said. His sword scraped between Holt and Dane. "Tess, give him less blood to find."
"Holt, tighter." Her voice shook.
Two weak taps crossed the left wall through Milo’s return charm. No third followed.
The medic called from beyond the right shield line. "Tess still has five responsive fingers. I cannot reach her through those teeth."
Ceiling stone ground lower over the shields. Metal folded a fraction and held.
Brant drove the cracked sword into a floor seam with his right hand. "We lose Milo if we stay. We lose the ring if the socket takes him lower. What can touch the chest without giving his mouth a carrier?"
Waxed fiber whispered over stone near Tess.
"Before you choose," she said, "you need to know why I have this."
Brant’s answer came after one ragged breath. "Say it while Holt works."
"Collector cord. It closes around handles, hinges, whatever an animated object grows." Tess stopped when Holt pulled the linen through. The next words came out thinner. "I bought it to take him out under a sale mark."
The linen stopped scraping halfway through the knot.
"You were going to sell him."
"Yes."
The living chain tightened. Dane’s root flared through Holt’s hands, and the loose knot began to slip.
"Finish the wrap," Brant said.
The finished knot bit harder through Tess’s pulse, but it kept her blood inside the linen.
"You’re still wrapping it," Tess said.
"It still needs wrapping."
The next chain tremor reached Tess through the linen. The knot held.
"That isn’t what I asked."
Holt pulled the final knot tight. "I know."
Milo’s charm stayed silent beyond the left wall.
Tess let the cord’s bead strike the floor. "The seller called mimics furniture. I let that be enough."
"Cord stays down," Brant said. "You don’t hold the claim end."
His sword point left the seam while he spoke. The living chain chose that lapse to pull, and Dane’s hunger leaped at the hand on the weapon. Brant forced the blade down again before the lid could follow.
"Keep the ugly part in your head," he told Tess. "We need your good hand useful."
Vera’s left-hand pressure kept rod two seated. Burned mana moved along the chalk from Dane’s right, close enough for the locking bead to answer.
"Slide it to me," she said.
Wax dragged over grit. Tess’s pulse withdrew from the cord; Vera’s spell heat replaced it at the bead.
"Collector catch first." Vera turned the mechanism.
The bead clicked.
A fine tightening traveled down the waxed strands, pulled against Tess’s old ownership trace, then released.
"Party ring next."
A second click sent a small pressure around the chalk and into all three rods.
The cord tightened with the ring. Rod two tugged Dane’s hinge, rod three scraped its floor seat, and the locking bead warmed toward Vera’s burned fingers.
On the third turn, Dane’s brass tag seared its old groove against his side.
The ownership nail beneath it rotated. Rod one’s silver loop cut deeper into the groove, and the cord snapped taut toward the open side of the room. Vera’s breath broke over pain from her burned hand.
"Third claim is Brackenvault," Ada said. "Release it."
"One breath." Vera’s voice roughened. "Black wax is coming through the silver. The hooks are turning toward the door."
The tag pulled again. Dane’s base pins twisted toward the socket with it.
Vera let the bead unwind. The hooks in the cord stopped fighting the chalk, but the dungeon’s trace remained warm against Dane’s lower rim.
Tess breathed through her teeth. "He knew where it would report."
"You still brought it," Brant said. "Save the rest until we’re alive."
The cord stayed warm after Vera unwound it.
"The tag still has it," Ada said. "Break the wrong catch and every loop closes."
"Then I keep the bead where I can burn it."
Rod three jumped in Ada’s floor seat. She recovered it with a second strike that jarred the entire ring. "The cord can pull below the handles if Vera keeps the return claim off his hinge. It cinches once, we lose the left side."
"Then the bead stays with me," Vera said. "Tess takes only the free end."
The ceiling teeth lifted from the right breach for a single breath.
Both shield loads lurched into the released space. Boots skidded. The medic and two warders kept both shields in Milo’s only protected lane.
"Pressure is coming back," the rear warder called.
The forward shield gave a long iron moan. Fresh packing and blood reached Dane through the narrowing seam, but the two injured fingers stayed beyond his mouth.
During the pause, cord scraped beneath Dane’s lower rim, below both bare handles. Vera kept the hot bead. The free length passed Brant and tightened under Tess’s good hand, snug against Dane’s base but clear of his hinge.
"Shield under the left after Milo clears," Brant said. He tested the cracked sword against Dane’s right rim and pulled it back before the blade could wedge. "This goes flat on the right. Nobody pushes yet."
Vera dragged chalk beneath the cord rather than across it. Rod two stayed in the lower left hinge. Ada shifted rod three by the width of its iron foot, carrying the ring toward the door without opening it.
The line was almost set when the socket dropped again.
Dane’s base struck the floor edge. One pin bent inside him. Hunger used the impact to wrench his lid upward by a hair.
Holt’s breath moved closer.
Dane spent the lease.
His torn tongue locked against the lower row. The lid shut on the broken root and sent a fresh burst through the link.
Vera’s first shove missed rod two’s best angle. Iron scraped across the split before she found it again. Tess pulled the free cord too soon; wax tightened along Dane’s underside and began to climb toward the damaged hinge.
"Slack!" Vera shouted.
The pressure vanished before the cord could cinch. It spilled loose, and Tess’s next breath shook beside the free end.
"I pulled before the count," she said.
Brant kept the sword between Dane and Holt. "We do that while moving, somebody loses a hand. Wait for my count."
Chains struck the floor beneath Dane. Recovery tension crossed cord, tag, bands, and socket in one wrench.
A low horn rolled through the stone.
Loose irons answered it along the outer corridor. The lock inside the room’s only door turned tooth by tooth.
Registry heat crossed Dane’s lockplate and entered the containment ring.
/==[ Brackenvault Registry: Asset Theft Pre-Notice ]==\
| Property: Storage Mimic Seventeen\
| Unauthorized Custody: Ash Company / External Mage\
| Evidence: Party Link, Drag Restraint, Refused Feed\
| Recovery Right: Activating\
| Bounty Class: Stolen Dungeon Property\
==[ All Exits Become Counters ]==/
The door opened onto the outer corridor.
Many small feet began running toward the reward.