Level 999: The Glitch King

The Catalogue Men

The gold lines did not so much as flicker at his warning.

The center Collector only tilted his head, the black glass of his mask catching what little light the Spire still gave off. Beside him, the other two stood exactly where they had risen out of the floor, patient in the specific way of men who had never once needed to hurry.

The vibration came first. Jace felt it in his molars again, the same low hum as before. This time it didn't stop at the walls.

PASSIVE CONTAINMENT ACTIVE

The words settled somewhere behind his eyes, unhurried, the way all the worst things were. Movement Efficiency, they informed him, was down eighteen percent. Access Response was delayed. Pain Awareness was, unhelpfully, increasing.

...Corruption Load: 84% → 85%...

"That's new," Jace said, because saying something was better than finding out how much of him still worked.

"It is not designed to injure you," the Collector said. Up close, his voice had the same terrible gentleness as before, like a man reading a eulogy he'd written himself. "It is designed to remove the interference that prevents you from recognising your condition."

"So it just makes everything hurt more."

"It provides accuracy." A pause, the kind that felt deliberate. "Accuracy requires your agreement with what it finds."

Jace filed that away between the ribs currently reminding him they existed. Agreement. Not force.

Seraphina's grip on his arm tightened enough to leave marks. "Do not agree to anything."

"Wasn't planning to."

Then the quest.

EMERGENCY QUEST: STAY CONSCIOUS

House Sunchain has begun passive recovery.

Primary Objective — remain conscious until the containment cycle ends. Twenty-three minutes, or possibly fewer, depending on how generously his body chose to cooperate.

Bonus Objective — identify a flaw in the recovery formation.

Hidden Objective — preserve voluntary resistance.

Failure carried its own quiet threat: Forced Recovery Authorization. Temporary Custody Rights. Voluntary Resistance, downgraded, like a piece of software nobody trusted him to keep.

"Twenty-three minutes," Jace read aloud, mostly to hear a number that wasn't a percentage.

"Possibly less," the Collector said, unbothered.

Seraphina's hand lit white at the knuckles. "No hostile action has occurred," he added, before she could commit to whatever she was building toward.

"You are standing in my Palace."

VIOLATION NOTICE — INTERFERENCE WITH RECOVERY. Current Violations: zero. Threshold: three.

Jace caught her wrist before the first one became real. "Don't give them the excuse."

"They are waiting for you to fall down."

"Then I'd rather not perform for them."

None of the three men moved to stop either exchange. That, Jace decided, was the worst part of the whole arrangement — Vane had come at him swinging, the fleet had come at him with fire, and these three simply waited for the numbers to do the work instead.

22:31.

He turned what attention he had left toward the one who spoke.

TARGET IDENTIFIED: THEODORE VOSS — SUNCHAIN COLLECTOR

Level 438. Class: Recovered Heir. Authority Grade: Noble III. Health and Charge figures Jace didn't bother finishing; they went on long enough to make the point without him. Willpower: locked.

Weakness Detected — Original Identity Fragment Remains Active.

Whatever Theodore Voss had been before the Sunchain, some part of it was still filed away, unindexed.

His own numbers, by comparison, looked like an apology. Access, seventy-one percent. Charge, thirty-four out of a hundred and forty. Corruption, eighty-five. Stamina thin enough to worry about.

He tried Static Step anyway, because doing something felt marginally better than doing nothing.

It answered three feet too late and dropped him on his shoulder instead of near the doors.

Health, 131. Stamina, 9. Proficiency, twelve to thirteen percent, for what that was worth.

"At least I got something out of it," Jace said, from the floor.

"Stop using it," Seraphina said.

"Noted. Differently than last time you said it, but noted."

"You continue," Theodore said, crouching slightly, "to mistake classification for strength. Level 999 is not proof of ability. It is proof the System cannot permit your ability to continue."

LEVEL CLASSIFICATION REVIEW — Quarantine Ceiling. Standard Growth: Restricted.

Overflow Experience Detected: 47,280 XP.

"So you're holding my growth hostage."

"We are offering to release it. Safely."

"And after?"

"Your class corrects itself. Recovered Heir."

Jace glanced back at the reading he'd taken. Willpower, still locked, on Theodore's own scan.

"What happens to that part?"

Theodore didn't answer, which answered enough.

Jace forced himself upright, one aching inch at a time.

ENDURANCE CHECK — SEVERE — PASSED. Proficiency, eighteen to twenty-three. Consciousness, for the moment, retained.

The field tightened in response, the way a held breath tightens before it's let go. His leg stopped answering. Corruption ticked up to eighty-six.

Breach Sight caught what it could — twenty-seven separate rules holding the room together, and one line running underneath all the others like a foundation nobody wanted looked at too closely.

ANCHOR LAYER — SUBJECT DIAGNOSTIC ACCEPTANCE — REQUIRED FOR FULL LOCK.

"You need me to agree with you," Jace said, and something in his chest that wasn't entirely pain lifted half an inch.

"We need you to survive," Theodore said.

"That's not what it says."

A second hand moved along the gold. CALEB MARR — ADAPTIVE CONTAINMENT LV. 7, the reading tagged, before the layers reshuffled themselves — full reconfiguration in thirty-four seconds, rotating every eight.

ADAPTIVE CONTAINMENT ACTIVE. Bonus Objective complete: formation flaw identified. Breach Sight Proficiency, eleven to twelve percent.

"Doesn't matter how fast he spins it," Jace said. "Still needs my yes."

"You have found nothing useful," Theodore said, though nothing in his mask could have told Jace that.

"I found the part you were worried about."

The third Collector's hand twitched. Barely. Enough.

"You had a name," Jace said to him, "before all this."

HIDDEN WEAKNESS CONFIRMED — Original Identity Fragment: Active. Trigger: Personal Recognition.

"Maintain formation," Theodore said, to Elijah Arden, and Elijah went still the way a man goes still when he's been told to.

"There you are," Jace said, and meant it kindly, which was somehow worse than if he hadn't.

The field answered by taking his arms out from under him.

Health, 124. Stamina, 3. Corruption, eighty-seven.

WILLPOWER CHECK — PASSED. Proficiency, forty-one to forty-seven.

Somewhere underneath it, something new: Recovery Resistance, three percent, quiet as a held secret.

"Still here," Jace said, mostly to the floor. "Still not agreeing."

"You do not need to agree," Theodore said, crouching properly now. "You only need to stop resisting long enough for us to preserve you."

"Same offer, slower."

"It is survival."

Nine minutes, the timer insisted. Then less. Recovery Resistance climbed to seven.

Seraphina caught him before his face met the marble, and he used the hand she wasn't holding to push himself up one final time, because the quest had asked for consciousness and he intended to make it work for the failure, at least.

FINAL ENDURANCE CHECK — FAILED.

Bonus and Hidden Objectives: complete. Primary: not.

Overflow XP, four thousand gained, fifty-one thousand two-eighty total. Endurance Proficiency, twenty-nine. Willpower Proficiency, fifty-two. Recovery Resistance, twelve. Forced Recovery: authorized.

His arm buckled at the elbow. He kept pushing anyway, which changed nothing, but felt like it should have.

HOUSE SUNCHAIN ASSESSMENT COMPLETE.

Asset Condition: RECOVERABLE.