Level 999: The Glitch King

The First Chain

DECISION WINDOW: 04:00.

Before the timer could move, a second notice overwrote it.

RECOVERY RECORD INCOMPLETE.

UNINDEXED INTERVAL DETECTED.

Restoring documented events preceding Voluntary Action Review...

The gold across Jace's vision did not feel like a memory returning. It felt like a file catching up to something that had already happened — an account of the last few minutes being entered after the fact by the same authority that had decided his intention belonged fourth.

⸻

ASSET CONDITION: RECOVERABLE.

The word remained above Jace long enough to feel less like a diagnosis and more like a verdict.

Theodore Voss looked down at him.

"Now," he said, "we begin."

Jace was still half-supported by Seraphina, though supported was generous. His legs had stopped negotiating with him several minutes ago, and his right hand had curled into something painful and mostly decorative.

"Good," he said. "I was worried this had all been foreplay."

Seraphina made a sound that might have been anger or disbelief.

The gold field around them tightened.

Not enough to crush. Just enough to remind the room who currently controlled it.

FORCED RECOVERY — PHASE TWO

Health: 124/420.

Stamina: 3/160.

Charge: 34/140.

Access: 71%.

Corruption Load: 87%.

Theodore lowered himself beside Jace's damaged hand. He did it slowly, giving every movement the careful shape of permission without actually asking for any.

Caleb Marr raised one hand behind him.

Gold writing peeled away from the containment field. The symbols folded over one another, hardened, and became a narrow chain no thicker than a shoelace. Each link was etched with marks so small they looked like scratches until Jace tried to focus on them.

Then they looked like instructions.

Elijah Arden turned his face away.

His fingers touched his own wrist.

Only once.

Seraphina saw it too. "What are you attaching?"

"A Stability Chain," Theodore said. "Localized. Temporary."

"Those words are doing a lot of work."

"They are accurate."

Jace looked at the chain. "Does temporary mean it comes off, or that I stop caring whether it does?"

Theodore's mask gave nothing back, but his hand paused.

That was answer enough.

STABILITY CHAIN — LEVEL 8

Classification: Medical Restraint.

Primary Functions: Pain Regulation. Motor Restoration. Corruption Suppression. Bloodline Preservation.

Secondary Functions: Obstructed.

Attunement: 0%.

Theodore extended his hand, palm up. "Open your fingers."

Jace tried.

The command reached his hand late, dragged through the delay in his Access, and died somewhere around the wrist.

Before he could try again, the chain moved.

It slipped beneath his curled fingers and began opening them one at a time.

Jace watched his own hand obey somebody else.

"I didn't do that."

"Your muscles were locking," Theodore said. "The chain corrected the failure."

"That's a polite way to say it."

Seraphina's knuckles lit white.

INTERFERENCE WARNING

Current Violations: 2/3.

One further hostile action will suspend Palace protection and claimant privileges.

She let the light die, though not willingly.

"Jace," she said, "did you authorize the correction?"

"No."

Theodore wrapped the first loop around Jace's wrist. "Authorization is not required once forced recovery begins."

"There," Jace said. "That sounded more honest."

The final link closed.

Warmth entered his hand.

Not heat. Not burning. Something gentler.

The pain in his smallest finger vanished so completely that Jace thought the finger had disappeared with it. Then sensation returned without the tearing, electric misery that had been living there since the fleet.

The relief moved across his palm.

His breath caught.

PAIN RESPONSE: REDUCED 18%.

RIGHT-HAND MOTOR FUNCTION: 29% → 41%.

CORRUPTION LOAD: 87% → 86%.

CHAIN ATTUNEMENT: 4%.

Theodore adjusted one of the links with the care of a doctor straightening a bandage.

"Better?"

Jace hated him for asking softly.

"Yeah."

The word left before he could turn it into a joke.

The chain pulsed.

The black veins beneath his skin withdrew from his fingers. His vision cleared enough for the throne to become one throne again instead of two slightly disagreeing ones.

PAIN RESPONSE: REDUCED 37%.

MOTOR FUNCTION: 41% → 58%.

CORRUPTION LOAD: 86% → 84%.

ACCESS RESPONSE DELAY: 1.9 SECONDS → 1.1 SECONDS.

ATTUNEMENT: 11%.

Caleb watched the numbers instead of Jace. "Diagnostic acceptance registered."

"I said it felt better."

"The distinction is not relevant."

"It usually is when the patient can talk."

Breach Sight opened in a thin ache behind Jace's eyes.

For an instant, the chain split into layers. The visible links were almost harmless. Beneath them ran narrow gold lines carrying movement reports away from his hand — first to Theodore, then into Caleb's formation, then farther toward something larger the Spire would not let him see.

A second layer tried to surface.

It vanished.

HIDDEN CLAUSE ACCESS: OBSTRUCTED.

Reason: Insufficient Stability.

The chain tightened, not painfully. Reassuringly.

His hand relaxed inside it.

That was worse.

Elijah touched his wrist again. This time Theodore noticed.

"Elijah."

The hand dropped.

Jace filed the reaction away.

He bent his index finger.

It moved.

Then the others.

He closed his hand into a fist and opened it again. The joints still protested, but the pain had been pushed far enough away to feel survivable.

PAIN RESPONSE: REDUCED 61%.

RIGHT-HAND MOTOR FUNCTION: 58% → 74%.

CORRUPTION LOAD: 84% → 82%.

ACCESS RESPONSE DELAY: 1.1 SECONDS → 0.4 SECONDS.

CHAIN ATTUNEMENT: 22%.

RECOVERY RESISTANCE: ACTIVE.

Theodore sat back slightly. "Do not force the limb."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Jace planted his left palm against the floor and pushed himself upright. The chain steadied his right wrist before the bones could shift. It gave him leverage. Helped him balance.

Useful.

That was the part he could not forgive.

The throne stood several feet away, pale and cracked beneath the Sunchain field.

Jace reached for it.

His arm moved cleanly.

Then stopped.

Not hard. Not with a jerk.

It simply paused, his fingers hanging inches from the throne as if waiting for somebody else to finish the thought.

A gold line ran from his wrist to Theodore, then through Caleb's formation and out of sight.

UNCLASSIFIED MOVEMENT DETECTED.

Intent: Territorial Contact.

Medical Necessity: Unconfirmed.

Recovery Value: Pending.

Requesting authorization...

Jace looked at his frozen hand.

Theodore said nothing.

Neither did Seraphina.

VOLUNTARY ACTION REVIEW: INITIALIZING.

⸻

The record caught up to itself and stopped.

Jace remained on the floor, Seraphina's hand around his, the decision timer exactly where it had been.

03:59.

Nothing had been missing from him.

Only from what Sunchain was willing to admit had happened.