CHAPTER 182 — Greta

The pressure on the mark loosened by a fraction.

It was not mercy. It was distraction. Whatever had stepped into the field had forced the wills that were trying to finish me to look sideways. The weight on my forearm and through the bond with Elizabeth did not vanish, but it stopped pushing in a straight line toward the end.

Elizabeth felt the change at the same time I did. Her hand stayed on my shoulder, but the desperate burn of her energy eased just enough for her to draw a real breath.

"Something else is here," she said quietly.

Seraphina's eyes were already fixed on the empty air beyond the ridge.

"It is strong. Older than the ones that were feeding on you. And it is not trying to hide."

Feng Lan lifted her head. The permanent mark in her channels sat quiet now that it had been taken, but her Rebirth Eyes still caught the shift in the air.

"Greta," she said. The name came out like something she had only read in damaged records until this moment.

A low laugh moved through the stone under our feet. It was not loud. It did not need to be.

"Correct."

The voice was female, layered, and far too calm for the situation we were in. It did not come from any direction. It simply existed inside the space we occupied.

"You have been noisy, little thief. Breaking anchors. Dragging a phoenix into the count. Making the others spend themselves early. I almost admire it."

The Azure Phoenix platforms did not hear her. They only saw us pinned and weakened. Suppression fire continued to hammer the ridge. Binding arrays tightened across the last exit. The soldiers had no idea a second conversation was happening over their heads.

I forced myself upright. The god-heart remnant was barely holding together. The permanent presence of the previous owner sat quieter than before, damaged by the last rupture, but still watching.

"What do you want?" I asked.

Greta's attention settled on me like cold fingers.

"Want is a small word. I am curious. The others are greedy. They want the claim finished and the vessel emptied. I want to see what happens if the vessel is allowed to keep walking a little longer. You interest me more alive than collected."

Elizabeth's voice was flat.

"And the price for that interest?"

"There is always a price. For now the price is simple. Survive the next few minutes. The soldiers surrounding you do not care about my curiosity. They only care about the marked man their clan ordered them to break. I will keep the others from finishing you while the soldiers try. After that we will speak again."

The pressure on the mark shifted further. The wills that had been driving the final stage were forced back another step. The active collection did not stop completely, but it lost the clean, killing focus it had held moments earlier.

Vale's eyes flicked across the suppression grid.

"The platforms are still locking the exits. Whatever she is doing is not touching the Azure Phoenix side."

"Correct again," Greta said. "I am not here to fight a clan for you. I am here to keep the others from eating you before I decide whether you are worth the trouble. The soldiers are your problem."

A heavier volley of binding fire slammed into the ridge. Stone cracked. Lydia threw the last broken fragments of her formations into the nearest array and bought us three breaths of scrambled targeting. It was not enough to open an exit. It was only enough to keep us from being completely pinned in the next heartbeat.

Feng Lan forced herself to her feet with Elizabeth's help. The collected mark in her body made every movement cost more than it should, but her eyes were clear.

"If she is telling the truth, this is the only window we will get," she said. "The others will not stay distracted forever."

I looked at the four women who had followed me this far and at the fifth who had been dragged into the same fire. The remnant in my chest was failing. Seed control was still unreliable. The previous owner's voice was quieter than it had ever been. And the soldiers on the platforms were seconds from finishing their grid.

Greta's presence waited, patient and amused.

"Choose, little thief. Stay here and let the clan break what the others could not finish, or move while I am still interested enough to hold them back."

Elizabeth met my eyes. No long discussion was required. We had already spent everything that could be spent on this ridge.

"We move," she said.

Vale did not wait for a second order. She pointed at the eastern cut where the suppression was still a fraction thinner than the others.

"There. Now."

We went.

Lydia threw her body and the last of her strength into a final disruption along the edge of the cut. The nearest platform's targeting staggered. Vale hit the same point with everything she had left in her legs and shoulder, forcing a narrow gap through falling stone and broken light. Seraphina kept Feng Lan moving when her body tried to fold under the weight of the collected mark. Elizabeth stayed at my side, one hand still braced against me, ready to spend whatever will she had left if the override risk rose again.

The wills on the other side of Greta's distraction lunged once, testing whether she was truly holding them. The pressure spiked hard enough to drive the air from my lungs and make the mark burn white. Greta's presence simply pressed back, and the spike broke.

"Be grateful I am entertained," her voice said, closer than before. "The others are not used to being told no."

We cleared the cut under fire. Binding light scored Vale's shoulder and opened a line of blood across Lydia's arm. Seraphina took a glancing hit that left her silent for three full steps. Feng Lan nearly went down when the collected mark reacted to the sudden movement and residual pain. Elizabeth and I kept her upright between us and kept running.

Behind us the platforms began to rotate and pursue. In front of us the open slope dropped toward darker forest and broken ground that might hide us for a short time if we reached it alive.

Greta's attention followed like a second shadow.

"You have minutes, not hours," she said. "I will keep the others from finishing the claim while I am still curious. After that you are on your own again. Try not to die in a boring way. I have waited a long time for something interesting."

The mark on my forearm pulsed once under her words, not with the killing weight of collection, but with a colder, more personal notice. The previous owner's residual presence stirred weakly, as if the name Greta meant more to him than it did to me.

We hit the tree line with the platforms already adjusting fire to follow. The first real cover closed around us. The pressure on the mark remained, held back only by whatever game Greta was playing. The soldiers were still coming. Feng Lan was barely standing. The remnant in my chest felt one hard use away from true failure. And somewhere behind the distraction that was keeping us alive, the other wills were already testing the edges of Greta's interference, looking for the moment her interest ended.

Elizabeth's hand tightened on my arm as we pushed deeper into the trees.

"She will not hold them forever."

"I know."

"Then we use whatever time she gives us and we do not waste it."

Behind us, Greta's low laugh moved through the dark like she had heard the exchange and found it satisfactory.

The hunt had changed shape, but it had not ended.