Chapter 346: No One Answers Alone

The unopened invitation remained suspended between Cassandra’s hands.

[Declare your trade.]

Nobody touched it. Wind crossed Slatewind Basin and pressed Mireva’s blue-black hair against one cheek. Behind her, the doors of the Sunken Belfry stood open just wide enough for the three Sairren wardens accompanying her to watch the surface without leaving the protection of the stone.

Rias closed the inspection layer around the Unanswered Bell Fragment. The black-bordered prompt vanished behind three pale evidence seals.

"Not here," she said. "We do not know whether opening the invitation creates another connection. We are standing beside the people whose route-song was already stolen once."

Mireva’s wings drew closer to her back. "Then take it away from our doors."

Cassandra did not object. She returned the fragment to its warded container and passed it to Rias rather than keeping it in her own inventory.

Alexandra noticed. Her eyes flicked from the container to Cassandra, then away again. She said nothing, which suited Cassandra better than praise would have.

The older bellkeeper who had followed Mireva onto the surface clicked his tongue. His attention remained on the conductor pin inside Rias’s second container.

"He wants to inspect it again," Mireva translated.

Rias opened only the outer ward. "No contact with the metal."

The bellkeeper crouched and held a tuning fork above the transparent seal. He struck the handle against his wrist. The fork released no sound Martin could hear, but the conductor pin answered with a faint silver pulse. The Sairren exchanged a rapid series of chirps.

Mireva’s expression sharpened. "The pin still carries a copy of our route-song. The market behind your invitation may have used that copy as a path."

"Can you trace it?" Martin asked.

"Not while it is closed." Mireva looked at the bellkeeper before continuing. "If you open the path again, he may be able to hear where the stolen resonance bends. Hearing is not the same as reaching you."

The bellkeeper took a narrow bronze disk from his belt. He pressed three tuning forks around its edge and adjusted them until the disk began to hum against Rias’s palm.

Mireva held it out to Martin. "The tuning forks will lean toward any nearby copy of our stolen route-song. That only tells you where the distortion is. If the market turns that route-song against you, strike the disk three times against stone or metal. Then keep it exposed. The three strikes carry one return call, and we will listen from the Belfry."

Martin accepted the disk. It was lighter than a coin and warm from the bellkeeper’s hands. "What happens if you hear it?"

"We try to turn the route toward us."

"Try?" Elisebeth asked.

Mireva did not soften the answer. "The route will belong to whoever built the market. We would be pulling on another people’s door from very far away. It may not move. It may move once and never again. It may tell them where we are."

"Then it stays an emergency measure," Rias said. "We do not test it for curiosity."

The bellkeeper nodded with obvious approval. Angel lowered her broad head beside Martin’s shoulder and sniffed the disk. He moved it away before she could test whether bronze carried any nutritional value.

"You already owe the city a cup."

Angel stared toward the horizon. Mireva’s ears tilted. "She denies knowledge of the cup."

"Of course she does."

They parted from the Sairren after confirming that Mireva’s delegation would remain near the Belfry. The party returned to the neutral exchange lodge where Cassandra had tested her Ranger equipment, and Rias secured a private evidence room away from the public halls.

Before the invitation came out again, Martin sent Angel into her pocket dimension, while Katherine left Kinnami unsummoned. Kumoe remained beside Alexandra for now. Alexandra had learned too much from becoming Packblade to make that choice for her partner simply because hiding her would make the plan easier. Their companions were too distinctive, and public combat footage had already taught Beastslayers what Emperoar and Chaosgraphy fought beside.

Rias made the rule explicit. "Once we cross, companions stay hidden until keeping the cover becomes more dangerous than revealing them. That includes Kumoe if she agrees. If we have to summon one, assume someone may connect the rest of us afterward."

The conductor pin, the fragment, and the new bronze disk rested inside separate circles on the central table. Cassandra stood before them with both palms on the wood.

"The safest structure would be a limited reconnaissance team. Rias handles evidence and withdrawal conditions. Katherine manages social contact. Alexandra discourages extended questioning. Elisebeth contains magical surveillance. Martin protects the group, while I examine the market’s contracts and financial patterns."

The old habit caught up with her halfway through. She stopped, and no one rushed to fill the silence. Cassandra slowly lifted her hands from the table.

"That is the structure I would choose. I should have asked before assigning it."

Katherine’s smile was gentle rather than teasing. "Then ask."

Cassandra looked around the room. "What risks are each of you willing to accept?"

Rias answered first. "I will enter as long as I control the evidence copy and the retreat conditions. If the invitation reads through my wards, we close it. If it identifies any real-world account, we close it. If we lose the ability to choose an exit, we leave before learning anything else."

"I can keep our private conversations inside Silent Stage," Elisebeth said. "I will not let the market use my spell to hide beast trafficking from its own victims."

"Agreed," Martin said.

Alexandra folded her arms. "I want the people buying live-bond blood. If we find an intelligent beast in danger, I am not pretending not to see it for the sake of our disguise."

Her eyes flicked toward the empty space where Kumoe would normally have crowded her legs.

"And I am not letting anyone use the fact that our companions are hidden as an excuse to treat them like equipment."

Katherine rested one hand on the back of a chair. "Alex and I can build a cover that does not require anyone to act completely unlike herself. That tends to fail the moment something unexpected happens. I also want the right to end a conversation without Cassandra calculating how much more information we might obtain by staying."

Cassandra accepted the criticism without looking away. "You have it."

Martin placed the bronze return disk in an inner pouch beneath Worldshell. "No information about the Sairren. No intelligent beast used as bait. Nobody answers a private contract alone. We separate facts from theories, and our first visit is reconnaissance."

Rias added, "No one calls the market a noble conspiracy because its brokers speak formally. We have clues, not a conclusion."

"And the first real-world date is still mine when this is over," Alexandra said.

Martin turned toward her. She had removed her helmet after entering the evidence room. The look she gave him carried amusement, challenge, and enough real concern to make the reminder more than a joke.

"I am willing to walk into a criminal market with you," she continued. "I am not letting the criminal underworld become a permanent excuse for forgetting what you promised outside the game."

"When we are back and everyone is safe," Martin said. "First evening we can actually breathe."

Alexandra’s confident smile arrived a little too quickly. "Good."

Katherine touched her sister’s shoulder. "Then I will make sure the world fails to recognize you for several hours. Try not to turn an ordinary dinner into a duel."

Alexandra gave her sister an offended look. "I asked about the score once."

"You asked more than once," Katherine reminded her, still smiling. Alexandra muttered something about professional curiosity and let the subject die.

Cassandra watched the sisters arrange his date without interrupting. Martin reached beneath the table and took her hand.

"Your date is after Alex’s," he said. "I remember."

Her fingers tightened around his. "I expected you to. I still appreciate hearing it."

Elisebeth looked toward the ceiling while Rias adjusted the evidence wards with pointed concentration. Once every condition had been recorded, Rias opened a quarantined copy of the Contact Seal. Black borders unfolded above the table without touching the original fragment.

[Recovered Contact Seal Recognized.]

[Guest access may be requested.]

[No house registered.]

[No patron registered.]

[Declare your trade.]

Six choices appeared beneath the prompt.

[Protection]

[Procurement]

[Information]

[Transportation]

[Recovery]

[Execution]

The dark market waited for their answer.