Chapter 17: The Collar Code
434 Words
The moment the pocket watch key was inserted into the lock hole of the childhood collar, the rumble of gears biting together came from the ground. Cyrus's arm encircled my waist, and shadow-iron thorns wove a protective net at my feet. The barbs on the inside of the collar suddenly elongated and stabbed into my carotid artery - blood followed the bronze veins into the lock core, and an image of the ice-coffin maiden before she dissipated flashed back in my mind: she was huddled in the corner of the lab, carving “Help me” all over the wall with her mechanical prosthetic limbs.
“Your blood is rewriting the program.” Cyrus snaps my hand as I try to rip the collar off, his breath sweeping over the barcode on the back of my neck, where the same fluorescent liquid is oozing out of the ice-coffin maiden. The collar cracks in half, and the microfilm that falls out reveals the surgical record of the chip that was implanted in the back of my neck as a baby-the ring pattern of the surgeon in charge, an exact match to the fire-paint mark of my stepmother's private stash of love letters.
The Steel Nursery
The smell of rotting powdered milk mixed with blood hit us as we dived down the dark river to the underground base. Dozens of infant specimens float in the incubation chamber, each with an artificial star and moon birthmark embedded between their collarbones. Cyrus cleaved the encryption lock on the main console with his Shadowblade, and the holographic log showed: twenty years ago on the night of the eclipse, I was switched into House Vine, and the true heir was sent to House Lorenzo-the blue-rose birthmark on that baby's file was overlapping the scar on the back of Cyrus's neck.
Alarms snapped as mechanical baby sitters crawled out of the air ducts, their eyeballs making the sound of pocket watch gears as they turned. I ripped the sulfur capsule from my necklace and smashed it into the ground, and my mother emerged from the smoke - she was handing the real Cyrus (who was supposed to be the Venn heir) over to the Lorenzo family spies, and carrying off the experiment (me) herself.
“It seems we are all tampered pawns.” Cyrus suddenly pushed me into the dead center of the surveillance, and the alchemical bullet grazed his shoulder, bursting fragments of the Papal Atonement on the wall. The golden vine crest on the pursuer's chest cracked, revealing the royal bastard emblem hidden beneath.
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