Chapter 13: The Guide Tax
Varrik didn't chase the inspector.
She didn't rage.
She locked the threshold door, turned the clinic's white-noise system up one notch, and began dismantling the room like she'd done it a hundred times.
Tools back into lockers.
Screens dark.
Sensors reset.
Kairo watched, unsettled. "You're not… doing anything?"
"I'm doing everything," Varrik said, not looking up. "Just not loudly."
Selene stood with her back to the wall, face composed again. Her fingers still wanted to tremble, but she kept them still by force.
Varrik snapped a latch shut and finally looked at Kairo.
"Rook Halden came to measure," she said. "Not to take."
Kairo frowned. "Then why threaten."
Varrik's eyes were cold. "Because officials don't need proof to ruin you. They only need a reason."
Selene's voice was low. "And the Reaches corridor."
Varrik nodded once. "That's the reason."
Kairo's thread stirred uneasily. "So it's true. Beasts came through."
Varrik's mouth tightened. "Something came through."
She walked to her desk and pulled up a Veil-side bulletin, the kind that would look like a normal clinic network notice if the wrong person saw it.
Corridor irregularity.
Contract shortage.
Guides requested.
Priority: Astral-leaning.
Kairo's blood cooled.
Astral-leaning.
He could feel the hook in those words like a hand around his neck.
Selene's eyes narrowed. "They're putting out an order."
Varrik nodded. "A tax."
Kairo blinked. "Tax."
Varrik looked at him like he was still thinking like a surface kid. "When a corridor opens, everyone who benefits pays into the stabilization effort. Money, manpower, tech."
Her gaze sharpened.
"And guides," she added, "are manpower that can't be replaced quickly."
Kairo swallowed. "So they're going to take guides."
"They're going to buy them first," Varrik corrected. "Offers. Contracts. 'Opportunities.'"
A pause.
"And when buying fails," she continued calmly, "they start turning people into paperwork."
Selene's voice went colder. "Conscription."
Varrik didn't deny it.
Kairo felt the static tighten, not into a path, but into a hard, uncomfortable truth.
If he stayed small, he'd be hunted anyway.
If he got strong, he'd be drafted.
He looked at Varrik. "So what's our move."
Varrik's eyes narrowed slightly, thoughtful.
"We make you boring," she said.
Kairo blinked. "Boring."
Varrik nodded. "If you look like a once-a-week courier with minor resonance and no ambition, you slide under the first wave."
Selene scoffed softly. "He's not boring."
Varrik looked at her. "Then teach him to act."
Kairo's jaw tightened. "And if they still come."
Varrik's mouth didn't move. "Then we use your strengths properly. Guides don't win by punching. They win by choosing where the fight happens."
She stepped closer and tapped the Wrought tag on Kairo's wrist.
"This is permission," she said. "It's also a leash. Rook's message was simple: the Veil wants guides. And now it knows you exist."
Kairo exhaled slowly. "So rule six isn't just officials."
Varrik nodded once. "Rule six is demand."
Selene's eyes narrowed. "And who sets demand."
Varrik's gaze turned colder. "Families. Officials. Corridors. Beasts."
Kairo stared at the bulletin again.
Astral-leaning.
He felt the word pull at something in him, like a star trying to drag a tide.
Varrik shut the screen off.
"Today," she said, "you two do normal work."
Kairo blinked. "Normal."
Varrik nodded. "Courier run. Clinic supplies. Nothing heroic. Nothing Veil-flashy. We build your cover while we quietly build your Thread."
Selene lifted her chin. "And if Marrow raises his 'fee' again."
Varrik's mouth curved faintly, humorless. "Then I remind him that fees go both ways."
Kairo didn't like how calm she was about that.
Calm meant she'd been in this game longer than he'd been alive.
He looked at Selene, then at his own hands.
A Pathmaker with a lantern.
A companion with Silence.
And somewhere out there, a corridor had opened and something hungry had crawled close enough for officials to knock on clinic doors.
Kairo whispered, so low it was almost a thought, "We make ourselves boring."
Selene's eyes flicked to him.
Then she nodded once. "For now."
Because they both understood the unspoken part.
Boring was a mask.
And masks didn't last forever.