Phryne's laugh shook the damaged shelves.
"You say that while standing inside my house, surrounded by women wearing my goddess's Falna. You have five swords, smith, but you cannot cut loyalty out of two hundred Amazons."
Rayleigh looked toward Aisha.
"No. That part was never mine to cut."
Aisha lowered her sword from her shoulder.
The scrape of steel against leather carried through the archive.
"Belka gave us the ledger rotations, Sabra preserved evidence of the unsanctioned transfers, and Tessa has two daughters Phryne nearly murdered to protect her authority. How many captains do you think will still call this loyalty once they hear the full story?"
Phryne's eyes moved toward Sabra.
The paper-carrier had dragged herself upright using the damaged cabinet. Blood darkened one side of her face, yet the emergency order remained tucked safely inside her uniform.
Sabra met Phryne's stare without lowering her head.
"You altered contract records without Ishtar's seal and attempted to remove witnesses before the discrepancy could be reported. I will testify to every detail, including the threat you made against Yōtōsai's life and the value of his Zanpakutō."
The words sounded like a formal report.
That made them far more dangerous than shouting.
Phryne's attention returned to Belka.
"You came back carrying his sword, copied our schedules, and filled a room with promises you cannot keep. Tell me, Captain, what exactly did the smith offer that made you forget who fed you?"
Belka wiped the blood beneath her nose with the back of one hand.
"He told me Nira laughed at a cat."
Phryne stared at her.
"That is your reason?"
"No. It is the reason I stopped pretending freedom had to be grand before it counted."
The Zanpakutō warmed again, and the contracts scattered around Belka pulled toward the blade as though an unseen current had caught their edges.
"You keep asking what Rayleigh offered because you cannot understand a decision without a price attached. He offered me a choice, walked away, and spent nine days wondering whether I would use it."
Phryne's mouth twisted.
"You expect these women to follow someone weak enough to worry?"
"I expect them to follow someone who worries and still opens the door."
The torn contracts rose higher.
Names pressed into Belka's awareness again, though the flood came with less violence this time.
The Zanpakutō was learning how much she could carry, or perhaps it had simply stopped asking permission.
'Easy. I cannot rescue anyone if I pass out in front of the first cabinet.'
Ardi moved closer to Tessa, using Nejibana's water to form a thin shield between the girls and Phryne.
The water did not splash or spread. It hung in the air as a clear wall, curved around the family without trapping them.
"Tessa, take your daughters through the doorway. My officers will escort you to the clinic, and nobody wearing Ishtar's colors will come within ten paces unless you personally allow it."
Tessa looked at the Ganesha insignia.
"Marta ran to the Guild once. They wrote down what happened and sent her back."
Ardi's grip tightened around Nejibana.
"I know. I read the report this afternoon, along with the name of the clerk who closed it. Marta was failed by the Guild, Ganesha Familia, and every officer who decided a stamped contract mattered more than the wounds on her face."
Water trembled along the edge of the shield.
"I cannot undo what happened to her, but I can promise that anyone who tries to take your daughters tonight will have to pass through me first, and I am done writing reports about women we should have protected."
Tessa's expression finally changed.
Belka had expected relief.
Instead, the older Amazon looked furious enough to cry.
"Then make certain Marta hears you say that herself."
"I intend to."
Tessa gathered Cala carefully and guided Mirel toward the broken doorway.
Phryne shifted.
Kaguya's blade touched the side of her neck before the movement became an attack.
No one had seen her cross the room.
Belka nearly laughed at Phryne's expression.
'That woman is deeply unsettling. I understand why Rayleigh brought her.'
Kaguya's voice stayed quiet.
"You may enjoy pain, but your hostages do not. Move again before they reach the stairs, and I will cut the tendons behind both knees. You can explain to Ishtar why you spent the rest of the rebellion crawling."
Phryne's breathing grew louder.
"You believe a Level Four assassin can threaten me because the smith is standing nearby?"
"I believe you are watching him so carefully that you forgot I was here."
Tessa and the girls passed through the doorway.
Ardi followed them into the stairwell, leaving a band of water stretched across the entrance behind her.
Only then did Rayleigh raise Benihime.
The crimson blade cast a low red light across the ruined archive.
Phryne's body tightened.
Belka remembered the stories from Knossos.
A tall construct that rebuilt itself after being cut apart.
A sealed ritual that had taken Valletta three years to prepare.
Both had vanished beneath this blade in less than a minute.
Rayleigh noticed the recognition.
"You heard what happened beneath the city."
"Rumors grow every time they climb a staircase."
"Ottar was there."
That ended the dismissal.
Phryne's gaze flicked toward Aisha.
"You would stand beside him while he points that weapon at one of your own sisters?"
Aisha's expression did not move.
"You stopped being my sister when you started choosing which girls were allowed to leave your rooms alive."
The accusation struck the room harder than any weapon.
Sabra looked down.
Belka knew the stories, though nobody spoke them above a whisper.
Missing workers, altered contracts, and girls transferred into Phryne's private houses before returning silent or failing to return at all.
Phryne's face went slack.
For one second, the hunger disappeared and something older showed through it.
Then the rage arrived.
"You ungrateful whore!"
The floor exploded beneath her first step.
Kaguya's blade cut down, but Phryne caught the steel between both palms and drove her shoulder through the assassin before the edge could reach bone.
Kaguya struck a cabinet hard enough to split it.
Aisha met Phryne's next charge with her curved sword braced across both hands.
The impact threw her backward.
Rayleigh did not move to help either of them.
Belka understood why when Benihime's point turned toward the ledgers.
"Sabra, how many records are stored in this room?"
"Four hundred and eighteen active contracts, sixty-three punishment files, and thirty-one transfer ledgers. The private vault holds the originals for every branch house."
"Can Ishtar rewrite the system from the private vault if we take these?"
"Yes. These records are evidence, but the main seals beneath her hall are what give the branch contracts authority."
Rayleigh nodded once.
"Belka, keep every page in this room from burning. Sabra, take whatever evidence the Guild needs and get out through the eastern stair."
Belka looked at the fight tearing through the far side of the archive.
"You are leaving us with Phryne?"
"No. I am leaving Phryne with Aisha and Kaguya."
Aisha ducked beneath a massive swing and opened a deep cut along Phryne's side.
Phryne laughed through the blood.
Rayleigh's attention remained on the floor beneath the sorting board.
"There is another route below this room, and the private vault is directly under Ishtar's throne."
Sabra's face changed.
"That passage is sealed. Only the goddess and Phryne carry the keys."
Benihime's red light brightened.
"I am a blacksmith standing in front of a locked door. Keys are optional."
The blade came down.
A crimson line opened through the floor without scattering a single contract.
Cold air rushed up from the darkness below, carrying perfume, old paper, and the unmistakable pressure of hundreds of active magical seals.
Phryne saw the opening.
Her rage disappeared.
For the first time since entering the room, she looked afraid.
"Do not let him reach that vault!"
The order thundered through the house.
Above them, dozens of Amazons began running toward the stairs.
Belka raised the Zanpakutō as every contract in the archive tore free from the floor and surged toward the doorway.
"Then they will have to come through all of us!"