I stand between Tess and Rhea, staring at nothing and everything at once. Waiting. Listening. Feeling their worry prickle over my skin like static.

  “Tess doesn’t need to see for ya, lil’ Lizzy,” Rhea teases gently. “I’m a few pips shy o’ full Gold.”

  I blink. “But… how? I never saw an Inanna star on you. And trust me—during Rocky Horror it would’ve shown through those white grandma panties when you played Janet.”

  Rhea huffs. “Lass, we furries have octopus skin.”

  I rub my scalp. “Eh?”

  “She has chromatophoric skin,” Tess murmurs in her professor voice.

  “That’s partly why she’s so adorably scary,” Jenny giggles.

  “And partly why the mutation was outlawed,” Frankie adds.

  Rhea shrugs. “I can change me skin tone, hide me tats, me clan marks, me swarm sigils—”

  “But,” Tess cuts in, “she cannot change her religious mark. The System hides it when needed, but only the System and the Swarms can alter it.”

  “Oh.” I nod, then turn my blind gaze toward Solenne. “And you?”

  Solenne’s embarrassment smells like hot cinnamon and nerves. “Stepped off the paths more’n thirty years ago. Got me Reds and a bit o’ Green…”

  “Welcome home,” Tess murmurs warmly. “But Lizzy—why this sudden interest in our Inanna achievement levels?”

  “First,” I say, voice sharpening as the idea finishes crystallizing, “what about Constance Jones?”

  Solenne snorts. “The whole Lady Penrhyn brigade—women, all past their Reds. Don’t know why.”

  “Even Catalina has standards,” Rhea spits. “Oh—and none o’ them raised textile.”

  I inhale slowly. Sparks fire in my skull. “Follow me.”

  Boots shuffle behind me as we move deeper into the tunnel.

  “Tess and Rhea are Golds—”

  “Lass,” Rhea interrupts, “Tess is way past Gold—”

  “Not my point. The rest of us? Greens.”

  “True,” Tess agrees, “but what does that have to do with—”

  “The Gate.” I slap my hip where my Inanna star tingles under the skin. “It’s an authentication system.”

  Frankie huffs. “With death as the price of failure? Bit steep.”

  “Think Area 51,” I say. “Only British. Wetter. And fewer aliens. Try crossing their fences—it’ll cost your life.”

  Jenny hums thoughtfully. “But what could be in there? We don’t have nukes… right?”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Frankie snaps. “Catalina and her resurrected convicts want it.”

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  “Our quests,” I say, heart rising. “Kick Catalina out of MIRA. Fix MIRA herself.”

  Rhea’s tone tightens. “You think this is the path to the Core Vault?”

  “Bugger me,” Frankie whispers. “If Catalina’s controlling MIRA, then the witch is already in the Core Room.”

  “Not necessarily,” I counter. “You can manipulate someone remotely if you can influence what they hear and see. MIRA handles millions of Soul Cores. Most of it’s automated. She only focuses on emergencies.”

  “And we’ve been gone a long time,” Jenny murmurs. “System-time wise.”

  Frankie scoffs. “The Core Vaults are welded shut. Vacuum-sealed. Not even a cockroach could get inside.”

  “Cockroaches get into everything,” I mutter. “But that’s the Real. Here, we’re data. Data can enter a Core Room.”

  Someone pinches my bum.

  I yelp.

  Lenora snickers. “Somewhere, a sysadmin’s staring at a blinking error log, wondering why your packets have attitude.”

  “Seriously…” I groan.

  But the banter fades as the cavern widens—and shifts.

  A stench of charred flesh twists my stomach. But beneath it, electricity sings—stroking my bones like fingers dipped in lightning. My skin tingles. My bow hums. My flogger quietly croons a Bing Crosby tune.

  System notifications spill across my inner darkness:

  [Electroception +1]

  [Electroception +1]

  [Electroception +1]

  Each pulse sharpens the world—currents weaving through the air, red, green, gold. The System reads souls the way scanners read keycards. Reds hesitant. Greens accepted. Gold blazing. Tess? Beyond gold—almost platinum.

  I whisper, stunned, “I’m inside a zero-trust system. And it’s using Inanna’s hierarchy as access control.”

  Hands shake me back into myself.

  “Lizzy!” Lenora’s voice. “Come back!”

  “I can’t see,” I murmur, “but I can read your data. You’re all bright emerald. Rhea’s gold. And Tess…” A shiver. “Tess is practically a supernova.”

  “What’re you on about?” Solenne scoffs.

  “We can get through the gate,” I insist.

  Solenne gestures at the pile of charred corpses. “Lot o’ folks thought the same.”

  “I’m ninety-nine percent sure.”

  “Ninety-nine?” Solenne snaps. “Love, this isn’t lava—I can’t walk in and drag you out if you’re wrong.”

  “Please listen.” I breathe fast. “We don’t know how many made it through before Constance Jones. How many does Catalina need to reach the Core?”

  Rhea growls. “Why does she want the Core?”

  I freeze. She truly doesn’t know.

  Tess touches my chin. “Lizzy… tell her.”

  “What happens when a human soul touches an unbonded AI Core?” I whisper.

  Rhea snorts. “Another British band invadin’ America?”

  Tess snorts. “Not quite.”

  “They merge,” I say.

  Rhea steps closer. “Merge? What’s that even mean?”

  “A human soul wants to be whole with a real flesh and blood body. Our VR bodies? Cheap knockoffs—nanobot transcripts.” My voice softens. “But an AI Core isn’t a body. It’s godhood.”

  “No more periods or wipin’ me arse?” Solenne laughs. “Sign me up.”

  Tess snickers. “But no food. No ale. No dancing. No cuddling Jenny. No tickling Lizzy’s leprechaun. No touch, no taste—nothing human.”

  Solenne groans. “Fine. I retract me application.”

  Rhea laughs—then winces. “Ow. Me Wisdom just ticked up. Figures.”

  I turn toward the gate’s hum—just as a sharp dissonance rattles my nerves. Packets spit from the crackling door. A sulfur fart follows.

  My leprechaun charm jiggles.

  “The accountant wants his due,” I sigh.

  “Ten feet from corpses,” Frankie mutters. “Figures.”

  Lenora wraps an arm around my waist. “Come, my heart. The god of accounting wants his due.”

  Three hours later…

  A soft chime wakes me. Warm bodies are curled around me—Lenora’s thigh thrown over mine, Frankie’s arm draped across my stomach.

  [System Notification]

  Intimacy +1

  Stamina +1

  Communication +1

  Achievement: Love-Bound Polycule

  Warning: MIRA Core Stability: 70%

  MIRA can wait.

  My bladder cannot.

  I slip free. A cold breeze hits all my recently exposed bits. My body screams a five-alarm emergency—pee and poo both plotting mutiny.

  I grab my bow and flogger—not for safety, but to deny Frankie the excuse to tickle-trap me again for wandering unarmed.

  Following the stench of rotten eggs (Jenny, definitely Jenny), I hobble down the hall doing the unholy pee-pee dance.

  Data packets whirl around me as my bow begins to hum and the charm in my belly jiggles like it’s laughing. “Goddess—gotta go, right now—” I mutter, just as my toe catches and I pitch forward. An electric hum ripples through the floor, followed by a click and a soft chime.

  “Welcome, Mrs. Elizabeth Loren. Inanna member, Green rank. You are permitted access to the first testing range.”“Oh… shite.”