Chapter 214: Obligation Memory

The auction window hung above the outer archive, still glowing red. It cast a bloody tint over the shelves closest to it.

Some of the clerks started whispering around their blue-lit desks. They peeked toward the red window and looked away just as quickly, as if they knew what was happening but didn’t want to get involved. The witness notice Tessa had added to Lot Seventeen stayed right where she’d put it, next to the debtor’s record.

Juna led them down one of the clerk passageways.

"The outer archive will see that there’s a conflict," Juna said. "Before this, memories could be sold like any normal transaction. Now they know someone has figured out what’s happening."

"Where do they control it from?" Ceryn asked.

"Identity Index Three. The records below it decide whether a debtor’s memory can be trusted or not."

Petra held up the bag that contained her Blue Merchant seal. "When the council explained obligation memory transfers to us, they said it reduced the time needed to collect on debts. Nobody ever called it what it actually was."

"What was it?" Tessa asked.

Petra looked back toward the red auction window. "A way to erase what they did to you by taking your memory of it."

Austin Veyron could feel the weight of the archive pressing on his dark mark.

So many memories were stored in this place. People signing away their freedom. People without enough money to feed their families or pay rent. People accepting private tolls because their child was sick and they had no other choice. People taking on debts they could never pay off just to fix something that was already broken. DEVOUR wanted all of it.

If he consumed the memory engine, no one would ever be able to use it again. But he would also become the one holding every one of those memories.

He felt a sense of warmth when he thought about that, and the warmth was what worried him.

Veyra could tell he was lost in thought.

"What do you want?"

"To devour the memory engine."

"What would that create?"

"I would become the holder of every truth that was stolen from others."

Sable’s crown shard glowed a bright white. "Then we find those records without putting them inside you."

They reached Identity Index Three.

The room was filled with glass drawers from floor to ceiling. Inside each drawer was a person’s name and route tag, along with a small sphere that held their memory. Each sphere glowed faintly, like a dying fire.

Blue wires connected every drawer to an engine in the middle of the room that clicked constantly.

A clerk stood at the center of the room, wearing a blue mask and holding a stack of memory transfer papers.

"These are contested memories. You will need to speak with the director about them. Please return to the public auction room."

"The public auction room is selling memories before the director can review them," Juna said. "We need to see what they’re using to say that debtor’s memory is false."

The clerk’s mask tilted as if he were thinking about what she’d said. But his breathing stayed steady. He was used to telling people no.

"You are not authorized."

The memory collectors rose from the drawers.

They were made of blue wire, glass, and paper. Each one held a small silver hook.

UNRELIABLE MEMORY RETURNS TO THE ARCHIVE.

One of the collectors lunged at Tessa to grab her evidence. Rin slashed its hook with her claws, but another hook rose from the drawer to take its place. Tamsin blocked a second collector with her spear, careful not to break the glass drawers behind it.

Veyra severed the blue wire connecting one of the collectors to the engine. The collector fell apart, and its strips of paper tried to wrap around the blue mark on Juna’s throat.

Nyra lifted the heart shard, and blue-black light formed around Juna, keeping the paper from reaching her.

Austin Veyron looked at the words on the collector’s hook.

UNRELIABLE MEMORY RETURNS TO THE ARCHIVE.

The archive didn’t need to collect false memories. It just used that word to steal the memories of anyone who questioned their debt.

"Target," Austin Veyron said. "The unreliable-memory-returns-to-the-archive claim. Not the records. Not the debtors. Not the appeal histories."

"Witnessed," Veyra said.

"Witnessed," Sable said.

Austin Veyron pressed the white root chain against the nearest collector’s hook.

DEVOUR opened. The claim tasted like a clerk erasing someone’s bruise because they couldn’t prove how they got hurt.

UNRELIABLE MEMORY RETURNS TO THE ARCHIVE.

He consumed returns.

The collector stopped moving.

All of the other memory collectors lowered their hooks and stopped advancing on the group. The glass drawers stayed closed, but their blue labels changed to CONTESTED.

Tessa used Juna’s key to open the index drawer for Lot Seventeen. The debtor’s name was Ada Venn. Her memory showed a healer’s office, a sick child, and a broken water pump. A broker was telling her to sign a paper if she wanted the treatment to continue.

A woman walked in from the outer passage.

"My name is Kessa, and I’m Ada’s sister. They told us Ada willingly agreed to this debt, but she had no memory of it. That’s why I came here. The debt only kept growing after they took her memory."

"Do you want to add your name to the record as a conflict witness?" Tessa asked.

"Yes. She should remember why she was fighting this."

Ceryn found Ada’s original bill from the healer’s office. The price had been tripled before it was entered into the debt system. Petra found the clerk’s stamp that had marked Ada’s memory as unreliable. It had been issued by the director of the archive.

"We can add this evidence to every record like hers," Petra said. "But the director will wipe the index before we can."

A red mark appeared on the engine in the middle of the room.

MIDNIGHT TRANSFER AUTHORIZED.

The lights in the room shifted from blue to a darker shade of blue, and the clicking grew faster.

"The director is creating a mass lot," Juna said. "At midnight, they’ll sell all of the obligation memories from one of the flood districts. Thousands of people will wake up with debts they can’t explain."

A new auction notice appeared on the outer wall.

LOT MIDNIGHT: FENMARCH FLOOD DISTRICT COLLECTIVE OBLIGATION MEMORY.

Kessa looked down at Ada’s memory. She was shaking, and she pressed her hands flat against her body to make it stop.

"If they can do this to an entire district, no one will remember how they were robbed."

Juna opened the index for Fenmarch, which was kept beneath the engine in the middle of the room. Names scrolled past too fast to read. Each one carried a debt from the flood and the status of that person’s memory.

"The flood happened two years ago," she said. "The council gave the people of that district temporary housing. Then it started charging them for the food and the boats. When the people started questioning their debts, the council created this lot."

"We can pull this ribbon through the public index," Tessa said. "We don’t need to collect every memory from the district. We just need to show that the lot is in conflict before they can sell it."

Ceryn read the rules posted next to the auction notice. "A collective memory lot can be sold as long as no witness has been added to it. They believe a district can’t speak for itself because its people are scattered."

"Can we find someone from Fenmarch to witness this?" Austin Veyron asked.

"No. Fenmarch is too far from Ledgerdeep," Petra said. "But the workers who helped during the flood have records here. If we can connect them to the memory lot before midnight, we can stop this from happening."

Kessa picked up a blank sheet marked PUBLIC CHALLENGE. "Ada remembers one healer’s office, but maybe someone else remembers the boats or the food line. We just need to connect the memories they stole."

Nyra placed the heart shard on top of the Fenmarch index ribbon. "The director will send more collectors to wipe these links as soon as we start connecting them."

Austin Veyron watched the names scrolling by beneath the glass. He knew he could devour the entire memory lot and consume the ownership claim before midnight. It would be easy, and he would carry all of those memories inside himself.

Veyra stood near him. "What do you want?"

"To consume all of the memories before they can sell them."

"What would that create?"

"A vault that holds everyone’s memory, with my name on it."

Sable placed her crown shard next to the ribbon. "Then we connect the witnesses to the memory lot. We are not the archive."

They each chose what they wanted to help with. Tessa and Ceryn searched through the flood-relief records. Juna found the stamps the director had used on the debtors’ records. Petra matched up the routes the workers had taken during the flood. Kessa wrote the first witness notice in her sister’s name, pressing so hard that her pen tore the paper. Rin and Tamsin stood guard at the passageway to the index room. Veyra watched the engine in the middle of the room while Austin Veyron and Nyra held a barrier around the index.

One by one, the Fenmarch entries changed to show that a conflict witness had been added.

The black-blue lights flickered.

A bell began ringing somewhere deeper in Ledgerdeep. It sounded like thunder rolling through the archive.

The director knew what they were doing.

Austin Veyron looked at the black-blue light pulsing on the wall.

The contract war was going to destroy its own evidence.

They had until midnight to stop the archive from stealing more memories.