Page 61 of Pocket Wife

Samuel lifts his lantern higher, and the beam drops through the open seam around the hatch. Far below, something metallic reflects the light.

Then a sound rises from under the threshing floor.

Not machinery.

A scrape.

Someone is already inside.

Rethan turns to me.

I don’t wait for him to ask if I’m ready.

“Record everything,” I say.

Then I step toward the open hatch.

CHAPTER 24

RETHAN

The hatch does not belong to the law.

I understand that before I descend the first rung. The law arrived late to this place, wearing seals and titles and polished language. First Hall is older than all of it. Older than council procedure. Older than regional survey codes. Older than the lies Helix layered over the valley until even honest officials struggle to see the ground beneath them.

Below, metal scrapes again.

Lucy moves toward the ladder.

I catch her eye, not her arm. “I go first.”

“No.”

“Lucy.”

“If First Hall recognizes its own, you are not the first person it needs.”

I want to argue. The bond sharpens the urge until protection feels almost like pain. But she is right, and the truth does not become false because it frightens me.

I step aside.

Lucy descends with a lantern on her belt and a recorder pinned high on her jacket. I follow close enough to catch her if the ladder fails, far enough not to crowd her. Above us, Torren’s voice carries down through the hatch, directing beams into place while Jessa keeps the live witness feed running.

The air below is cold and dry.

First Hall opens wider than I expect: a low stone chamber beneath the old threshing floor, supported by thick pillars darkened by age. The ceiling beams are reinforced with old grainwood. The floor is cut stone, worn smooth at the center where generations must have stood during floods, meetings, births, storms.

At the far wall, two Helix technicians freeze beside a half-open equipment case.

Between them stands an armored security officer.

And behind them, set into the stone itself, is a circular archive door marked with water, burial, and harvest signs.

One technician holds a cutting tool.

The metal rim of the archive door has already been scored.

Lucy’s lantern shakes once before she steadies it. “Step away from it.”