The three collectors stopped outside the pump-station doorway, blocking the road while their guild badges caught the morning sun. Their arrival turned the truce's first morning into a public price check.
Yenna stood beside the generator housing with both chain-knives low, watching the middle man's hands instead of his mouth. Her left arm held its blade steady while the interference waited beneath her core.
"Return Corven property, Rook," the middle collector said, tapping the bounty notice on his tablet, "then we can charge you only for the contract breach."
"I bought these knives after your guild sold my room," Yenna said, rolling one chain across her palm, "so send me a receipt or get out of my road."
The man on her left carried a shock baton, while the woman at the rear held a net gun across the only open side of the yard. A third collector kept the alley behind them clear for their retreat.
Their leader had placed them in a clean wedge because three Grade One hunters usually needed no cleverer plan against one damaged woman. He had given Yenna the center position, where she could not run.
Vell looked past them toward the storm culvert he had used to enter the station during the night. Its narrow mouth could erase the net woman's ranged advantage later today.
"The drain goes north," he said, keeping his knife inside his sleeve, "you can leave through it before this gets expensive."
Yenna did not look at him, though the nearest collector saw the offer and smiled as if it proved he had already won. The choice belonged to her, which made the collectors wait for it.
"You think I followed a murderer into a pump station for a safe exit," she said, tightening the chain around her wrist, "I am here because they came for my property."
Her answer changed the yard from an ambush into a fight Vell could plan around. He stopped measuring exits and started measuring the collectors' planted feet instead.
The leader advanced first, trying to force Yenna backward toward the net woman while the baton hunter closed on Vell's side. Their spacing depended on the leader keeping his planted front foot stable.
Vell kicked the loose roofing sheet beside the generator, sending its far edge under the leader's front foot before he could shift weight. The sheet bent beneath the man's shoe instead of sliding aside cleanly.
The collector lurched forward, which made his two partners hurry to save the formation instead of holding their separate angles. Their clean wedge collapsed into three people chasing the same sudden mistake.
Yenna snapped a chain around the baton hunter's ankle, pulling him into the leader's shoulder before either could recover. The impact gave her chain a useful hanging weight near the ground.
"Net the man," the woman said, stepping wide toward Vell, "the Rook girl cannot sustain another burst."
She fired before he reached the culvert, spreading weighted wire across the path she expected him to take. The launcher made a hollow click as its first loaded cartridge left.
Vell stopped behind the generator housing, making the net settle over rusted piping instead of his body. The pipe caught its edge above a shallow puddle beside the wall.
The leader cut himself free from the roofing sheet, then drove his short blade toward Yenna as her chain stayed hooked around the fallen baton hunter. He expected the trapped chain to turn her defense into immediate panic.
She could have pulled away, but that would leave Vell facing the net woman without her pressure on the other two. Yenna chose the worse angle before the collectors could choose it again.
Yenna kept close to catch the blade on her second knife, turning its edge aside while the locked chain held the baton hunter down. Steel scraped against steel beside her throat, leaving a fresh cut there.
The move spent more of her unstable output than the block should have required, yet the collector saw only a woman refusing to give ground. His confusion held him in place while the scar bit into her harder.
Vell used that mistake before it could become courage, running along the generator wall while the net woman reloaded. Her attention followed his movement instead of the weapon on the ground.
Her new cartridge needed both hands, leaving the shock baton on the ground within reach of the collector struggling beneath Yenna's chain. The downed man saw it at the same time Vell saw it.
"Take the weapon," the leader shouted, trying to wrench Yenna's knife away from his blade, "put Ardan down before he gets behind her."
The downed man grabbed the baton, then found Vell's heel on his wrist before he could raise it. His fingers folded around the grip before pain made them let it go.
Pain opened the collector's hand, sending the weapon beneath the generator where its charge hissed against pooled water. Blue sparks climbed the metal housing before the remaining charge finally died.
Vell dragged the man by his collar into the culvert mouth, reducing the yard fight to a narrow line where no one could use a net safely. The captive's body forced the others to approach one at a time.
The leader noticed too late that his own order had supplied Vell's cover. His eyes moved to the culvert after the useful shape was gone.
Yenna drove her knee into his ribs, then wrapped the loose chain around his knife hand while he staggered toward the drain. The locked arm shook beside her, yet her right hand held firm.
The net woman abandoned her reload and drew a hooked knife, choosing the closer target with Vell now hidden behind the first collector. She aimed for Yenna's unprotected fingers rather than the chain links themselves.
"Move," she said, pointing the blade at Yenna, "or I start cutting fingers until you remember what Corven owns."
"You should count the fingers first," Yenna replied, pulling the chain hard until the leader crossed into her path.
The leader hit the woman before her knife reached Yenna, giving Vell the half second needed to step from the drain. Their collision turned the net gun toward the loose roofing sheet instead.
He struck the net gun's hinge with his truck-spring knife, breaking its latch while the woman tried aiming around her partner. The recoil threw her grip wide after the damaged latch finally released.
The weapon discharged into the roofing sheet, pinning the leader's coat to the ground when he rolled clear of her. Weighted wire spread across his badge before he could rip it free.
Yenna stepped over him, catching the woman's wrist beneath a chain loop before her hooked knife could turn. The woman's shoulder followed the pull directly into the rough culvert wall.
One short twist sent the weapon across the yard, then a second pull put the woman beside the other collector in the culvert. Both captives now blocked the only route toward Vell inside the drain.
The leader still had his free hand, so he reached beneath his coat for a badge alarm rather than accept the fight was done. He had stopped fighting for the chains and started protecting his report.
Vell kicked his elbow against the roofing sheet, breaking the movement before the alarm could leave his palm. The device skidded into the puddle beside the dead baton charge nearby.
"Your guild sent three Grade Ones for a damaged hunter," he said, holding the knife near the man's thumb, "which suggests someone wanted the chains more than the bounty."
The collector spat near Vell's shoe, giving no answer while Yenna gathered the dropped weapons into one pile. His silence confirmed the chains mattered more than their posted guild bounty.
She searched their belts with careful hands, taking a credit purse plus a brass key marked with a bolt-hole number. The leader's coat also held a card with a nearby safehouse address.
"Two hundred twenty," Yenna said, weighing the purse before throwing it toward Vell, "they saved your market money for us."
Vell counted the bills, adding them to the one hundred seventy credits left from the market. The new total reached exactly three hundred ninety, enough to rent a room or pay for silence.
The brass key opened a small address card inside the leader's coat, showing a guild safehouse less than a kilometer east of the pump station. Corven kept a bolt-hole ready for collectors who needed to disappear.
"They will send more people when this lot misses a check-in," Vell said, handing Yenna the card, "we can use their room before they remember it exists."
She glanced toward the culvert, where the three collectors lay tied with their own net line beside the leaking generator. None of them wanted to explain why they had lost this morning.
"You expect them to report a Grade One beating three licensed collectors," Yenna said, sliding the card beneath her wrist guard, "they will need an excuse that sounds less embarrassing."
The safehouse sat behind a shuttered butcher shop, reached through a service alley where the guild had painted over its own door mark. Yenna chose the alley route after checking every passing delivery cart twice.
Vell unlocked the second-floor room while Yenna watched both ends of the alley, then checked the inside for alarms before she crossed the threshold. The empty hallway gave him time to test the inner latch twice.
It held a water tank, two narrow cots, medical wraps, plus a concrete wall able to slow anyone with a cheap weapon. A barred window faced the alley without giving attackers a clean shot.
Yenna closed the door and finally let her left chain fall across the floor. The sound came without any force from the arm still holding it.
The links went dead from wrist to blade, leaving her fingers clenched around a handle that would not answer her pull. Her hand stayed closed while the chain lay loose beneath her hand.
Vell saw the silver scar behind her collarbone darken, forming a thin line toward the locked arm. The line had not appeared before the fight used her burst output.
"Do not touch it yet," Yenna said, bracing her good hand against the wall, "it does this when I force more output than the scar allows."
"It did not flare during the tracker scan," he said, watching the line pulse against her skin, "the fight gave someone a reason to reach for it."
Her jaw tightened as the chain dragged across the floor without following her command. Fear crossed her face only after she had checked both barred doors.
"Then find the hand before it closes," she said, looking toward the barred windows, "I am done letting strangers decide when I can fight."