Amenti is obsidian and gold, and it shines like a blade.

In this city, the elite don’t buy buildings; they buy Wholeness. They audit Spirit and cash it into clinical immortality. I survive in the gutters as a Filter. I turn siphoned rot into art. My tattoos are therapy with teeth. My needles make saints out of sinners and monsters out of men.

THE PILLAR

Marcellous Delacroix is the city’s Pillar. A billionaire mercenary wrapped in Regulation, he carries the Grid like a halo and a handcuff. He captures me like property and catalogs me like a unit.
Then the data-link locks. Terminal. * Skin to signal.
Breath to bandwidth.

THE PROTOCOL

He falls first, and he falls hard. His mercy is violent. His devotion is a loaded gun with my name on the safety. "Touch her and you die" becomes policy, and the Spire starts to notice.

I keep my identity sealed behind ink and lies. I keep my fire hidden in plain sight. I build a Found Family out of broken streetlights and stolen prayers.

THE SYSTEM FAILURE

The Abyss opens under Amenti, and the Second Audit begins. I stop being a unit in their directory and start becoming their Chosen Malfunction.

Ascension waits at the top of the Spire, and sacrifice waits at the bottom.

TROPES:
Enemies to Lovers: A war of vibrational alignment between a Mercenary and a Street Alchemist.
Forced Proximity: Fused by a terminal data-link that creates a literal "Nervous System Regulation."
He Falls First: A billionaire who trades his empire for her safety.
Touch Her and You Die: Primal protection from the city's most lethal Pillar.
Found Family: Protecting a "Unit" of fifty siphoned children in the Ferry Oaks.
Fated Mates: A system error that transcends the Pharaoh’s code.