I'm not hangin' around for this

The cart jolts through the packed street, its wooden wheels grinding toward the gallows. Jeers rise around Zero Day Bound, swallowed and renewed by the tolling square bell.

His wrists are bound behind his back with rope. The maroon hoodie hangs crookedly from his small frame, white dreads snapping in the cold wind.

The cart stops beneath the scaffold. Above, the empty noose sways against a bruised afternoon sky.

Bram climbs onto the cart and thrusts a wax-sealed medallion into Zero Day Bound's view. The royal crest glows faintly, its magic prickling across the air.

The crowd falls silent. Behind the scaffold, the gallows bell begins to swing without anyone touching it.

Zero Day Bound twists his shoulders and pulls hard, probing behind his back with straining wrists for any give.

The rope answers by biting deeper. Its wet fibers creak, and the knot cinches against the cart's rear rail instead of loosening.

The jerk drags the rope taut across the rail, pinning Zero Day Bound's wrists closer to the wood and leaving no slack to search.

Bram lowers the glowing seal, then reaches toward the rope's tightened crossing. The bell swings harder behind him, and the sentence waits beneath its iron toll.

The confession cracks across the silent square. The rope stays tight, but Zero Day Bound's refusal carries farther than the bell.

Bram straightens and raises the royal seal. Its faint glow flares, casting a pale ring across the cart rail and the bound rope.

The bell stops mid-swing. Its clapper hangs motionless while a thin line of light crawls from the seal toward the gallows post.

The refusal lands cleanly. Zero Day Bound gives Bram nothing, and the rope remains tight behind his back.

Bram's raised seal dims. The pale ring slips off the rope and sinks into the gallows post instead.

Below the scaffold, the post answers with a deep wooden crack. A narrow seam opens in its face, revealing a dark hollow beneath the platform.

The crowd recoils from the opening. Bram's command has not released Zero Day Bound, but it has changed the gallows into something older than a scaffold.

The opened seam reveals a genuine hollow beneath the gallows, deep enough that the scaffold's underside disappears into darkness; old stone edges ring the opening, proving the space was built before the scaffold.

Zero Day Bound kicks off the scaffold and drops into the hollow, twisting his bound shoulders to clear the stone rim.

He lands hard on one shoulder in the ancient passage. The impact jars his ribs and sends a sharp crack echoing through the square.

Above, boots scrape and voices surge toward the opening. The royal seal slips from Bram's grasp and clatters onto the scaffold stones.

Dust settles around Zero Day Bound. Ahead, the passage divides around a pillar carved with two ancient marks, while pursuit sounds descend behind him.