Chapter 19: Accidental Sabotage

The prisoner wing smelled like despair and unwashed bodies.

Rows of iron cages lined both walls. Humans inside. Mana-sensitive individuals. The valuable merchandise. Some were kids. Most were teenagers. All of them had that hollow look—the one that said hope had left a long time ago.

I grabbed the first cage door.

The iron was thick. Reinforced. Designed to hold people who could manipulate magic if given the chance. Standard suppression setup—expensive, effective.

I ripped it off the hinges.

The metal shrieked. Bolts tore free from stone. The entire door came away in my hands like I’d opened a cabinet. I tossed it aside—it hit the wall with a crash that echoed through the chamber.

The prisoners inside didn’t move.

They stared at me. Eyes wide. Not with relief—with terror. Like I was somehow worse than the guards. Worse than the cages. A different kind of monster.

“You’re free. Get out.”

Nobody moved.

One girl pressed herself against the back wall. Hands up. Shaking. She looked maybe sixteen—blonde hair, too thin. She’d been here too long.

“Please don’t hurt us.”

“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to rescue you.”

“You just tore through iron like paper.”

“Yeah. That’s how I rescue people. Efficiently.”

I moved to the next cage. Grabbed the bars. Pulled. Metal groaned—the lock mechanism shattered. Another door down. More prisoners huddled inside. Same terrified expressions. Same refusal to leave despite the open exit.

“Seraphina, little help here? They won’t move.”

“Of course.”

She approached the nearest cage. Her silver hair caught the torchlight. Her expression was gentle, reassuring—the perfect caring mage coming to save traumatized victims. She raised her hand… purple magic gathered around her fingers.

“Don’t worry. I’ll unlock these restraints properly. Much gentler than brute force.”

The spell launched.

Not at the restraints. At the structural support beam directly above a cage containing three prisoners. One of them was opening his mouth—about to speak, about to say something.

The beam exploded.

Stone and metal rained down. The ceiling cracked. Chunks of rock the size of my head fell toward the prisoners below. They screamed. Tried to scatter. No time—the debris was falling too fast.

I moved on instinct.

Crossed the distance in two steps. Caught the largest piece of ceiling with my left hand—it weighed maybe three hundred pounds, solid stone. My arm didn’t even buckle. I held it overhead while the smaller pieces bounced off my shoulders and back.

“Seraphina!”

“Oops!”

She gasped. Hands over her mouth—picture-perfect shock and dismay.

“My mana slipped! I’m so clumsy today! I must be more tired from the journey than I thought!”

“You just tried to collapse the ceiling!”

“It was an accident! I was aiming for the lock mechanism! Sometimes combat magic and utility magic get crossed in my neural pathways when I’m fatigued!”

I threw the stone chunk aside. It hit the floor and shattered. The prisoners scrambled out of their cage—covered in dust, bruised, but alive. No thanks to Seraphina’s “help.”

“If you destroy the loot, I’m deducting it from your pay.”

“Loot? Rian, these are people.”

“Exactly. People we’re supposed to rescue. Not bury under rubble.”

I brushed debris off my shoulders. My back hurt. Getting hit by falling ceiling was annoying even if it wasn’t dangerous. I’d feel that tomorrow—add it to the list of things I’d bill the Guild Association for.

“Maybe I should handle the unlocking.”

“Nonsense! I’m perfectly capable! That was just a minor miscalculation!”

She moved to another cage. Her hands glowed again—different color this time, blue instead of purple. The spell formed. Precise. Controlled. It flew toward the lock.

And veered left at the last second.

The magic hit a support pillar. The stone cracked. The whole section of wall groaned—it started tilting inward. Toward a group of prisoners huddled in the corner. They screamed. Tried to run. No exit… the wall was coming down.

I grabbed it.

Both hands this time. The wall was massive—had to weigh over a ton. I dug my heels in. Pushed back. Muscles strained. Physics argued. I won. The wall stopped falling—I held it in place while the prisoners scrambled to safety.

“Seraphina!”

“It happened again! My aim is completely off today! Must be the corrupted mana in the air! It’s interfering with my spellcasting accuracy!”

“There’s no corrupted mana down here! The wards are clean!”

“Are you sure? I definitely feel something disrupting my magical flow!”

I shoved the wall back upright. It settled with a grinding sound. More dust filled the air. My arms ached. This was ridiculous—Seraphina was one of the most precise mages I’d ever seen. She could hit a target the size of a coin from a hundred meters away. But suddenly she couldn’t unlock a cage without demolishing the building?

She was doing this on purpose.

But why? What was the point of destroying infrastructure? Unless…

I looked at the prisoners. Specifically at the ones she’d nearly killed. They were all in the same area—the section near the Warden’s office. The ones who would’ve had the most contact with management. The ones who could identify who really ran this operation.

Witnesses.

She was eliminating witnesses. Making it look like accidents—clumsy magic, structural failures, anything but deliberate assassination attempts. And I was stopping her by reflex because my brain defaulted to protecting people.

“I’ve got an idea.”

Seraphina smiled brightly. Too brightly. That expression that meant terrible things were about to happen.

“What if I cast a mass unlock spell? One big burst of magic to open all the remaining cages simultaneously? Very efficient!”

“Absolutely not.”

“But it would save so much time!”

“You’d bring down the entire facility.”

“Only if I miscalculated the output ratio. Which I wouldn’t. Probably.”

“No mass spells. No more spells at all. Just stand there and look helpful.”

She pouted. Actually pouted—like I’d taken away her favorite toy. Which I had. Her favorite toy being collateral damage disguised as incompetence.

I moved down the line of cages. Ripping doors off. One after another—mechanical, efficient. The prisoners filed out slowly. Still scared. Still unsure. But alive. Moving. Free.

One of them approached me. Middle-aged man—thin, bruised. He’d been here longer than most. His eyes had that sharp awareness… the kind that came from paying attention, from seeing things.

“Thank you. We thought no one would come.”

“You thought right until today. Can you walk?”

“Yes. I can—”

Seraphina’s spell hit the ceiling directly above him.

The explosion was massive. Chunks of stone the size of carriages fell. The man looked up—saw death coming, froze. His brain couldn’t process fast enough. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t save himself.

I grabbed him.

Threw him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Dove sideways. The debris hit where we’d been standing—the impact shook the floor. Dust and fragments peppered my back. The man wheezed—probably cracked a rib from my shoulder. Better than being crushed flat.

“Oops! That one really got away from me! The mana fluctuations are so unpredictable!”

Seraphina stood exactly where she’d been. Not a speck of dust on her robes. Not a scratch. Her “wild” magic somehow only destroyed things near other people—never near her. Funny how that worked.

I stood up. Set the man down. He stumbled—caught himself against the wall. Looked at me with something between gratitude and absolute terror.

“You saved my life.”

“Yeah. That’s my job apparently.”

“I need to tell you something. About this place. About who—”

“Later. We’re leaving. Now.”

I grabbed his arm. Started pulling him toward the exit. The other prisoners followed—a ragged line of traumatized people moving through the destruction. They kept their distance from Seraphina. Smart—survival instincts kicking in.

“But Rian, we should do a thorough sweep! Make sure we didn’t miss anyone!”

“We’re done here. Move.”

“What about documentation? Evidence for the Guild Association?”

“Grab the papers on your way out. Stop exploding things.”

She made a disappointed sound—like I’d ruined her fun. Which I had. Her fun being witness elimination disguised as magical mishaps. I was starting to understand her game… keep me busy saving people, use my reflexes against me. Make me the shield while she cleaned up loose ends.

Clever. Infuriating. Exactly what I should’ve expected from someone who treated human minds like playthings.

We reached the exit tunnel. The prisoners moved faster now—seeing daylight, smelling fresh air. Hope returning in small, fragile amounts. I counted heads. Twenty-three. Less than I’d hoped. More than I’d feared.

The man I’d saved stayed close to me. Nervous. Glancing back at Seraphina every few seconds. He knew—somehow he knew she was the real threat. That the Guild Master who could tear through iron was safer than the mage who smiled.

“Guild Master.”

He whispered it. Quiet enough that only I could hear.

“When we get outside. I need to tell you something important. About the operation. About who funded it.”

“Save it for the debriefing.”

“No. You don’t understand. She’s—”

“I know.”

The words came out flat. Tired. Because I did know. I’d known since she unlocked that barrier—maybe before. The intel. The timing. The convenient separation of my team. All of it pointed to one conclusion.

Seraphina wasn’t investigating this operation—she was part of it. Maybe ran it. And now she was covering her tracks by playing the helpful hero while sabotaging anyone who could expose her.

We emerged into daylight.

The forest looked beautiful. Clean. Normal. Everything the underground nightmare wasn’t. The prisoners scattered—some ran, some collapsed crying. Some just stood there breathing free air like it was the first time.

I set down the witness. He looked at me. Opened his mouth—about to speak, about to blow Seraphina’s cover wide open.

“Don’t.”

I said it quietly. A warning. Not a threat—just acknowledgment that speaking right now would get him killed. Seraphina was twenty feet away. Close enough to hear. Close enough to “accidentally” misfire another spell.

He understood. Closed his mouth. Nodded once.

Smart man—survival instincts working overtime.

Seraphina walked up beside me. She surveyed the freed prisoners with satisfaction—the picture of a successful rescue mission. A hero who’d helped save innocent lives. No one would believe she’d tried to kill half of them.

“Mission accomplished. We should head back. Report our success.”

“Yeah. Success.”

I didn’t look at her. Couldn’t. Because if I looked, she’d see that I knew. And if she knew I knew, things would get complicated—more complicated than they already were.

We had two days back to the guild. Two days alone with someone who’d just proven she’d kill witnesses without hesitation. Two days pretending everything was fine while planning how to expose her without becoming her next “accident.”

I really, really missed Valeria’s straightforward murder attempts.

At least with her, I knew where the knife was coming from.