Chapter 23: The Doomsday Device

I knew something was wrong the second Seraphina walked into my office.

Her usual smirk was gone—replaced by something I’d never seen on her face before. Worry. Actual, genuine worry. The kind that made my stomach drop because if Seraphina was concerned, the rest of us should probably start digging our graves.

She closed the door behind her with deliberate slowness, her movements precise and calculated.

“We need to talk.”

I set down the requisition forms I’d been pretending to read. My hands were already sweating.

“That’s never a good sign coming from you.”

She crossed the room in three strides, planting both palms on my desk. Her knuckles went white from the pressure.

“The Titan’s Heart has been activated.”

I blinked at her, waiting for context that would make those words mean something less terrifying.

“The what now?”

“An old magical construct of mine. I built it decades ago as a… contingency measure.” Her jaw tightened—and for a split second I saw something flash in her eyes that looked suspiciously like guilt. “It was stolen seven years ago. I’d assumed whoever took it didn’t understand what they had.”

The way she said “assumed” made it clear how much she hated being wrong.

“Okay, so what does this thing do?”

She straightened up, folding her arms across her chest like she was physically holding herself together.

“It’s executing Order 67. In the Northern Wastelands. As we speak.”

I waited for her to elaborate. She didn’t. Classic Seraphina move—dropping a bomb and then acting like I should already know what it means.

“And Order 67 is…?”

“A cataclysmic event that will shake the earth.”

Oh good. Vague and ominous. My two favorite things in a crisis.

“Can you be more specific? Are we talking earthquake? Explosion? Demon portal? I need details here.”

Her expression darkened, and she looked away toward the window.

“You’ll understand when you see it.”

That was absolutely not reassuring. Not even a little bit. When Seraphina refused to explain something, it usually meant the explanation would make me want to run screaming in the opposite direction.

“Why are you telling me this?”

She turned back to face me—and there was that grave expression again, the one that made my fight-or-flight instincts scream at me to pick flight.

“Because you need to go stop it.”

I actually laughed. Couldn’t help it. The absurdity of that statement hit me like a brick.

“Me? I’m not a mage, Seraphina. I can’t even cast a basic light spell without nearly passing out. What am I supposed to do against a magical doomsday device?”

“You won’t be alone.”

Before I could ask what that meant, my office door burst open. Beatrice swept in like she owned the place—which technically she kind of did since she funded half the guild’s operations. She was carrying something draped over her arm, a coat that looked way too expensive for fieldwork.

“Rian, darling, we have a situation.”

I gestured helplessly at Seraphina.

“Yeah, I’m getting that impression.”

Beatrice crossed to my desk with that unsettling merchant smile of hers—the one that meant she’d already calculated seventeen different profit margins from whatever disaster we were about to walk into.

“I’m assigning Valeria as your bodyguard for this mission. Just her. No one else.”

My brain short-circuited for a solid three seconds.

“Wait, Valeria? The same Valeria who threatened to break both my legs last week because I accidentally brushed against her shoulder in the hallway?”

Beatrice’s smile widened.

“That’s the one. Her defensive capabilities are unmatched in the guild. If this Titan’s Heart truly activates Order 67, only her barriers will be strong enough to withstand the shockwave.”

I looked between them, searching for any sign this was an elaborate prank. Seraphina’s grave expression hadn’t changed. Beatrice looked downright cheerful about sending me into mortal danger with the most volatile woman in the entire organization.

“This is insane. You both know this is insane, right?”

Beatrice ignored me completely, unfolding the coat she’d been carrying.

“Stand up. I made this specifically for you.”

I didn’t move. My survival instincts were finally kicking in—telling me that standing up meant accepting this nightmare mission.

“I refuse.”

“Rian.” Beatrice’s voice dropped an octave, losing all traces of her usual playfulness. “This isn’t a request.”

The Grand Guildmaster tone. The one that reminded me she could probably buy and sell my entire life with pocket change. I stood up.

She moved behind me, draping the coat over my shoulders with practiced ease. It fit perfectly—which shouldn’t have surprised me. Beatrice never did anything halfway.

The fabric was thick but surprisingly lightweight, enchanted probably, with subtle protective runes woven into the seams.

“This will keep you warm in the Wastelands. It’s also fireproof, water-resistant, and reinforced against most physical attacks.”

Her hands lingered on my collar, adjusting it with more care than necessary. I could feel her breath against the back of my neck.

“I wove a tracking spell into the lining.”

Her fingers smoothed down the lapels, slow and deliberate.

“Strictly for insurance purposes, of course. I’d hate to lose my favorite investment.”

There was something in her voice that made my skin prickle. When I glanced back, her eyes had gone dark—pupils dilated in a way that had nothing to do with the lighting. Then she blinked and the moment passed, her cheerful merchant persona sliding back into place like a mask.

“There we are. Perfect fit.”

She stepped back, admiring her work with obvious satisfaction.

I turned to Seraphina, grasping at straws.

“You’re hiding something. I know you are. Order 67 isn’t just some random catastrophe, is it?”

She met my gaze without flinching, but I caught the slight tightening around her eyes.

“Everything you need to know, you’ll learn when you arrive.”

That was a non-answer if I’d ever heard one. But Beatrice was already steering me toward the door, her hand firm against my lower back.

“Valeria is waiting for you at the north gate. Don’t keep her waiting—she gets cranky.”

I wanted to argue. Wanted to demand real answers, to refuse this suicide mission masquerading as a quest. But Beatrice’s grip was iron-strong despite her delicate appearance, and Seraphina’s worried expression haunted me more than any threat could.

If she was genuinely concerned, then whatever was happening in the Northern Wastelands was worse than anything I could imagine.

I found myself in the hallway before I’d fully processed agreeing to go.

The walk to the north gate felt like a condemned man’s final march. Guild members moved around me in their usual chaos, completely unaware that I was about to embark on what would probably be the worst road trip of my life.

Alone. With Valeria. The woman who once punched through a stone wall because someone looked at me for too long.

My stomach churned with dread, anxiety, and a weird sense of resignation. This was my life now. Guild master to a collection of dangerously obsessive women who saw me as either their precious treasure or their personal property.

Valeria stood at the gate in full combat gear, her armor gleaming in the afternoon sun. She turned when she heard my footsteps—and something dangerous flickered across her face.

“Took you long enough.”

Her voice was cold, clipped, radiating barely contained aggression.

I stopped a safe distance away, very aware that we were about to spend several days alone together in the frozen wasteland where no one could hear me scream.

“So. Road trip.”

She narrowed her eyes at me.

“If you die, I’m killing you.”

Yeah. This was going to be exactly as awful as I’d imagined.

I glanced back toward the guild hall one last time, half-hoping Beatrice or Seraphina would appear and call this whole thing off. But the windows remained empty—and I knew deep down they were probably watching from somewhere, satisfied with their machinations.

Seraphina’s grave expression burned in my memory. She’d looked genuinely terrified, which terrified me more than anything else about this situation.

Whatever Order 67 really meant, I had a sinking feeling I was about to find out the hard way.

Valeria started walking north without waiting for me.

I followed, pulling Beatrice’s enchanted coat tighter around my shoulders, and wondered if the tracking spell woven into the fabric would be enough to save me when everything inevitably went sideways.