The conference room felt too large for five people. The air-conditioning was humming a low, clinical note that set my teeth on edge. Gloria sat at the head of the obsidian table, her presence anchoring the room while Roonie tapped nervously at his tablet. He looked like a man who had just realized he was in a room full of people who could accidentally level a city block.

  "The Association and Ashen Gryphon’s recon teams are already scrubbing the intersection," Gloria said, her voice cutting through the hum. "They’ll handle the clearing. But that’s the easy part. The real question is exactly what Elara brought up earlier. How the hell does a human being turn into a portal?"

  She didn't wait for us to answer. She didn't need to.

  "There’s been a lot of strangeness lately. Things the Investigative agencies are barely keeping a lid on," Gloria continued. She leaned forward, the shadows under her eyes deepening in the harsh LED light. "The Association is treating this as a top-secret containment. Ashen Gryphon is one of the few guilds being trusted with the dirty work. But more than that, I want this group—the Ice Team—to operate on two faces."

  I blinked. "Two faces?"

  "The news isn't reporting an 'Ice Team,'" Gloria said. She glanced at Roonie, who looked genuinely surprised. "There is no official record of this unit in the guild’s public roster. Outside of the contracts you three signed, this team doesn't exist. You’re our hidden hand."

  Even Roonie looked like he wanted to ask a dozen questions, but Gloria tapped a button on the table. A holographic display flickered to life in the center of the obsidian.

  It was CCTV footage from the intersection. The hunter was stumbling through the crowd. He looked delirious. His movements were jerky, uncoordinated, like a marionette with tangled strings. Every few seconds, a puff of thick, white steam leaked from between his lips. He was hitting people, snarling at the air, his whitened eyes scanning a world we couldn't see.

  "It's almost like he's on drugs," Hana remarked, her arms crossed tight over her chest.

  Gloria gave a sharp nod. "Drugs can't rip a hole in the dimension, but you're not wrong about the symptoms. It’s a 'high.' A massive, localized overdose of mana and dimensional energy. The researchers are calling it raw aether."

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The presentation shifted. The images became grittier, lower quality.

  They were shots from remote villages, desolate border zones, and abandoned mining towns. In every photo, the center of the frame was occupied by a bone-rimmed gate or a mangled corpse that was halfway to becoming a portal. The blue cracks on their skin were like glowing, parasitic vines.

  "This isn't an isolated incident," Gloria said. "It's spreading. Remote locations for now, mostly areas where nobody looks too closely. But today proved it’s moving into the heart of the city."

  She shut the display off. The room felt even darker than before.

  "I want the Ice Team to investigate the source. It could be a rogue guild, it could be some new monster mutation, or it could be a specialized type of gate we haven't categorized yet. For all we know, there’s a person behind this. What we do know is that it’s a threat to every living soul in the country."

  Gloria looked at each of us. Her gaze was heavy, a physical weight on my shoulders.

  "We need powerful people, but more than that, we need presence of mind. People who can see the board before the pieces start moving. You three are a start. If you need more hands, find them. The recruitment is entirely in your hands now."

  She stood up, the chair scraping against the floor.

  "This is your task. Find the leak before the city turns into a graveyard."

  Seraphina gave a slow, firm nod. "Understood. It’s better than sitting around waiting for a gate to pop up on our doorstep."

  The night was quiet back in the office. The city lights outside the window looked like a sea of diamonds, but the mood inside was far less sparkling. Hana was sprawled on the couch, her breathing eventually evening out into a soft, rhythmic snore. I guess even a legendary A-Rank has a limit.

  I was hunched over my desk, my eyes burning from staring at the research files Gloria had sent over. My brain was a mess of aether theories and shadow-gate patterns.

  I looked over at Seraphina. She was still in her chair, staring out at the skyscrapers with a wistful, distant look in her eyes. The blue glow of her computer screen hit the side of her face, highlighting the pale curve of her jaw.

  I got up, my joints popping after hours of sitting. I moved quietly, the thick carpet muffling my steps until I was standing right next to her. I reached out, my fingers gently grazing her cheek.

  "Hey," I whispered. "Are you okay?"

  Seraphina didn't look at me. Instead, she let out a tiny huff and pouted, turning her head further away toward the window.

  I blinked. "What happened? Are you not feeling well? Is the frostbite acting up?"

  Seraphina went quiet for a second. The air around her dropped a few degrees, a faint mist forming near the glass of the window.

  "You're very close with Hana, aren't you?" she eked out, her voice a low, icy whisper that barely made it past her lips.

  I froze. The question hit me harder than the mana explosion earlier. I looked at her, at the way her fingers were tightly coiled around the edge of her desk, and realized the Ice Queen wasn't just cold.

  She was jealous.