The workshop smelled of conductive gel, and the lingering, floral scent of Elven mana-discharge. It was a sensory profile that screamed "illegal high-output experimentation."

  Kaito was wiping blue slime from the Restoration Chair's intake valves when the iron door was struck by a magically-enhanced breaching hammer. The hinges shrieked, and the door buckled inward, hanging by a single, twisted bolt.

  [Warning: Unauthorized Entry Detected]

  [External Threat Level: High]

  Captain Thorne stepped through the wreckage, his heavy trench coat swirling with the remnants of the breaching spell. Behind him, two Guild enforcers leveled mana-suppression batons. Thorne didn’t waste time with a greeting; he pulled a glowing red wax disk from his pocket—a Guild Seizure Seal.

  "Kaito," Thorne rumbled, his boots crunching on broken gss. "By the authority of the Artificer’s Guild, this site is designated a Grade-A Public Hazard. This equipment is being impounded for forensic dismantling."

  He stepped toward the chair, the Seal pulsing in his hand like a heartbeat. He didn't just threaten to take it; he smmed the Seal onto the brass frame of the chair. The wax fused to the metal, and a cage of red light erupted around the machine, huming with a frequency that threatened to shatter the crystal core.

  "Stop," Kaito said, his voice ft. "That Seal is calibrated for static artifacts. This machine is currently in a desaturation cycle. If you force a lock-down now, the feedback loop will level this building."

  "Then you should have thought of that before running a soul-sink in a gutter," Thorne said, reaching for his cuffs.

  "He didn't," a cold, aristocratic voice cut through the red gre.

  Era stepped from the shadows, her Magistrate’s signet ring glowing with a pale, steady light that pushed back the Seal's crimson aura. "Captain Thorne, you are tampering with a High Council-mandated medical prototype. Remove that Seal immediately, or I will have your Guild's charter reviewed for obstruction of Justice."

  Thorne didn't flinch. He turned his gaze to Era, his eyes hard. "Magistrate. I suspected you were the 'Client 01' mentioned in the street reports. But a 'mandate' requires a signed filing in the Hall of Records. I checked this morning. The tray was empty."

  He took a step toward her, his height and armor dwarfing her delicate frame. "You're overstepping, Era. Protecting a rogue engineer is one thing. Falsifying a Council mandate is a felony. I’m taking the chair, and I’m taking him."

  The air in the room grew heavy, the red light of the Seal cshing with the violet static of Era’s rising anger. But before the standoff could break, a massive, serrated bde smmed into the floorboards between Thorne and the chair.

  Xenia stepped forward, her ste-grey skin still glistening with conductive gel. She loomed over the Captain, her amber eyes burning with predatory intent. "The Tin-Man has a lot of opinions for someone currently standing in a room with a 100% casualty probability."

  "A Hobgoblin enforcer?" Thorne sneered, his hand dropping to the hilt of his own sword. "This just went from an illegal workshop to a criminal conspiracy."

  "It went from an audit to a negotiation," Kaito interrupted, stepping between the three of them with a screwdriver in one hand and a ledger in the other. "Captain, the Magistrate's filing isn't in the tray because it was hand-delivered to the Arch-Mage's private chambers ten minutes ago. If you break that Seal now, you aren't just breaking my chair; you're breaking a personal project of the High Council. Are you prepared to expin that to your superiors?"

  Thorne paused. His eyes flicked between Kaito’s unblinking stare and Era’s subtle, triumphant nod. He knew Kaito was likely bluffing about the Arch-Mage, but with a Magistrate standing right there as a witness, the risk of a "wrongful seizure" wsuit became a career-ending variable.

  Thorne reached out and gripped the red Seal. With a sharp tug, he ripped it off the brass frame. The red cage vanished, leaving the chair huming quietly.

  "One week," Thorne hissed, leaning into Kaito's space. "I’ll verify that filing. If the Arch-Mage hasn't seen it, I’m coming back with a demolition team, not a Seizure Seal. And I’ll ensure your 'security' is sent back to the pits in a crate."

  He turned on his heel, signaling his enforcers to retreat. The iron door cttered against the wall as they disappeared into the fog of the Rust District.

  The silence that followed was thick with the adrenaline of the near-miss. Era let out a long, shaky breath, her hand trembling as she lowered her signet ring. Xenia pulled her bde from the floor, sheathing it with a sharp cck.

  "He's going to check the records, Kaito," Era whispered. "There is no filing. I haven't even drafted it."

  "Then you have exactly six days to use your influence to make one appear," Kaito said, already inspecting the spot where the Seal had scorched the brass. "Business is no longer just about silver and copper, Magistrate. It’s about survival. Xenia, I need you to find out who told Thorne about the 'high-decibel spikes.' We have a leak in the supply chain."

  Kaito picked up his soldering iron. "Now, let’s get the door fixed. We’re losing heat, and I have a schedule to maintain."