Seraphina led Elias to a private monitoring station carved into the chamber's wall. It was small, dusty, and smelled strongly of metallic chemicals.
"Sit," Seraphina commanded, indicating a rickety stool. She pulled a holographic image into existence above a small desk—a shimmering map of Veridia City, segmented by glowing lines.
"The Aether-Key was shattered into nine fragments during the last great breach three thousand years ago," she began, her tone clipped and professional. "They're scattered across the globe, hidden where the ancient Veil infrastructure is weakest. The Sybil, who is our diviner, has located the first fragment."
"Where is it?" Elias asked, trying to focus on the map and not the terrifying clock.
"It's hidden in the old Veridia Central Library archives," Seraphina said, zooming the map in on a grand, Greco-Roman building downtown. "The library was built directly over a nexus point of the Veil."
"Okay. A library. That's... doable," Elias muttered, feeling a slight, hesitant spark of hope. A simple fetch quest.
Seraphina stared at him, her expression hardening into active disdain. "It is not doable, Elias. It is a death trap."
She leaned closer, her eyes blazing with a weary, cynical fire. "Listen to me. You are Anchor, not a wizard. You have zero combat skills, zero magical training, and you are wearing a t-shirt that says 'I need coffee.' Do you know why the first fragment is still there? Because it's guarded."
She tapped the holographic map. The Library projection began to glow with a sickly, purple aura.
"The protection spell over the fragment isn't just a lock," she explained. "It's a sentient, psychic barrier designed to break the mind of anyone who is not the designated Anchor. Anyone who goes in and fails the test is either driven insane or simply evaporates. That's why we couldn't go after it ourselves."
Elias swallowed hard. "So... I have to walk in and fight a psychic barrier?"
"Worse. We've noticed a significant anomaly near the archives. Something has been waiting for the Anchor to appear." Seraphina's finger hovered over a dark, pulsating spot on the map, located deep within the library's basement.
"We believe a Sentinel has taken up residence."
"What's a Sentinel?" Elias whispered.
Seraphina looked away, her posture stiffening. "It's a being of pure, corrosive doubt. It feeds on anxiety, fear, and low self-worth. When a non-magical person is flooded with stress—like, say, a normal barista who just saw a psychic spider wreck a train—they practically glow to a Sentinel. It knows your deepest fear and uses it to stop you."
She finally looked back at him, her eyes intense. "And guess what your deepest fear is, Elias? That you're ordinary. That you're incapable. That you're not enough to save the world."
The Sentinel, she implied, would amplify that feeling until his mind shattered.
Elias felt a cold dread settle in his stomach, far worse than the fear of the Echo. The Sentinel would use his own self-doubt as a weapon.
Seraphina stood up. "We move tonight. We have 1089 days left, and you've wasted one already. Here are the rules: You listen. You do exactly what I say. And you do not get emotional. Understood?"
Elias nodded, his throat too tight to speak.
As she turned to grab her gear, a strange light flickered on one of the large monitors across the chamber—a massive, swirling vortex of purple and black energy. It was a new Aetheric Echo, much larger than the first, and it was coalescing above a residential area miles away.
"Damn it," Seraphina hissed, slamming her hand on the console. "We have a major breach in the Northwest Sector. I have to go contain it."
She spun back to Elias, her eyes wide with sudden panic. "Listen, Anchor. I am the only one assigned to you. I can't leave you here, but I can't take you with me. The library is closed and unpopulated now, which is safer. You go in now, alone, before that Sentinel gets any hungrier."
She shoved a small, dull-silver compass into his hand. "This will lead you to the deepest point of the archives. Don't look at anything else. Don't talk to anyone. Get the fragment and wait for me."
Seraphina didn't wait for his answer. She was already running, knife drawn, disappearing through an archway toward the breach.
Elias was left alone, standing next to the massive, glowing clock—1089 days—and the holographic map where a single, innocent-looking library was pulsing with a malevolent, purple light. He clutched the compass, his mind racing.
Sentinel. Corrosive doubt. Not enough.
He looked down at his clothes—the same barista t-shirt he had started the day in. He was utterly, terrifyingly alone, and he was being sent into a place designed to shatter his mind, armed only with a compass and his own crippling self-doubt.