Magi arrived at the coordinates for the day's mission fifteen minutes early. He'd spent the previous day dealing with the eight micro-rifts from the mysterious Office of Dimensional Management.

  Each one had required a different approach. Some needed heat to destabilize, others needed pressure equalization, and the last had required a careful balance of all his basic attributes working in concert.

  He hadn't slept. He'd barely eaten. But he'd neutralized all eight anomalies before their containment failed.

  No compensation had appeared. No follow-up message had arrived. Just silence.

  Now he stood at the entrance to Westbrook Industrial Park, waiting for Echo Squad with his hands in his pockets. The morning air felt crisp and clean, too clean for a rift zone.

  "You look like shit," Jax called as he approached, tossing Magi a protein bar. "Family emergency handled?"

  "Thanks." Magi caught the bar and unwrapped it carefully. "Yeah. Resolved."

  Layla arrived next, her greatsword strapped across her back. "Don't tell me it's another sewer job."

  "Abandoned factory," Magi said through a mouthful of protein bar. "Heavy machinery manufacturing."

  Eli appeared with Marc, both carrying extra equipment. Marc handed Magi a tablet displaying their mission parameters.

  "C-rank rift, reported yesterday by a security patrol." Marc pointed toward the main building. "Standard sweep and clear. Guild scanners detected unusual energy patterns but no actual breaches yet."

  Magi skimmed the report. "Pre-emptive containment?"

  "Exactly." Marc took the tablet back. "If we catch it early enough, we might prevent a full breach."

  The Observer drone hovered silently above them, its camera tracking their movements.

  After the incident at the warehouse, all C-rank teams had these monitoring devices following them on missions. Magi glanced at it, wondering if the Guild was reviewing footage in real-time.

  "Let's move," Marc ordered, and Echo Squad headed toward the factory.

  The building stood three stories tall with broken windows and rusted metal. A chain-link fence surrounded the perimeter, but the gate hung open, likely breached by the security patrol that had reported the anomaly.

  "Dimensional activity should be concentrated on the second floor," Marc said, checking his scanner. "Factory floor might have leftover equipment. Watch your step."

  They entered through the main doors, weapons ready. Dust particles floated through sunbeams that streamed through the broken windows. The concrete floor showed years of wear, but nothing seemed out of place.

  No destruction. No scorch marks. No evidence of dimensional interference.

  "This doesn't feel right," Layla whispered, her hand on her sword hilt. "Should be colder."

  She was correct. Rift zones typically manifested with temperature drops, electrical interference, and an unmistakable pressure against the eardrums.

  This factory had none of that.

  Magi closed his eyes briefly, sensing for energy fluctuations. Nothing registered.

  "The second floor access is over there," Marc pointed to a metal staircase in the corner. "Scanner says the rift energy is strongest up there."

  Echo Squad climbed the stairs, their footsteps echoing through the empty building. The second floor opened into a vast space where assembly lines had once operated. Rusted conveyor belts stretched across the room, and empty workstations lined the walls.

  But there was no rift.

  No pulsing tear in reality. No dimensional glow. No monsters.

  "This can't be right," Jax muttered, spinning in a slow circle. "The contract specifically mentioned rift activity."

  Eli pulled out her own scanner, frowning at the readings. "Nothing. Not even residual energy."

  Layla sheathed her sword with a frustrated sigh. "So we got sent to an inactive zone? Great. Another wasted morning."

  Marc approached the center of the room, where the scanner had indicated the strongest energy readings should be. He crouched down, examining the floor. "No scorch marks. No disturbance in the dust. If there was a rift here, it didn't manifest physically."

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  The Observer drone hovered near the ceiling, recording everything.

  Magi walked slowly around the perimeter, looking for signs that might explain the discrepancy. The windows were intact on this floor. The machinery, though old and rusted, showed no damage beyond normal deterioration. Even the electrical panels on the wall appeared undisturbed.

  A bird flew in through one of the broken windows, circled the room once, then perched on a light fixture overhead. Another joined it moments later.

  "Birds," Eli said, pointing upward. "Birds don't enter rift zones."

  She was right. Animals instinctively avoided dimensional anomalies. Their presence was another indication that nothing unusual had happened here.

  Marc checked his scanner again, tapping the screen in frustration. "The readings are clear. Dimensional disturbance, centered in this room, detected yesterday at 15:47 hours."

  "Could it have resolved itself?" Jax suggested, leaning against a workstation.

  "Rifts don't just disappear," Eli countered. "They collapse, they stabilize, or they expand. There's always evidence."

  The wind blew gently through the broken windows, stirring the dust on the floor. Leaves skittered across the concrete. Natural sounds, natural movements. Nothing distorted by dimensional interference.

  "Maybe the patrol got the location wrong," Layla said.

  Marc shook his head. "The coordinates match. This is definitely the place."

  Magi stood still in the center of the room, feeling something off but unable to identify it. The space felt normal, too normal for a reported rift zone. Even dormant rifts left a kind of energy signature, a subtle wrongness that experienced Raiders could detect.

  He took a step forward, toward where Marc had indicated the center of the anomaly should be.

  Resistance.

  Like walking through thick air, or pushing against an invisible membrane. Not solid, but definitely present.

  He paused, then took another step. The resistance increased slightly, then gave way abruptly.

  The air rippled around him like heat waves over asphalt.

  "Did you feel that?" Magi asked quietly.

  The others stared at him.

  "Feel what?" Layla asked.

  Magi gestured to the space around him. "There's something here. Not visible, but I felt resistance when I stepped forward."

  Marc approached cautiously, scanner extended. "Still nothing on the readings." He waved the device through the space where Magi stood. "Wait—"

  The scanner suddenly emitted a high-pitched beep, then went silent. Marc checked the screen, his eyebrows rising in surprise.

  "It just... turned off."

  Eli checked her own scanner. "Mine too. Complete shutdown."

  Jax tried his comm unit. "Communications down as well."

  Only the Observer drone continued functioning, hovering silently above them, its camera lens rotating to capture the scene.

  Magi closed his eyes, focusing on the space around him. There was definitely energy here, but not the chaotic, raw power of a dimensional tear. This felt... contained. Controlled. Deliberately shaped.

  "This isn't a natural rift," he said, opening his eyes. "Someone created this."

  Marc lowered his now-useless scanner. "Created what? There's nothing here."

  "That's the point." Magi swept his hand through the air. "This is a null space. A zone where certain types of energy, specifically rift energy cannot manifest."

  Layla frowned. "How is that possible?"

  "I don't know," Magi admitted. Though he suspected the Office of Dimensional Management might.

  Eli approached the center of the room, her hand extended. She stopped suddenly, her fingers pressing against something invisible. "I feel it too. Like a bubble."

  Marc tried the same, encountering the resistance Magi had described. "Some kind of shield?"

  "Not exactly," Magi said. "More like an anchor point. Something stabilizing this area against dimensional interference."

  The bird chirped from its perch overhead, completely unaffected by whatever technology or magic was operating in the room.

  "So there was a potential rift," Jax reasoned, "but someone or something prevented it from forming?"

  Marc nodded slowly. "That would explain the initial readings and the current absence."

  "The question is who," Eli said, looking directly at Magi.

  He kept his face carefully neutral. "And why they didn't inform the Guild."

  The Observer drone descended slightly, as if focusing more intently on their conversation.

  Marc pulled out his tablet, attempting to document their findings. "We need to report this. If someone has technology that can prevent rifts from forming, the Guild needs to know."

  "The tablet's not working either," he added after a moment. "Whatever this is, it's affecting all our equipment."

  Layla moved toward the stairs. "We should head back and report in person. This is beyond our pay grade anyway."

  "Wait." Magi approached the center of the null space again. "Let me try something."

  He knelt down and placed his palm against the floor. Closing his eyes, he sent a gentle pulse of Basic Earth energy into the concrete.

  The resistance vanished instantly. The air stopped rippling. The birds flew away through the window.

  A sharp mechanical click sounded as all their devices powered back on simultaneously.

  Marc checked his scanner, eyes widening. "No readings at all now. Not even residual energy."

  He looked at Magi. "What did you do?"

  "Grounded it," Magi said simply, standing up and brushing dust from his knees. "Whatever was creating the null space was anchored to this spot. I just... disconnected it."

  "Just like that?" Eli asked, her voice skeptical.

  Magi shrugged. "Basic Earth. Sometimes the simplest solution works best."

  Marc checked his scanner one final time, confirming the absence of any unusual readings. "It just... turned off."

  "Looks like we're done here," Jax said. "Shortest mission ever."

  As they headed toward the stairs, Magi glanced back at the center of the room. He recognized the technology, similar to what had contained the micro-rifts he'd neutralized yesterday. The Office of Dimensional Management had been here, setting up another containment field.

  The question was whether they had intended for him to find it, or if this was a coincidence.

  The Observer drone followed them down the stairs and out of the building, its camera focused primarily on Magi.

  As they exited the factory, Marc pulled Magi aside. "You know something about this, don't you?"

  Magi met his gaze steadily. "I know it wasn't a natural phenomenon."

  "That's not what I asked."

  "No," Magi said after a pause. "It's not."

  Marc studied him for a moment, then nodded. "Your 'family emergency' yesterday?"

  "Related," Magi admitted.

  "Guild business?"

  "No."

  Marc sighed. "I'm not going to push. But whatever you're involved in, be careful. The Guild doesn't like unauthorized operations in their jurisdiction."

  "I know," Magi said. "Trust me, I'm trying to stay under the radar."

  "Not doing a very good job of it," Marc said, glancing at the Observer drone still tracking them. "But your secret's safe with me. For now."

  He rejoined the others, leaving Magi to wonder just how many secrets he could keep before everything unraveled.