SERAPHINA’S POV
Freshly showered and changed, I sat on the edge of the narrow bed in Elias’s cabin, my bag open at my feet, the envelope resting on my knee.
The seal bore the faint shimmer of layered encryption runes—subtle, elegant, and unmistakably Alois’s work.
I broke it.
Inside, a dense stack of papers waited, but one sheet stood apart. It unfurled with a gentle whisper, ink blossoming into focus beneath my fingertips.
'Seraphina,
I kindly request that you accompany a small escort unit transporting a batch of special medical equipment to a coastal transfer station.'
My brow furrowed as I kept reading.
The next paragraph piqued my interest.
The “equipment” was a newly developed medication—miraculously effective against a rapidly mutating lycanthropic infectious disease that had already taken hold in several border regions.
Highly unstable. Highly coveted. And, if it fell into the wrong hands, catastrophic.
Hence, the disguise and escort.
