In a world where every person is cursed with a visible countdown to their death, disgraced temporal auditor Kaelen Rook is running out of time. All he wants is to restore the status he lost, but his life is measured in hours. The Temporal Audit Commission offers him one lifeline: go undercover with the rival Aevum Seers, frame their leader Seraphina Vey, and his temporal debts will be wiped clean. The mission forces Kaelen to abandon the cold logic that has defined him. Armed with a mysterious Obsidian Charm and a talent for deception, he enters the Seers’ world of ritual and faith. Yet Seraphina is not a callous thief but a compassionate leader, and Kaelen finds his professional detachment eroding into a dangerous, unsanctioned relationship. As his deadline looms, he realizes he is a pawn in a much larger game, and the evidence he was sent to find points to a conspiracy that could shatter their entire society. Kaelen now holds the power to decide the future. He can leak a forged report implicating Seraphina, restoring his status at the cost of the only relationship he has come to trust. Or, he can expose the true plot, a choice that will make him a traitor to all factions and turn him and Seraphina into the most hunted fugitives in Machronis. In a world built on brutal bargains, what is the true value of trust when it costs you everything?
30 chapters
In a world where every person is cursed with a visible countdown to their death, disgraced temporal auditor Kaelen Rook is running out of time. All he wants is to restore the status he lost, but his life is measured in hours. The Temporal Audit Commission offers him one lifeline: go undercover with the rival Aevum Seers, frame their leader Seraphina Vey, and his temporal debts will be wiped clean. The mission forces Kaelen to abandon the cold logic that has defined him. Armed with a mysterious Obsidian Charm and a talent for deception, he enters the Seers’ world of ritual and faith. Yet Seraphina is not a callous thief but a compassionate leader, and Kaelen finds his professional detachment eroding into a dangerous, unsanctioned relationship. As his deadline looms, he realizes he is a pawn in a much larger game, and the evidence he was sent to find points to a conspiracy that could shatter their entire society. Kaelen now holds the power to decide the future. He can leak a forged report implicating Seraphina, restoring his status at the cost of the only relationship he has come to trust. Or, he can expose the true plot, a choice that will make him a traitor to all factions and turn him and Seraphina into the most hunted fugitives in Machronis. In a world built on brutal bargains, what is the true value of trust when it costs you everything?
World
