His gaze flicks toward the door, then back to me.
“Purna magic wielders. Lower circle. Isolated ones. Healers. Root-callers. Anyone with deep ley attunement.”
My jaw tightens.
“For what purpose?”
“Extraction,” he whispers.
The word curdles in the air. Extraction. Not kidnapping. Harvesting. The bond flickers sharply, Amelia feels the spike of my anger. I force it down.
“Who is buying?” I ask.
He hesitates. I let my power bleed into the room, just enough for him to feel the weight of it. Shadows stretch unnaturally along the walls.
“A sorcerer,” he gasps. “Dark Elf. Operates through intermediaries. Pays in void-stone and blood contracts.”
My pulse slows.
“What is his name?”
The informant closes his eyes like a man stepping off a ledge.
“Malrend.”
The room goes very still. Not because of magic. Because I know that name.
I have heard it spoken in war councils. In hushed intelligence briefings. In the aftermath of border massacres where bodies were left intact but magic stripped clean from bone.
Malrend is not a scavenger. He is a scholar of corruption.
“What does he want with Purna magic?” I ask, though I already understand.
“He’s been purchasing artifacts tied to root systems for years,” the informant says. “Old temple fragments. Blight-adjacent relics. This is escalation. He needs living conduits now.”
Living conduits. The ruined temple flashes through my mind. The artifact in Amelia’s hand. Vira’s signature etched into metal.
“Who brokers for him here?” I demand.
“I don’t know the name,” the informant says quickly. “But the contracts route through someone inside Nytheria’s inner circle. Access codes are clean. Council-level clean.”
My vision sharpens.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes.”
The bond shifts again, Amelia’s attention sharpening, distant but present.
“Payment records?” I ask.
“There’s a drop tonight,” he whispers. “Third tier vault under the old spice exchange. Coded ledger. I can get you the access sigil.”
He reaches slowly into his coat and produces a thin strip of etched metal. I take it.
“If you have lied,” I say calmly, “there will be nowhere in this realm you can hide.”
“I haven’t,” he breathes. “I swear it.”