"It was just that the elementalists there have been monitored from birth, you know? In the end, we moved to a town nearby; it also had some elementalists, but their people are easier to bribe."
The lower the territory tier, the more the elementalists are revered. They were much rarer after all, so all they needed to do was tap on people's desire to become one of them.
Many city lords were elementalists themselves or had many relatives with such abilities, so they were more likely going to be appalled by the idea of experimenting on elementalists.
Many territories felt that it was a blasphemy, so the group took a year to subtly study which towns and villages would be convenient and safe to put the labs in.
After the first few years, the number of failed experiments was massive, and there had been no success at all.
