"Elara gave him a flat look. "No. That would be too simple."
Demerti waited.
She leaned back again and looked up toward the ceiling, thinking.
"It can be that people did not search carefully enough," she said. "Or the mana may have been buried too deeply, which is why they gave up so easily. If there was something important there, it would not be found by shallow digging or lazy inspection."
Demerti said nothing for a moment.
Then he asked, "And the collapse?"
Elara's eyes lowered slightly.
"That is the part that bothers me."
She tapped one finger against the armrest of her chair.
"If a mana mine collapsed suddenly, then there are only a few possible reasons. Natural instability. Overuse. Or something concealed underneath that caused the structure to fail."
Demerti listened carefully now.
