"The Echoing Font," Lysander said, not turning. His voice was heavy, devoid of its earlier inspiration. "It used to sing. Now it just… screams."
He gestured to the corrupted pool. "This is a capillary. A tiny vein leading back to the main heart of the Aqua Vitae, deep beneath the Spire. The Soladorns' extraction and control machinery doesn't just pump. It pressurizes. It forces separations—water here, energy here, magic here—that nature never intended. The trauma resonates back through the network. This is where it bleeds out."
Sage approached, the raw, chaotic power of the place making his skin prickle. "So the fractures… the resonance bursts…"
"Relief valves," Valentine finished, her analytical mind grasping it. "The system is under too much strain. The magic they're trying to bottle is fighting back. This is a… a septic leak."
Lysander finally looked at them. His decisiveness was still there, but layered with grim purpose. "Exactly. They are making the source toxic to maintain their monopoly on its purity. They are poisoning the well to be the only ones with a clean cup."
He pointed to a series of crystalline formations around the pool. They were glowing with the same corrupted light. "The resonance is crystallizing. In small amounts, it causes fractures. In larger concentrations… it could become something far worse. A magical backlash. An inversion."
"What do you want us to do?" Sage asked.
Lysander's gaze was fierce. "I want you to understand the true mechanics. To see that their control is a violent imbalance. I have people—engineers, hydrologists, mages who remember the old ways—scattered. We need proof. Not of a crack, but of the disease. Data they can't delete. A sample they can't explain away."
He handed Sage a specialized crystal vial. "Take a sample from the heart of the pool. Its corruption is undeniable. Then, we use it to show the other Sectors what the Spire is really doing."
Valentine shook her head. "It's a reactive substance. Unstable. Transporting it is a massive risk."
"Staying ignorant is a greater one," Lysander countered.