"I want the finest mind-mages in the province waiting for him when he thaws. He will tell us where the children are, even if we have to pry the answers from his shattered psyche."
Sir Lucas grinned, a terrifying, scarred expression. "A pleasure doing business with you, Marquess. The Duke sends his regards."
"My deepest thanks to the Vanguard," Julian nodded, his posture relaxing slightly as the heavy, anti-magic manacles clicked securely around the abductor's wrists. The crisis that had haunted his city for a month was finally breaking. "We have him. By the Light, we finally have him."
It was a moment of triumph.
It was the closing scene of a successful hunt.
And then, the wind changed.
Out in the main plaza, walking hand-in-hand with Kaelus, Seraphina suddenly stopped dead in her tracks.
The heavy, comforting blanket of Kaelus's protective dark mana, the aura that had been shielding her from the sensory overload of the market, was abruptly, violently pierced.
