Chapter 103: The Black Mithril Was Never Just for Restraints

The administrator of Transfer Station Four tried to escape forty-seven minutes after the station had already fallen.

Raven found that optimistic.

They had searched the main buildings, secured the survivors, and gathered every document Valeria considered important enough not to leave behind. Roland watched the prisoners in the courtyard while Nyxara inspected the crates recovered from the laboratory with an expression that grew steadily less amused.

The supposed administrator wasn’t among the captives.

That caught Raven’s attention.

According to the records, a man named Martin Keller had signed off on nearly every important intake at the station. He also authorized transfers of biological merchandise, received encrypted instructions from Dunvar, and had permission to request activation of the execution seals placed on employees.

A man like that did not disappear without leaving behind a room, personal belongings, or a corpse.

Raven found his exit behind a cabinet.

The wall had too much dust around three sides and too little along the fourth.

The tunnel descended beneath the station and emerged several hundred yards to the north, hidden behind a rock formation.

Keller almost reached the forest.

Almost.

When Raven emerged from the tunnel, he saw the man running between the trees with a backpack and gray cloak.

"You could stop," Raven called.

Keller looked back.

He kept running.

"That would have been easier."

Burst Step.

Mana responded with a smoothness Raven still wasn’t fully used to after becoming Awakened. He crossed the distance, appeared directly in front of Keller, and had enough time to watch the exact moment the man realized the path was no longer open.

Keller tried to turn.

Raven extended one leg.

The administrator hit the ground face-first.

His backpack rolled away.

Raven crouched before he could recover and planted a knee between his shoulder blades.

"Now we can try again. Martin Keller."

The man stopped struggling.

That was more interesting than any denial.

"I don’t know who that is."

Raven searched his coat and found three keys, a small communication stone, two commercial seals, and a poison capsule hidden inside a false tooth.

"Naturally."

He removed the capsule before Keller could reach it with his tongue.

Keller tried to bite him.

Stonehide covered two of Raven’s fingers.

The man quickly discovered that biting stone was a poor decision.

"I don’t recommend that either."

"Go to hell."

"I was told that yesterday. Apparently it’s popular."

Raven picked up the backpack.

Inside were money, clothes, documents, and a rectangular box made from black wood.

Keller reacted.

Barely.

But enough.

Raven lifted the box.

"This seems important."

"Personal belongings."

"Then you won’t mind if I check."

Keller started to say something.

A shadow fell over them.

Raven looked up.

Nyxara was sitting on a branch roughly fifteen feet above the ground.

He hadn’t heard her arrive.

Again.

"You found him."

Raven looked down at the administrator beneath his knee.

"So it seems."

Keller raised his eyes toward her.

The color drained from his face.

Nyxara smiled, showing the slightest hint of fang.

"And he recognizes me."

Raven felt the man tense beneath him.

"That seems more useful."

"I can ask him a few things."

"I’d prefer he still be capable of speaking afterward."

Nyxara came down from the branch.

She didn’t jump.

The shadow beneath the tree stretched outward, and she simply stepped out of it.

"You always impose too many conditions."

Raven hauled Keller upright.

"And you break too many walls."

"Only two."

"Three."

"The small one shouldn’t count."

Raven started walking back toward the station.

Keller offered no further resistance.

Nyxara’s presence behind them appeared to have solved that problem.

Valeria greeted Raven in the courtyard with her arms crossed.

"Of course you went after the administrator without telling anyone."

"I found a tunnel."

"That still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell anyone."

Raven handed the rope binding Keller to Roland.

"I didn’t know how long it would take."

"Exactly the kind of answer I expected."

Valeria looked behind him.

Nyxara stepped out of the shadow cast by a wagon.

"I went with him."

Valeria immediately lost whatever chance she had of feeling better.

"That definitely doesn’t help."

Nyxara smiled.

"Nothing happened to him."

"That is also not the point."

Raven placed the recovered box on a table.

"I found this."

Valeria looked at the box, then at him.

"You’re remarkably shameless about changing the subject."

"It works."

"Only because you found something interesting."

Nyxara approached.

"I would have kept arguing."

"No one doubts that," Valeria replied.

Raven opened the box.

All four of them stopped talking.

There were six compartments.

Five contained documents.

The sixth held a black metal seal.

Not an improvised piece.

Not a locking mechanism like the ones they had found in the caravan.

It was a genuine commercial seal, heavy and engraved with a mountain split by three vertical lines. At the base were the letters KM.

Valeria picked it up.

"Keller Mining Company."

Raven looked at the administrator.

Keller said nothing.

"Dunvar?" Raven asked.

Valeria nodded.

"A mid-sized company. They operate several smaller concessions under licenses issued by House Helmont. They don’t control the major mines, but they have legal access to Black Mithril."

That improved things considerably.

Raven opened the first document.

Production lists.

The numbers didn’t look unusual until Valeria pointed to two columns.

"Here."

"What am I looking at?"

"Declared production and refining loss."

Raven compared them.

"The losses increased."

"Too consistently."

Across several pages, between one and three percent of the ore disappeared during refining.

Small amounts.

Small enough to resemble ordinary industrial waste.

Multiplied across months of production...

Not small.

Raven turned another page.

"They’re diverting material without changing the declared extraction volume."

Valeria pointed to another column.

"They’re recording it as discarded impurities."

Raven took one of the restraints recovered from the laboratory and placed it beside the seal.

FORGE responded.

[Material Correlation Detected.]

[Low-Purity Black Mithril used in suppression devices is consistent with industrial refining waste from Dunvar deposits.]

[Estimated Purity Range: 18–27%.]

[Potential Source Match with Keller Mining Company Records: HIGH.]

"We have the probable source."

Keller closed his eyes.

That confirmed more than he probably intended.

Raven kept reading.

The shipments didn’t travel directly to Transfer Station Four.

They passed through shell trading companies.

Ownership transfers.

Warehouses.

Apparently ordinary caravans.

Someone had gone to considerable effort to make small quantities of Black Mithril disappear without creating an irregularity large enough to draw House Helmont’s attention.

Valeria found another document.

"This didn’t start recently."

"How long?"

"At least two years."

Nyxara had stopped smiling.

"So they’ve been making restraints for Bloodlines for two years."

Keller finally spoke.

"They’re not all for Bloodborn." ℯℯ𝘭.

His voice was rough.

Raven looked at him.

"That doesn’t improve anything."

"Black Mithril interferes with any mana structure sufficiently integrated into the body. Bloodlines, certain racial Traits, some spiritual contracts. The mixture changes depending on the target."

Raven sat down across from him.

"Keep going."

Keller looked at Nyxara.

She leaned against the table.

Waiting.

That appeared to motivate him.

"Low-purity metal is enough for ordinary prisoners. The collars and restraints disrupt mana circulation without shutting it down completely. That keeps the subject alive."

Valeria frowned.

"And high-purity Black Mithril?"

Keller took too long to answer.