93. Truth

Jason arrives in Leust after a swift cross-delta run, adopting a gruff persona at a green-stone inn to seed expectations about his investigation. At dawn he heads to the Lindover lumber property, finding operations shut and meeting the owner, Kyle Lindover, whose business is failing amid repeated fergax sightings and looming black-mark penalties.

Surveying the mill, dormitory, and farm, Jason maps the grounds and marks reported sighting areas. He explains his two-pronged plan—follow the magic and follow the money—hinting he already identified likely culprits from regulated land records and a guided archive search. Using Jory’s water and salt test, he locates multiple former summoning circles, confirming someone has been repeatedly summoning a fergax to spook the site.

Because prior traces are too old to track the summoner, Jason waits. After three days a fergax appears; Jason records its behavior as it roams without attacking, then vanishes at duration’s end. The fresh site yields a summoner’s aura imprint, which his tracking stone follows directly toward the neighboring, thriving Clementson property.

Jason strides through Clementson’s busy operation and confronts Eustace Clementson, who grows visibly nervous as the tracking stone pulls them toward an outbuilding. When Clementson tries to deflect with hospitality and then to flee ahead, Jason pins him with aura pressure and forces him to accompany the search.

They reach a detached structure where a man on a porch swing reacts to Jason’s aura—and to Jason’s face—with shock. With the trail, the recording, and the recognition, Jason effectively exposes the sabotage, setting up the next step: extracting a confession and clearing Lindover’s path to resume operations.