92. Unusual Contract

Jason arrives at a bustling Adventure Society campus, finding the marshalling yard repurposed amid turmoil over captured Ustei tribesmen. Beth Cavendish explains the leadership’s secrecy and the cultural bind: the Ustei insist on either release or death for warriors, claim their barge and people now belong to Ephraim by surrender, and seek to raid eastward. Their recent abduction of a coastal village heightens stakes, leaving authorities paralyzed over solutions.

Inside the jobs hall, Jason and Beth browse two-star postings. He selects an odd fergax hunt that reads like one-star work. Albert at the registry explains repeated false sightings by a lumber mill owner in tightly regulated delta lands; multiple teams found no sign, and the Society is close to black-marking the contractor. Jason takes the contract, sensing nonstandard complications tied to land rights.

Jason visits the Civic Records Hall, pays for access, and further bribes a functionary for targeted information, then menaces her into secrecy with a chilling description of his powers. Suspecting a summoned creature staged as a fergax, he consults Clive. Clive refuses to breach anonymous power records but provides a ritual that, at a fresh summoning site, reveals what was summoned and imprints the summoner’s aura onto a tracking stone. Jason confirms public notes on salt-circle use and prepares to locate residue.

Finally, Jason asks Jory for help detecting high salt content. Jory loans a dimensional watering can and reagents, with instructions, amid preparations for his clinic’s reopening. Armed with a tracking ritual and salt-detection gear, Jason heads toward the delta intending to expose a fabricated threat and the party behind it.