The concession granted by Elder Soriel—Protocol: Global Access—was a monumental victory. It granted Elias and his Cohort unrestricted entry into the Cartographer Council's global intelligence network, something no Keyholder had achieved in centuries. The next phase of the Cartographer Wars was not a battle of magic, but an exhaustive forensic dive into the Council's deepest secrets.
Elias knew the Scythers hadn't just exploited weaknesses; they had exploited systemic failures and hidden conflicts within the Council itself.
The Cartographer Datascape
Elias, Thorne, Dr. Reyes, and The Collector established a remote, secure link between Oakhaven and the Council's central intelligence hub—a sprawling, complex spiritual datascape built on layers of accumulated Rites and encrypted data since the Veil's founding.
The datascape was not a centralized server; it was an intricate, living network of spiritual connections. Navigating it required Thorne's understanding of its archaic architecture and The Collector's expertise in specialized spiritual cryptography.
"The Council's data is organized by Need-to-Know-Rite," Thorne explained, guiding Elias through the complex virtual pathways. "Every Elder has a unique ritual key. Soriel's key gives us access, but specific, classified data is locked behind specific Elders."
"We need to find the data that Elder Liana (The Architect) was accessing before she defected," Elias stated, projecting his internalized Authority into the network to streamline the search.
The Discovery: Elder Malachite's Covert Network
The Cohort focused their search on the period immediately preceding Liana's defection. They discovered a hidden, encrypted communication channel linking Liana directly to a sitting member of the Grand Council—Elder Malachite.
Malachite was the Council's expert on Containment Protocols and the spiritual economy.
Dr. Reyes quickly analyzed the encrypted logs. "Liana and Malachite weren't plotting a hostile takeover. They were conspiring to circumvent the Council's bureaucracy to enact radical global changes, using the Scyther ideology as cover."
The logs revealed a horrifying truth: Elder Malachite was running a covert, self-funded spiritual network designed to manage and profit from highly unstable Echoes and spiritual anomalies—the very things the Veil was meant to contain.
"Malachite wasn't Scyther, but was using Scyther-style tactics," Thorne realized, his face grim. "He was hoarding spiritual debt (the basis of the Shanghai Anchor attack) and selling high-risk, volatile spiritual assets. He was creating the very chaos the Scythers sought to exploit."
The Source of the Corruption
The investigation led them to the most sensitive file in the Council's archive: The Ledger of Exonerated Debt (LED).
"The LED is the Council's shame," Dr. Reyes whispered. "It's the record of all spiritual liabilities—the failures, the uncontrolled anomalies, and the disastrous Rites—that the Council officially exonerated (wrote off) to maintain their image of infallible control."
The Collector immediately cross-referenced the LED with Malachite's covert transactions. The connection was undeniable.
"Malachite wasn't just hoarding debt; he was selectively re-activating the worst liabilities from the LED and weaponizing them," The Collector stated. "He reactivated the volatile essence of the Dredge Cores after the L-AA failure. He was the one who fed Vex the foundational data on the Great Founding Rite's deconstruction sequence."
Malachite didn't want the Veil to collapse; he wanted it to be perpetually unstable, forcing the Council to rely on his 'solutions' and ensuring his perpetual financial gain from the chaos.
The Confrontation Plan
Elias knew that confronting Soriel with evidence of Malachite's treason would only trigger a political civil war, destabilizing the Veil further. He needed a surgical solution.
"We cannot expose the corruption; we must neutralize the source," Elias decided. "Malachite is the master of Containment Protocols. He will be protected by Rites designed to lock down evidence."
Thorne immediately devised the plan:
* Lure: Use a fabricated spiritual emergency to draw Malachite to his covert operational base—a remote facility in the Swiss Alps.
* Ritual Interdiction: Use the Rite of Foundational Lineage (RFL)—the very Rite Soriel tried to use against Elias—to interdict Malachite's Containment Protocols.
* Contain: Use a modified version of the Rite of Absolute Reciprocity (RAR) to contain Malachite permanently without destroying him, transforming him into a Contained Asset.
The Trap is Set
Elias fabricated a massive, localized spiritual spike in the North Atlantic—a clear signal that a major, highly profitable exonerated liability was about to break containment.
Malachite, consumed by greed and believing he could retrieve the asset before the Council noticed, immediately deployed to his covert base in the Alps.
Elias, Thorne, and Silus deployed for the final confrontation.
The Alpine Showdown
The facility was a masterpiece of covert spiritual engineering, protected by Malachite's powerful Concealment and Containment Rites.
The moment they breached the perimeter, Malachite's defenses activated—not magical blasts, but rapid, complex Containment Rites designed to freeze the intruders in a state of controlled stasis.
"He's trying to lock us down!" Silus yelled, his movements slowing under the containment field.
Elias countered instantly, channeling his internalized Authority into the Rite of Foundational Lineage (RFL). He didn't use the Rite to harm; he used it to assert supreme spiritual legality over Malachite's unsanctioned protocols.
The RFL shattered Malachite's containment shields—the Vance Authority proving legally and ritually superior to the rogue Elder's unsanctioned Rites.
Malachite, seeing his protocols fail, smiled coldly. "You learned well, Vance. But I control the liability assets. If you touch me, I trigger a dozen exonerated liabilities simultaneously. The resulting chaos will break the Veil."
The Final Containment
Malachite began the trigger sequence—a high-frequency spiritual command designed to unleash chaos worldwide.
Elias had to act instantly. He couldn't kill Malachite; he had to contain his command structure and his spiritual access.
Elias initiated the modified Rite of Absolute Reciprocity (RAR). This version, refined by Dr. Reyes's analysis, did not swap realities, but exchanged the Target's spiritual authority with the Initiator's command structure.
Elias pointed the Keyholder's Conduit at Malachite and initiated the final command: "Authority is Nullified; Command is Absolute!"
The platinum ring pulsed with fierce energy. The RAR swept over Malachite, freezing him instantly. Malachite's entire spiritual command structure—his access keys, his containment protocols, and his knowledge of the exonerated liabilities—was surgically and permanently transferred to Elias.
Malachite remained conscious, but utterly powerless—his vast network and knowledge now reporting directly to the Keyholder.
"It's over, Malachite," Elias said, feeling the sudden, immense burden of managing thousands of high-risk spiritual assets. "The Cartographer Wars have just shifted hands."