When he pulled out your mother's crystal, I felt something inside of me break.

He said he put some spell on her crystal. That if any del of my blood harmed him in any way, the crystal would shatter.

Now that he had something precious to me, he said, he knew I would take his offer.

If I had struck him, I knew her crystal would be destroyed... so what could I do?

I negotiated that he could only have the medicinal metals.

I said I would cave in the mines before he would get exclusive access to our entire stock.

He agreed, but said he would keep your mother's gem to assure I kept my word, and left.

The fallout from needing to break the contracts was brutal. In compensation I had to trade away most of our supplies of other materials.

That's why I only have one perfect grade crystal left. That's why we're trying to find new sources.

...I don't know where he took her. I imagine he's keeping her in his damned tower.

But that's where you come in.