Wang Ben spent three days searching Redstone for the missing materials.
The private collectors had nothing they would sell. The Jade Spring auctions had offered no new lots. The expedition halls had posted suspension notices or taken front-line work that would keep them out of the Blackwood for months. By late afternoon on the third day, only the public records remained.
The older clerk at the Redstone Material Exchange recognized him when he reached her counter.
"Crimson Sky would not sell to you," she said.
"No." Wang Ben set the copied material list between them. "I need every shadow-drinking crystal purchase registered in the last six months. Not only what is still for sale."
The clerk looked at the list, then at the Wang emblem on his robe. After a moment, she brought out two ledgers and cleared a place among the counting slips. Wang Ben waited while her finger moved down the first set of entries. Once, she turned back three pages to compare a name. Then she opened the second ledger beside it.
"Twenty-three purchases in six months," she said. "Every buyer named here is a go-between."
"For the same buyer?"
"The records do not say." Her finger returned to the marks beside the names. "But every deposit passed through Golden Phoenix Pavilion. Its main branch is in the domain capital."
"And the soul-affinity jade?"
The clerk turned the second ledger toward him. Several of the names appeared again. So did Golden Phoenix Pavilion.
Wang Ben read the entries twice. "Is there any crystal outside these purchases?"
"Not in the public records. Some private stores may exist, but anyone who has kept crystal this long is unlikely to sell it now."
"The expedition companies?"
"Suspended, according to the notices. Every domain is sending men, beasts, and supplies to the western front." She closed the first ledger but kept her hand on it. "The known companies have all accepted other work. Better-paying work, from what reaches this hall. None of them is going deep enough into the Blackwood for your crystal."
The clerk lowered her voice. "The war explains much of the shortage. Not all of it. Traders have reported caravans tied to capital orders leaving the western road before they reached the front."
"How reliable are those reports?"
"Reliable enough to show a pattern." She drew the ledgers back. "Not enough to tell you where the caravans went or who redirected them."
Wang Ben thanked her and stepped away from the counter.
He reviewed his list of the lesser crystals and grades of jade offered over the past three days. Every substitute could be bought before the deadline.
He compared each substitute with the three requirements the clan had established.
[WARNING: Accessible substitutes place the array at critical thresholds. Compromised array unlikely to hold through nascent soul transition.]
Wang Ben folded the list and put it away.
The five thousand stones remained unspent.
He could not obtain the jade or crystal. That was what he would tell Wuyan.
...
The Quiet Cup was empty when Wang Ben arrived.
Wuyan sat at his usual table. A second cup waited across from him.
"Senior Shen."
"Wang Ben." Wuyan indicated the cushion. "Sit."
Wang Ben sat. "I cannot obtain the shadow-drinking crystal or soul-affinity jade before the deadline. Twenty-three registered crystal purchases passed through intermediaries using Golden Phoenix Pavilion. The jade records show the same pattern. The known expedition companies have taken other work."
"You believe someone is diverting the supply."
"Some of it. I cannot prove who, or that any of it was meant to stop us."
Wuyan poured the second cup. "Can the array be built without them?"
"The clan would have to test lesser materials. On paper, every option I found came too close to the limits for me to recommend."
Wuyan set down the pot. "Good."
Wang Ben did not touch the tea.
"I did not expect you to find them," Wuyan said.
"You knew that when you gave me the task?"
"I did. I wanted to know what you would call acceptable when the proper materials were out of reach."
"Did you arrange the shortage?"
"No." Wuyan lifted his cup. "I secured the jade and crystal through other channels."
He drank, then set the cup down. "You have until next spring. If your clan has not obtained the materials by then, I will send what I secured."
"That gives us months."
The panel at the back of the shop slid open.
Ruoxi stood in the doorway, one hand still on the wood. She did not come farther in.
"More waiting."
Wuyan turned toward her. "The materials are secured."
"The materials are not the only thing that can fail."
She looked at Wang Ben. "And the array?"
"The clan still has work to do."
Ruoxi drew her hand from the panel. "Next spring, then. Do not waste it."
...
The formation workshop was still lit when Wang Ben returned.
Wang Tiexin and Elder Hongwei sat at the long table. The three sheets describing what the missing materials had to do lay between them.
"Senior Shen secured the jade and crystal through other channels," Wang Ben said. "If the clan has not found them by next spring, he will send what he secured."
Wang Tiexin looked at Elder Hongwei. "Next spring."
"Months more," Wang Ben said.
"What substitutes did you find?" Elder Hongwei asked.
Wang Ben passed him the folded list. Elder Hongwei read each entry before sliding it to Wang Tiexin.
"Every option comes too close to the limits for me to recommend," Wang Ben said. "That is only on paper."
Wang Tiexin read to the end. "Then we reject them."
Elder Hongwei placed the list on the stack at the far end of the table. Wang Tiexin drew the standard frame into the space it had left.
"We have more time," Wang Tiexin said. "That does not make any line sound."
Elder Hongwei set a blank sheet beside the frame. "Begin with the first line we cannot explain."
Wang Ben took his seat and opened his brush case.