Chapter 27 --27
Elara processed the timeline. Less than eighteen hours. Arrest, sentencing, and execution compressed into a single cycle—designed to prevent exactly this kind of intervention.
Efficient. Predictable. Exploitable.
"Prepare an escort," Elara said. "I’m going to the training ground now."
"Your Highness, the beast prison isn’t—"
Elara looked at him with the same empty expression she’d used in boardrooms when firing incompetent executives. "That knight serves under my household authority. He was punished under my name. I will conduct an interview before the sentence is carried out. Unless you’re informing me I lack jurisdiction over my own staff?"
The knight’s posture shifted immediately. "No, Your Highness. I’ll arrange it."
"Do it quickly."
They left.
Elara remained standing, one hand resting lightly on her bandaged shoulder, the other loose at her side. No rage at the injustice. No guilt over the guard’s fate. Just the cool assessment of an asset that still had strategic value and a system that could be manipulated if she moved precisely enough.
Eleana had initiated hostilities. The Empress had selected a disposable target. Both assumed Elara would accept the outcome passively.
Incorrect assumption.
Time to demonstrate the cost of that miscalculation.