Chapter 29 --29
When she’d needed information from the city before, it had been Lisa’s external contacts—merchants, clerks, her network of acquaintances—who’d gathered it. The knights, despite their combat training and palace access, were functionally blind to anything beyond the walls.
Useful for internal security. Useless for external strategy.
She studied the fox knight more carefully. He stood at attention, waiting for orders, expression carefully neutral. She could discuss anything in front of him—sedition, murder, treason—and he would remain exactly as he was now: present, listening, and utterly silent unless directly questioned.
It was a degree of loyalty that bordered on inhuman. Not ’trustworthy’ in the sense of shared values or moral alignment, but reliable in the sense of absolute behavioral conditioning. These knights wouldn’t betray her because they were programmed not to betray ’any’ master they served.
That programming could be enhanced. She’d seen references in the administrative files to "personalized knight contracts"—a ritual binding that elevated a guard’s power in exchange for deeper loyalty ties to a specific royal. The bonded knight would be marginally stronger, faster, more attuned to their master’s needs.
But the ritual required magical synchronization. And Elara’s control over this body’s magic was still unstable at best. She could perform basic spells with preparation, but complex rituals? Under observation? With a living subject whose life might depend on her precision?
Unacceptable risk. If the binding failed or revealed her incomplete mastery, every mage in the palace would know something was wrong with the Fourth Princess’s core. Questions would follow. Investigations. Physicians poking at her with diagnostic stones.
No. Better to work with standard-contract knights for now. Limited but predictable.
She set the personnel files aside and looked at the fox knight. "I need external intelligence. Commercial contracts, noble house finances, shipping records from the port. Information that doesn’t exist in palace archives."
"Your Highness would need to contract civilian informants."
"Exactly. Which is why my first priority is hiring administrative staff who have external networks." She tapped the files. "These four—the dismissed clerks with merchant family connections. Send formal interview requests. I want them here by week’s end."
"Yes, Your Highness."