Elara read the contract carefully, her eyes moving across each line with the practiced patience of someone who had spent years learning that the devil lived in the details. She had expected tricks—vague phrasing, clauses buried under dense legal language, obligations that revealed their true shape only after you'd already committed to them. That was how most contracts worked when powerful people wanted something from you. They gave you the illusion of agreement while quietly keeping all the leverage for themselves.
This was different.
