"Then we respond with overwhelming force and hope we're faster." Elara turned back to him. "Inform the other beast knights. Everyone needs to understand: the amateur attempts were practice. What's coming next is the real fight."
"Yes, Your Highness."
He left to implement the new protocols. Elara sat back down and continued planning.
The Third Princess and First Consort had made a mistake. They'd assumed the Fourth Princess would be an easy target—isolated, weak, unprotected.
But Elara had spent months building exactly what she needed: money, loyal guards, independent intelligence, and operations that would continue generating revenue even if she died.
She wasn't weak anymore.
And she was going to make killing her so expensive, so complicated, so politically problematic that her enemies would recalculate the cost-benefit analysis and decide to leave her alone.
Or she'd die trying.
Either way, she'd know the answer soon.
