The rest of the morning quickly disappeared into a succession of silent preparations.
The library ceased to resemble merely an improvised center of aristocratic conspiracy.
Now it functioned as a war room.
Messengers began to discreetly enter and leave Damon's mansion carrying sealed letters, simple codes, and fragmented instructions that would never make sense in isolation. No complete information circulated among a single person. Elizabeth had insisted on this from the beginning.
"If anyone is captured," she explained calmly while rearranging documents on the table, "no one should possess a complete overview of the operation."
Cherry observed this with genuine admiration.
"That's paranoid in an extremely professional way."
"Thank you."
"That wasn't exactly a compliment."
"Even so."
Morgana completely ignored the side conversation.
