They found nine servants inside: maids, a laundress, two cooks. All of them registered to Elara's palace. All of them working here instead. When the knights called their names, two tried to hide. One claimed she'd been "transferred properly." The fox knight just pulled out a second document—the official palace registry showing no transfers had been filed.
"Lies waste time," he said. "And Her Highness doesn't tolerate wasted time. Line up. Now."
They lined up.
***
An hour and forty minutes after they'd left, the three teams converged back at the Fourth Princess's wing, each escorting a group of servants. Thirty-two in total—two more than the original count, because Teams One and Five had found additional unregistered workers being paid under false names.
The corridor outside Elara's chambers was packed. Servants stood in tight rows, guarded by knights who hadn't broken a sweat. A few of the captured staff were crying. Most just looked terrified.
Liam entered the chamber first and bowed. "Your Highness. All targets retrieved. Two additional irregularities found and detained for questioning."
Elara looked up from the desk. She'd been cross-referencing expense reports while they were gone. "Casualties?"
"None, Your Highness. Minor resistance in the administrative wing. Handled without injury."
"Time elapsed?"
"One hour, thirty-eight minutes, Your Highness."
Elara nodded once. "Efficient." She stood and walked to the doorway, looking out at the crowd of frightened servants packed into her corridor. Thirty-two people who'd been taking her household's wages while serving someone else. Thirty-two people who thought she'd never notice because she was "too weak" to check.
She didn't raise her voice. She didn't need to.
"Bring them in," Elara said. "Ten at a time. We're going to have a very thorough conversation about employment fraud, wage theft, and who gave them permission to commit it."
She turned back to the desk, pulled out a fresh sheet of paper, and dipped the pen in ink.
Behind her, the first ten servants were marched inside. The door closed. And in palaces all across the imperial complex, stewards and household managers suddenly realized that the Fourth Princess they'd been stealing from had just sent armed soldiers to take it all back.
Elara sat on the edge of the desk, not behind it. The first ten servants stood in a line, guarded by two knights on each end. None of them met her eyes.
"Names," Elara said. "Employment start dates. And which palace you've actually been working in for the past year."
The first servant, a middle-aged woman with a faded apron, swallowed hard. "Martha Grayson, Your Highness. I was hired three years ago. I've been... I've been in the Crown Princess's kitchens since last spring."
"Who authorized your reassignment."
Martha's voice dropped to a whisper. "The head steward, Your Highness. He said you wouldn't need the staff. That it was more efficient to—"
"Next," Elara said.
The second servant stammered through his confession. He'd been assigned to the administrative wing, filing documents for the imperial archives. The third had been working in a concubine's garden. The fourth in the laundry for the Second Prince's household.
Every single one had been told the same thing: *The Fourth Princess doesn't need you. You'll still be paid, but you'll work elsewhere.*
Elara listened without expression, making notes on a clean sheet of paper. After the tenth confession, she looked up at Liam.
"Send them to the side chamber. Under guard. Bring in the next group."
The pattern repeated. Ten more servants. Ten more confessions. Some tried to claim ignorance. One insisted she'd been "helping" by working where she was needed most. Elara's response was the same every time:
"Did you receive wages from this palace?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
"Did you perform duties for this palace?"
Silence.
"Noted. Next."
By the third rotation, the remaining servants waiting outside had stopped trying to prepare excuses. They'd heard enough through the door to know nothing would work.
When the twenty-fifth servant—a young man who'd been working as a footman in the Third Princess's wing—finished his confession, Elara set down her pen and looked at him directly.
"Who benefits most from this arrangement," she said.
He blinked. "Your Highness?"
"Thirty staff members reassigned without authorization. Wages stolen from my household budget. Services provided to multiple other palaces for free." Elara's tone stayed flat. "Someone coordinated this. Someone collected favors. Who."
The footman's mouth opened and closed. "I... I don't know, Your Highness. The steward just told us—"
"The steward," Elara repeated. She looked at the man in question, still slumped against the wall with his broken mouth. "Your steward reports to whom."
The footman's face went pale. "The... the head of household services, Your Highness."
"And above that?"
"The Crown Princess's office manages staff assignments for the inner palace, Your Highness."
There it was.
Elara didn't react visibly. She simply made a note, circled it twice, and looked at Lisa. "Bring the last group in. Then send for the head of household services. Tell him the Fourth Princess requests his presence immediately for an audit review."
Lisa bowed and left.
Elara turned back to the final seven servants. "Let's make this efficient. Raise your hand if you were reassigned to a palace connected to the Crown Princess."
Six hands went up.
"Keep them raised if you were told this was temporary."
All six stayed up.
"Lower them if anyone ever filed transfer paperwork."
All six hands dropped.
Elara nodded once. "That's what I thought." She looked at the fox-eared knight. "Separate them. Anyone assigned to Eleana's network goes in the east chamber. Everyone else in the west. No one speaks to each other until I've finished verifying their stories."
"Yes, Your Highness."
As the servants were led out, Elara walked to the window. Outside, the courtyard was dark. Torches flickered along the walls. Somewhere beyond the gates, the rest of the palace was still operating as if nothing had changed—as if the Fourth Princess was still too weak and too ignorant to notice when her entire household had been quietly dismantled and redistributed like spare furniture.
Behind her, the door opened. Lisa returned with a pale-faced official in formal robes. He bowed deeply, already sweating.
"Your Highness. I came as soon as—"
"Sit," Elara said, pointing to a chair directly in front of the desk. "We're going to discuss how thirty-two employees were reassigned from my household without my knowledge, without transfer documents, and without any reduction in my operational budget."
The official sat.
Elara returned to the desk, pulled out the full ledger, and opened it to the first flagged page.
"Start with last winter," she said. "And don't leave anything out."