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.
