Liliana, listening from near the window, nodded slowly.
"She's right, dear. Killing him here accomplishes nothing but giving the Empire a martyr and us a target on our backs. Crippling him — that's a wound that festers. That's something he carries for the rest of whatever life he has left, however long that turns out to be."
Lorryl sat with that for a long moment, his anger visibly working against the logic of it and visibly losing.
"Fine," he said finally, the word coming out tight.
"Crippled, then. But it will happen soon. I'm done waiting for the right moment to present itself on its own."
"It will," Elara said.
"These moments always do, for people patient enough to wait for them."
*
The Palace
In her private chambers, Empress Mandaqini was not being patient about anything.
"He erased two of those creatures in front of the entire court," she said, her voice tight with an anger that had been building since the moment the Emperor's edict was spoken.
