Eight days of preparation followed by three days of movement was not a comfortable timeline. It was, however, a workable one, and Max had spent his entire professional life finding the workable inside the uncomfortable.
The eight days were the most disciplined preparation he had conducted since arriving on Vorga. Not because previous operations had been casual — they hadn't — but because this one had a fixed deadline attached to a consequence that was not recoverable. Miss the window and the Sovereign Seal became permanently part of the Vel-Thak palace's enchantment architecture. There was no second attempt. There was no alternative route.
