"Priority target?" Ronan asked.
"She picks it for you. She goes for the support line first, always — she isolates healers the way we'd focus a boss. The formation's whole job is making that impossible."
"Thralls?"
"Same as the city. Restrained, not killed. Some of her shields are hostages."
James moved his finger across the map, tracing lines that weren't printed on it.
"Her real body of work is the threads. Authority connections running to the room, the silk, the reflections. There'll be someone on the roster who can see them, if Maeve's roster rule gets followed. Expose them. Cut them. Make her spend power rebuilding what you broke."
"And that wins it?" Cillian asked.
"That spending is the win condition. Every rebuild leaves her unstable for a window. The windows are when the raid unloads." He looked up. "Not before. However open she looks. Before the window, the opening is bait."
"Reserves?" Ronan was writing fast now.
