In this transaction, despite appearing to have the empress as her backing, she was actually in a weaker position. Although she had strange channels of information, the power she could truly wield was clearly no match for Ravenna, who had the support of Ansel.
Ravenna could indeed make Ansel act, but in the eyes of the empress, Suellen was at most a tool to annoy her heir, and was otherwise worthless.
So, she was using the secret information about the death of Eileen Ziegler to force Ravenna to make decisions step by step.
Suellen did not specify the price to be paid for the next piece of information, ostensibly giving Ravenna time to track down the assassin. But it was easier said than done. An assassin who could kill a fifth-stage alchemist, even if he was still in the capital, could she find him?
Just as Ravenna paused her work to seriously consider how to conduct a thorough investigation, another piece of bad news arrived.
