The Crown of Winter woke up to a dawn brightened with medicine of tension and fractures, and it spread throughout the palace corridors like wildfire news of an assassination plot danger. The reach of Elyas and the ultimate intentions made the nobles wary into a powder-keg atmosphere: a spark calling for chaos.
Damien, Amara, and Carys regrouped in the safe house, almost hidden into a scene of fatigue, the urgency of their mission pushing them beyond all limits. Its significance was glaring right before them on the table as that list of targets from assassins.
Amara reclined in her chair, daggers splayed over her lap. "So, we stopped his little death squad. What's next? Because we can't keep playing defense."
Steel-gray eyes ignited with fury inside Damien. "No. This time, we strike first. Elyas has long hidden in the shadows. If we push him to open, we will force him to make mistakes."
Carys narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms. "And how do you plan to do that? He has proven time and again that he is one step ahead."
"We make him overextend," Damien replied. "He is so confident right now - if not overconfident. He is going to retaliate for what happened last night, but if we hold battle grounds, we can hurl his plans overboard."
"You want to bait him? That's dangerous, even by your standard," Amara scoffed.
"It's a calculated risk," Damien said. "We have the list of his targets, and we know how he operates. If we use that knowledge, we can predict his next move-and hit him where it hurts."
Carys squinted her green eyes while staring at the list. "Marlowe is still his key ally. After that, if we expose him completely and erode his influence, Elyas will have to act."
"Exactly," said Damien, "Marlowe is the linchpin. Bringing him down guarantees Elyas's entire network starts to crumble."
By noon, the trio was already refining their plans. The scoping of all those assassins and Lord Marlowe's estate would spell the key to ensuring success. They needed more than Lady Erynn to go against Marlowe's power. "We need more allies in the court," Damien said. "If we get the other nobles to stand with us, there won't be anywhere Marlowe can hide."
Amara smirked. "And how do you plan to win over most of them, who are either scared of Elyas or in pocket?" "We show them the cost of inaction," replied Damien. "We'll make it clear that Elyas is hunting down anyone who dares to oppose him, and they'll realize they are next."
Carys nodded. "Fear is a very good motivator, but it will not work unless we have results to back it up." Damien's eyes went cold. "Then we produce results."
The first of their action plan is moving the neutral nobles- the yet undecided. Lady Erynn, converted now fully to Damien's side, thus becomes their main asset within court.
The other three met her behind a secret chamber deep into the palace, where no eyes or ears could access. "The court is divided," Lady Erynn replied with silver light catching on her silver hair. "Many nobles are waiting until they see who'll be the victor before they join either side. They are terrified to act."
"Then we give them their reason to act," stated Damien, "We're going to need you to set up a meeting with the most powerful of the neutral nobles. If we can convert them to our cause, the rest will follow them."
Lady Erynn contemplated him for a moment through the immovable gaze of an unblinking steel trap. "You want me to throw all the dice in this," she said, confused, "and should such an effort not win, Marlowe and the others will have scrambled apart."
"It won't fail," Damien said, resolve dripping in his voice. "We have come too far to lose now."
"Very well," came Lady Erynn's slow head's shrug. "I'll arrange for that meeting. But you shall have to produce something real-something beyond question."
"You will have it," promised Damien; the more impossible it was, the more it fed into his creed.
---
With Lady Erynn maneuvering to secure the meeting, Damien, Amara, and Carys turned their attentions to what was left of Marlowe's holdings. Their biggest prize, gleaned from the mouths of assassins, was the location of a secret warehouse held by Marlowe's forces-a treasure chest waiting to be opened for Elyas's supply lines.
"If we take out that warehouse," Carys said, gesturing to the large map with one finger, "it would cripple Marlowe's ability to finance all Elyas's plans. And send a message to the rest of the court."
Damien nodded. "Yes, a risk, but it's not one we're going to shy away from. Amara, you'd lead the infiltration team: Carys and I will stage a diversion to draw their forces away."
Amara beamed, currently fastening her daggers onto her belt. "Now that's entertainment. For a moment there I thought there was no more sneaking around."
---
Under the cover of night, the three made their way to the warehouse. It stood at the far end of the city within a thicket of roads and dilapidated buildings.
Damien and Carys hung out at the front entrance. Guards were stationed there. Amara, on the other hand, traversed towards the back, shuffling through her silence.
"Are you ready?" Damien whispered.
Carys nodded, crossbow at the ready.
Damien stepped defiantly into the open, dark steel-gray eyes locking firmly onto the guards. "Looking for me?"
The guards screamed and started rushing towards him with weapons drawn. Carys fired her crossbow. The bolt lodged in one of the guards before she slipped silently back into the darkness.
The distraction worked marvelously. Amara, meanwhile, managed to slip into the warehouse with daggers glinting in the dim light while every last guard was concentrating on Damien and Carys.
The warehouse was indeed a maze of crates and barrels, reeking of oil, wood, and other things. Inside it, Amara moved about quickly busying herself in wiring small charges of explosives along major structural supports.
Amara dispatched some inside the warehouse, but they too soon crumpled silently to the floor below.
---
Outside, Damien and Carys continuously drew in the guards towards themselves, and their steps dodged precisely as they warded off the invaders.
"You see how outnumbered we are?" Carys said, green eyes narrowing as she reloaded her crossbow.
"We just have to hold them a little longer," Damien said, parrying a strike from the guard and quickly slashing with his opposite blade.
A series of small explosions shook the warehouse about the time an explosion of debris with flames licking the night sky followed a brief tension of silence.
Amara emerged from the back doors, all smiles. "Hope you weren't too attached to this place!"
The remaining guards paused, their morale crushed as the walls of the warehouse began to fall around them.
"Fall back!" Damien commanded, and they disappeared into the evening folds.
---
Cry of the whole city at the warehouse's destruction. By the morning, there were many whispers among the nobles saying that Marlowe's position was considerably weakened. The appointment of Lady Erynn with the neutral nobles was set; Damien knew there couldn't be a better opportunity than this for spin reversal.
Amara leaned against the wall during this preparatory phase of the meeting. Her smirk was such a way of radiating confidence but was quite faint. "You really do think they will hear this somehow?"
"They will," Damien retorted. "Because we are armed this time-with evidence-and momentum to boot.
Carys nodded. "Marlowe's losing his grip. If we push hard enough, we can break him completely.'
Steel-gray determination burned in Damien's eyes. "Then let's finish it."
The meeting was taking place in some secret hall inside the palace, away from the prying ears of Marlowe's allies. Several of the prominent nobles attended the meeting-stunned, curious, and skeptical about the evidence Damien brought against Marlowe and Elyas.
Lady Erynn stood beside him, addressing the chamber with a steady voice. "This is no longer a matter of speculation. The evidence spells it out quite clearly. Lord Marlowe has now betrayed the crown and Elyas's plans jeopardize the very foundation of our kingdom."
Buzz in the room and lifted was Damien's hand to silence the crowd.
"We've got an assassination attempt last night," he stated in his strong voice. "If we wouldn't have done that, many of you wouldn't be here today. Elyas has no thought of loyalty, alliances, and whatnot; he will destroy anybody in his way."
The middle-aged man with a face of a hawk frowned at the suggestion offered by one of the nobles and asked, "And what's to be done?"
"Join and be one," Damien replied. "Then we will expose Marlowe and get Elyas right, but it ought to be done swiftly before it is late."
At this, all was silence in the hall, nobles glancing at each other. Finally, one of them stepped forward, nodding.
"You have my support," she said.
"And mine," echoed another.
One after another, the nobles pledged their allegiance, and Damien felt the tide at last turning in favor of action.
But after that meeting closed, he turned to Lady Erynn, his steel-gray eyes cutting at her in steely resolve.
"This is it," he said. "His hours are running out."
Lady Erynn nodded. "Let us make sure of it."