Elara looked at the items for a long moment.
On the surface, it was neat. Too neat.
"Walk me through their exact path," she said.
The guard did, haltingly: how the assassins had slipped into her rooms through a servant door, how they'd fled when things went wrong, how they'd moved through lesser-used corridors, ending in that quiet stretch near Sera's chambers before disappearing entirely.
"Did anyone see them?" Elara asked.
"No, Your Highness. Only the traces. The items. And… a faint residue of teleportation magic. Short-range."
Convenient. Professional assassins leaving their guild badge like a calling card, dropping a piece of Sera's cloak and using magic right where the trail pointed.
"Who knows about this?" Elara asked.
"The Emperor, the Captain of the Guard, and now you, Your Highness. Rumors are spreading that they escaped near the Second Princess's quarters, but no one outside the inner circle has seen the evidence."
She nodded slowly.
