So, she hadn't brought a hundred Vanguard elites. She had only brought a handful—just enough highly trained veterans to secure the absolute highest-value targets like the Assistant Prime Minister and seal the massive cedar doors.
The vast majority of the black-clad assassins who had dropped from the rafters, the ones currently tearing through the ranks of the corrupt aristocratic nobility like wolves through a flock of sheep... were the Emperor's own shadow guards.
The Emperor had always possessed his own hidden blades. He had always known the court was rotting from the inside out. He simply hadn't possessed the undeniable, explosive justification to slaughter half his civil court without plunging the empire into a devastating rebellion. Heena hadn't just given him the spark; she had built the pyre, tied the victims to the stakes, and handed him the torch.
