The silence that followed those words seemed to alter the very temperature of the library.

The flames in the fireplace continued to crackle gently, but no one there felt any warmth.

"She dies."

Morgana’s words carried no explosive anger.

That would have been less worrying.

The problem was precisely her absence.

Her voice was too calm. Too cold. Like someone who had finally crossed an inner boundary and discovered that she had no intention of returning.

Cherry completely abandoned her usual smile.

Even she noticed.

This was no longer just revenge.

It was execution.

Damon watched Morgana’s hand resting on the hilt of the blade fastened to her waist. Her fingers were firm. Without tremor. Without hesitation.

Elizabeth was the first to move.

"Morgana." Her voice remained controlled, but lower now. "Look at me."

She didn’t take her eyes off the bloodstained tape on the table.

Cedric and the other guards stood absolutely motionless near the door. None of them dared interrupt that moment.

Because they all understood exactly who Sir Halbrecht had been to her.

Damon finally stepped forward.

"If you kill the Duchess impulsively, you turn her into a political martyr."

"I don’t care."

"You’ll care when half of Arven descends into civil war."

"Then let them."

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes immediately.

"That’s exactly what she wants."

The answer finally elicited a reaction.

Morgana slowly raised her gaze.

"Don’t you dare tell me what she wants."

"She wants chaos," Elizabeth replied without hesitation. "Because chaos destroys evidence. It destroys alliances. It destroys legitimacy."

The tension rose dangerously again.

Cherry glanced discreetly at Damon.

"This sounds like the kind of conversation that ends with someone crashing through a window."

"Inspiring," Ingrivid murmured.

Morgana stepped forward.

"She killed men who served my father for decades."

"I know."

"She turned my father into a puppet."

"I know."

"She murdered people inside Arven’s own house."

Elizabeth held her gaze without flinching for a second.

"And that’s exactly why you can’t act like her."

Silence fell again.

Heavy.

Brutal.

Because it hit the mark.

Morgana looked away first.

Just for a moment.

But Damon noticed.

Elizabeth did too.

There was a whole war raging inside her at that moment. Hatred versus responsibility. Pain versus control.

And the worst part was that both sides were right.

Cedric finally spoke again, cautiously.

"Lady Morgana..."

She didn’t answer immediately.

The guard took a deep breath before continuing.

"There are men inside the mansion waiting for you."

This immediately caught everyone’s attention.

Damon turned quickly.

"How many?"

"Not many." Cedric seemed frustrated with himself for admitting that. "Maybe eight. Maybe ten. Enough to clear internal paths, not enough to sustain a direct confrontation."

"But it’s enough for an infiltration," Elizabeth concluded.

Cedric nodded.

"If we act before she replaces the rest of the guard."

Ingrivid immediately walked to the mansion map again.

"Which sectors still have loyal men?"

Cedric approached the table slowly. He hesitated for a second, realizing how many maps and strategic notes already covered the library.

Then he understood.

This was no longer improvised resistance.

It was an organized operation.

"The west corridor still has some veterans," he explained. "The kitchens too. And part of the lower wing of the archives."

Cherry raised an eyebrow.

"The archives?"

"Almost no one goes there."

"Naturally. Every aristocratic conspiracy needs secret archives."

"Cherry," Damon murmured.

"I’m just appreciating the aesthetics of the situation."

Elizabeth ignored the two and pointed directly to the map.

"And the Duke’s quarters?"

Cedric remained silent for too long.

Morgana noticed immediately.

"What?"

The guard lowered his eyes.

"Security has been increased today."

The entire library seemed to stiffen again.

"How much has it increased?" Damon asked.

"It’s doubled."

"Damn it," Ingrivid whispered.

Cedric continued:

"She brought new men to the main hall. None of them belong to the old guard."

"Mercenaries?" Elizabeth asked.

"No." His face darkened. "Worse."

Cherry tilted her head.

"That sounds threatening."

Cedric nodded slowly.

"They don’t talk."

Silence returned immediately.

Morgana frowned.

"What?"

"They obey immediately. They don’t talk amongst themselves. They don’t react to provocations. They don’t drink. They don’t sleep on their shift." The man seemed genuinely disturbed. "They avoid looking directly at anyone."

Damon exchanged a silent glance with Elizabeth.

She understood even before he spoke.

"Mind control."

Cedric hesitated.

"I don’t know what they are. I only know that the other guards started avoiding them."

Cherry no longer seemed amused.

"Great. Now we have frighteningly silent soldiers. That definitely improves the situation."

Morgana slowly returned her gaze to the map.

Her anger remained.

But now there was something more.

Focus.

"She’s preparing for a siege."

Elizabeth nodded.

"Because she knows she’s lost part of the mansion."

"Then we don’t have any more time," Morgana concluded.

Damon observed everyone in the room before making a decision.

"No." His voice came out firm. "We’ve changed the plan."

Everyone looked at him.

Even Elizabeth seemed surprised.

Damon pulled the main map of Arven Manor closer.

"We’re not just going to infiltrate the mansion."

Cherry smiled slowly. "Oh, that sounds dangerously ambitious."

Damon pointed directly to the central wing.

"Let’s take internal control before the Duchess notices."

The silence was absolute.

Cedric looked shocked.

"Entirely?"

"Partially," Damon corrected. "Strategic corridors. Entrances. Communication. Escape routes."

Elizabeth crossed her arms slowly.

"You want to turn the mansion into a divided field."

"It already is one."

Morgana stared intently at the map now, as if finally seeing a concrete possibility.

Damon continued:

"If we wait too long, she consolidates the remaining guard, eliminates the internal allies, and turns the Duke into an unreachable symbol."

"Then we accelerate," Morgana concluded.

"Exactly."

Ingrivid looked worried.

"This drastically increases our chances of exposure."

"The alternative is worse," Elizabeth replied before Damon could even speak.

Everyone looked at her.

She seemed deeply serious now. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"From this moment on, the Duchess is already in motion." Her fingers slowly touched the table. "If she started using mind-controlled men, then it means she’s stopped trusting even her own allies."

Cherry let out a small whistle.

"Total paranoia."

"Total paranoia creates preemptive violence," Elizabeth replied.

Cedric silently nodded.

Damon took a deep breath.

Then he made the decision that would change everything.

"We go in tomorrow night."

Morgana immediately looked up.

"How many men?"

"Enough."

Elizabeth seemed to immediately grasp the true meaning of that.

"You’re already thinking about occupation."

Damon held her gaze.

"I’m thinking about preventing a massacre."

The night wind lashed the library windows harder at that moment, making the candles flicker violently.

As if Arven Manor itself sensed what was about to happen.

Because now there was no turning back.

The conspiracy was over.

And the war had finally begun.

The word war lingered in the library even after no one spoke again.

It was strange how quickly everything had escalated.

That morning, they were still discussing political possibilities.

Now they planned to take an aristocratic mansion partially occupied by mind-controlled guards while a possibly insane woman held the Duke of Arven prisoner within the house itself.

Cherry was the first to break the silence.

"So," she said slowly, twirling the dagger between her fingers again, "does this officially count as a coup d’état?"

"Incomplete," Elizabeth replied without lifting her eyes from the maps. "We still need to win."

"Details."

Damon ignored them both.

His gaze remained fixed on the mansion’s floor plan as he mentally reorganized everything they had just discovered.

The situation was worse than he had imagined.

Much worse.

Because ordinary paranoia didn’t produce empty men who neither spoke nor slept.

This smelled of magic.

Ancient magic.

Wrong magic.

"Morgana." His voice came out low. "These new men... have you seen anything like this before?"

She took a few seconds to answer.

"No." Her jaw tightened slowly. "But I’ve heard stories."

This immediately caught Elizabeth’s attention.

"What kind of stories?"

Morgana glanced toward the fireplace.

"My father used to investigate minor cults connected to the ancient nobility. Houses that experimented with forbidden forms of arcane control." She hesitated. "Some accounts mentioned ’emptied’ servants. People without free will."

Cherry grimaced.

"I deeply detest that expression."

"You should," Morgana replied coldly.

Cedric looked uncomfortable now.

"Many guards have started avoiding the central corridor because of them."

"Out of fear?" Damon asked.

"Out of instinct."

The following silence was short.

But significant.

Because veteran soldiers didn’t abandon their posts out of superstition.

Not men trained for decades.

They abandoned their posts when their instincts screamed that something was profoundly wrong.

Elizabeth slowly crossed her arms.

"We need to assume the Duchess possesses more resources than we imagined."

"Or allies," Ingrivid added.

Damon nodded.

"That too."

Cherry tilted her head.

"Are we talking about some terrifying secret wizard hiding in an aristocratic basement?"

No one answered immediately.

Which was answer enough.

"Excellent," she murmured. "The situation continues to improve."

Morgana turned her attention to Cedric.

"How many of these men are there?"

"I saw six."

"Only?"

Cedric hesitated.

"Six visible."

The atmosphere worsened immediately.

Damon slowly ran a hand over his face.

"Of course. Naturally."

Elizabeth already seemed to be mentally rearranging priorities.

"So the main objective changes."

Morgana frowned.

"The Duke remains the priority."

"No." Elizabeth raised her eyes. "The Duchess is."

The atmosphere immediately became more tense.

Morgana stepped forward.

"Explain."

Elizabeth pointed directly to the center of the mansion’s floor plan.

"If she truly possesses continuous access to mind manipulation magic, then the Duke is merely a consequence." Her voice remained calm. "The source of the problem is her."

"I already intended to kill her."

"I’m not talking about impulsive murder." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes. "I’m talking about strategic neutralization."

Cherry smiled discreetly.

"That was the most threatening thing I’ve heard today."

"Thank you."

Damon placed both hands on the table.

"Elizabeth is right."

Morgana immediately seemed irritated again.

"What a surprise."

"Listen." He held her gaze firmly. "If we enter that mansion just trying to reach the Duke, she’ll move guards, block corridors, and turn everything into chaos."

"Then we kill whoever blocks her."

"Including men possibly controlled by force?" Elizabeth asked.

This made Morgana hesitate.

Just for a moment.

But she hesitated.

And everyone noticed.

Damon continued immediately:

"We need to cut her chain of command before the main confrontation."

Cedric nodded slowly.

"If the men still loyal to the Duke realize she’s lost internal control..." He took a deep breath. "Some will turn against her immediately."

"Especially the veterans," Morgana added quietly.

Hope began to take on a more concrete form.

Small.

Fragile.

But real.

Ingrivid began rearranging small markers on the map.

"So we divide the operation into phases."

Cherry immediately raised her hand.

"I love phases. It makes it seem organized."

"It is organized," Ingrivid replied dryly.

"Which honestly makes it all the more frightening."

She ignored the comment.

"First phase: silent infiltration."

Cedric pointed to the west wing.

"I can take you through the lower corridors. There are still routes her men don’t constantly guard."

Morgana nodded.

"The archive passage."

Cedric confirmed.

"Still accessible."

Elizabeth watched everything intently.

"Second phase?"

Damon answered this time.

"Contact with internal allies." His finger slid across the map. "We’ve secured corridors, isolated the Duchess’s men, and protected the servants."

Cherry blinked.

"You’re planning a civilian evacuation in the middle of an aristocratic coup?"

"I’d rather avoid unnecessary corpses."

"How disappointingly moral."

"Someone has to."

Morgana was still silently observing the mansion’s blueprint.

But Damon noticed something important.

Her coldness had shifted.

Before it seemed like frozen frenzy.

Now it seemed like direction.

She was transforming pain into purpose.

And that was perhaps even more dangerous.

Elizabeth then asked the question no one wanted to ask.

"And the third phase?"

Silence fell immediately.

Because everyone knew the answer.

Damon slowly raised his eyes.

"Direct confrontation."

The fireplace crackled behind them.

Cherry let out a small, satisfied sigh.

"There he was."

Ingrivid seemed much less animated.

"She probably prepared escape routes."

"Of course she did," Elizabeth replied. "Paranoid people always do that."

Morgana slowly raised her gaze.

"She doesn’t run away."

Everyone looked at her.

Her expression had hardened again.

"She believes the mansion belongs to her." Her voice came out low. "She believes she won."

Cedric nodded silently.

"She walks around the house like a crowned queen."

"So we use that against her," Damon concluded.

Elizabeth tilted her head slightly.

"Explain."

He pointed directly to the large central hall of the mansion.

"She still thinks politically."

Cherry frowned.

"That sounds bad."

"It means ego," Elizabeth replied immediately.

And then she understood.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"Oh."

Morgana noticed too.

"You want to expose her."

Damon nodded.

"If we can force her to react in front of witnesses..." His gaze grew colder. "She destroys her own legitimacy."

Elizabeth finally smiled genuinely.

Slow.

Dangerous.

"That’s cruel."

"And efficient."

Cherry seemed moved.

"You’re becoming genuinely terrifying people."

Ingrivid closed her eyes for a moment.

"We already were."

The library clock struck another hour.

The early morning was approaching.

And, along with it, the feeling of inevitability.

Cedric glanced discreetly at Morgana before speaking again.

"There’s one more thing."

She immediately raised her eyes.

"What?"

The guard hesitated.

Something rare for a man of that size.

"Some servants have started saying they hear voices at night."

Silence returned instantly.

Cherry slowly lowered her dagger.

"I don’t like this."

Cedric continued:

"Empty hallways. Footsteps behind doors. People talking to themselves." His face hardened. "And sometimes... screams."

"They made up stories to scare others?" Damon asked.

Cedric looked directly at him.

"I’ve heard them too."

That changed everything again.

Because the man seemed genuinely terrified.

Morgana slowly pressed her fingers against the table.

"She’s getting worse."

Elizabeth became very serious now.

"Or she’s losing control of whatever she’s using."

The wind blew violently against the windows at that moment.

The candles fluttered.

And for a brief second, no one said anything.

Because everyone in the room felt the same thing.

The growing feeling that there was something inside Arven Manor far worse than just a cruel duchess.

And tomorrow night...

They would walk right into it.