Klea had been in contact with the Marquess of the North for months.
In fact, he had been on her list far longer than that — since the night Emery first spoke about his ambition to raise Earth into a Grade Three faction. To do that, he would need Dawnstar. And to take Dawnstar cleanly, Klea would need a Dawn worth keeping.
That was why she had been quietly gathering intelligence on the old general.
The old general's reputation was spotless in a city where nothing else was. He had served the Magus Alliance military, earning many decorations throughout his career without a single stain of corruption ever touching his name. His only flaw was that he was almost impossible to persuade. He was as rigid as a mountain, slow to trust, and even slower to change his convictions.
