Gorvasha leaned back slightly, her eyes narrowing as she connected the dots. "You're not just waiting for her response."
"You're using Zane as a catalyst. You're forcing her hand, pulling her timeline toward you."
"The reconstruction is going to take months," Rex said, his tone turning cold and clinical. "Celestina is a strategist; she knows that a city undergoing a total purge and structural overhaul is at its most vulnerable."
"She'll see the chaos, the smoke, and the shifting foundations, and she'll identify an optimal window to strike... Likely within the next six to eight weeks."
"And you want her to strike within that window," Cassandra realized, her voice filled with a new level of respect for his ruthlessness.
"I want her to move before the reconstruction is complete," Rex countered, his eyes burning. "Not because we're weak, but because a response that arrives during active reconstruction hits a city that is already in a state of total mobilization."
