The plan, once spoken aloud in the quiet study, seemed to suck all the air from the room. To start a fire. Not a literal fire of timber and oil, but a conflagration of panic and ruin that would sweep through the capital's economy. It was a declaration of war against the very foundations of the empire.
Kaelen, the scholar, looked pale. "A financial crisis… the chaos, the suffering… it would be immense."
"War is never without casualties," Lia replied, her voice devoid of emotion. She was already miles ahead, her mind a cold engine of strategy, calculating the necessary steps. "The Emperor feeds on the stability and prosperity of his empire. We will starve him. We will force him to expend his own power to hold his kingdom together, and when he is weakened, when he is forced to draw upon the Grimoire in the open, we will strike."
Julian, unlike Kaelen, did not flinch from the brutal calculus of the plan. A predatory light gleamed in his eyes. He was a merchant prince; this was a battlefield he understood.
"The Imperial Treasury is the heart of his power," Julian said, his voice a low, thoughtful murmur as he began to pace before the fire. "But it is a heart protected by iron walls. A direct assault is impossible. We need to attack the arteries."
"The noble houses," Lia said, her gaze distant as she accessed the vast, intricate web of knowledge in her mind. "Specifically, the three houses that hold the largest imperial bonds: House Lancaster, House Beaumont, and House Sterling. They are the pillars propping up the Emperor's finances. If they were to suddenly call in their debts, to demand payment from the treasury all at once…"
"It would trigger a catastrophic panic," Julian finished, his smile thin and sharp. "The treasury would be forced to default. The imperial currency would collapse. It's brilliant. It's also impossible. Those houses are the Emperor's most loyal dogs. They would never turn on him."
"They will," Lia said with absolute certainty, "if they believe their own financial ruin is the only other option."
She turned her focus inward, to the silent, golden script of the Ledger. Ledger. Full financial analysis of Houses Lancaster, Beaumont, and Sterling. I need their secret ledgers, their hidden investments, their points of vulnerability.
[Query Cost: 150 RP. This is a Tier 2.5 analysis of three major institutional targets.]
It was a steep price, but it was the key to the entire war. Execute.
[150 RP Spent. Current Balance: 187 RP.]
The information that flooded her mind was a torrent of numbers and names, a secret history of the empire written in ink and greed. She saw the Lancasters' foolish investments in a failed mining venture in the southern provinces. She saw the Beaumonts' reliance on a single, volatile trade route that was about to be disrupted by a pirate fleet she knew from her past life would soon appear. And she saw the Sterlings' darkest secret: a vast, illegal smuggling operation, hidden from the Emperor's tax collectors.
She began to speak, her voice calm and precise, laying out the intricate web of corruption and weakness to Julian. She gave him the names of ships, the dates of secret meetings, the locations of hidden warehouses. It was the operational plan for the most audacious financial heist in the history of the empire.
Julian listened, his initial admiration turning into a profound, unnerved awe. The information she possessed was impossible. It wasn't just intelligence; it was prophecy.
"How?" he whispered, when she had finally finished. "How do you know all this?"
She met his gaze, her own eyes filled with a history he could never comprehend. "Let's just say," she said, her voice a soft, chilling whisper, "that I have had the privilege of reading the last chapter of this story before. And I am here to write a new ending."
The first move was made the next morning. Julian, using a network of anonymous agents and shell corporations, began to buy up the debt from the Lancasters' failed mining venture. At the same time, he sent a coded message to a notorious pirate captain he had dealt with in the past, a message containing the exact location and schedule of the Beaumonts' most valuable, unprotected fleet.
The first domino had been pushed. Now, they just had to wait for it to fall.