Elletra’s heart leapt at the hope that kindled in his eyes, but there was still a certain despair to them.

“There’s… something else,” he muttered, looking down again. "That was what it took for me to see through his lies, you see – when I showed him what I had done in horror, he was overjoyed.

“I had to get away, of course – tried to get out of his grip. Enrolled at the Four Peaks Military Academy, thinking he couldn’t touch me there. Trained hard, tried to ignore what I’d done. It turned out I had a natural talent with weapons. Scored high on nearly everything. Got put on the fast track for promotion, promoted to some specialist unit.

“Turns out you can’t get away from the Earl that easily. He had his fingers in that pie too, at the top of the chain where the orders come in. So after making the most lethal discovery in history, I managed to put myself in the perfect position to make the next move for his plan.”