The summons reached me while I was still dressing, Sienna's hurried report about the moving hearing landing like a fresh blow atop a night already stretched thin by exhaustion and fear. I forced my hands steady as my attendants finished securing the last of my formal robes, the deep royal blue chosen deliberately for its authority rather than any softer color that might read as vulnerability before a court eager to see me falter.
"An hour," I repeated, meeting Sienna's worried gaze in the mirror. "That's barely enough time to think, let alone prepare a defense worth presenting."
"There's more, Your Highness." Sienna's voice tightened further. "Lord Wyers and Ryan have the recovered ledgers, but Cassandra's already framing the chest's disappearance from the estate as evidence you're conce
