Elisa fixed him with an unreadable expression. Her fingers tightened around the gem in her hand. She understood the trap perfectly. To refute his version would be to force her to give the real one, which was infinitely worse. She was cornered.
Zirel had outmaneuvered her. He had placed both her and Maggie in a position of debt to him, having shouldered the "blame" for "forcing their hand." He had created a lever for the future. By "confessing" that Elisa was part of the Guild of the Wind Flower, he made her beholden to him. He could now apply pressure later, threaten to expose this fabricated truth to his own guild to force her compliance.
"The team's survival outweighs any regulation," Elisa said finally, her voice neutral, accepting the lie without fully endorsing it. It was a masterful non-answer, acknowledging the situation without confirming his specific fiction.
