The A-V-LOCK failure had forced Elara to accept a terrifying truth: the Kaelen dynasty was technically impregnable. To complete the erasure, she had to strike at a vulnerability that Valen Kaelen could not firewall, patch, or politically maneuver around. She had to attack life itself.
The remaining targets were Isolde, the new political pawn, and Elias, the youngest son- a sheltered boy of ten, Valen's pride and future promise. Elias was the softest target, and his failure would be the most personal blow to Valen.
Elara had already identified Elias's Achilles' heel: his restrictive, highly regulated diet, mandated by the Kaelen house for optimal health and mental performance. His food was sourced exclusively from a single, centralized, Kaelen-owned processing facility—The Citadel Gardens.
The new plan was biological. Elara contacted Professor Thorne, forcing him out of his moral retreat.
"The technological approach is blocked by my father's ghost," Elara stated over the secure line. "You will not create another psychological weapon. You will synthesize a compound that attacks memory and cognitive function. Something slow, subtle, and untraceable in the body."
Thorne's voice was strained, laced with terror. "Elara, that is neurological warfare. It attacks the very structure of the self. We are crossing lines—"
"The lines were crossed when Valen Kaelen murdered my father for a spreadsheet," Elara hissed, her voice cutting through the static. "The goal is silence, Professor. Not death. Elias will not die. He will simply forget who he is. His mind will become a blank space, a non-entity. Valen Kaelen's future promise will be erased."
Thorne knew he was trapped. He was financially ruined, morally compromised, and terrified of Elara's cold resolve. He was now an accessory to a crime that attacked the very nature of human consciousness.
"I can synthesize a compound- the Mnemotic Lapse," Thorne conceded, his voice defeated. "It requires a complex, biological vector. It must be administered in a high concentration through the primary nutrient supply chain."
"The Citadel Gardens," Elara confirmed. "The only facility supplying Elias Kaelen's diet. It is an internal breach. Joric Tahl will be guarding the manor, but he won't be watching the food trucks."
Elara spent the next forty-eight hours mapping the internal logistics of the Citadel Gardens. She discovered the weakness: the daily maintenance cycle for the nutrient injection system, performed by a low-level, easily corrupted technician.
She finalized the arrangement with Sio Rey's network, leveraging the Kaelen house's disdain for their own low-level employees. The technician was procured. The access was set for three days hence.
As Elara prepared to weaponize the city's food supply, she found herself walking an ethical path she had sworn to avoid. Yet, the memory of her father's silenced truth was too heavy a burden to drop. Her vengeance was no longer a choice; it was a devastating, self-destructive momentum.
She looked at her reflection in a pane of glass- a woman dressed in the severe, clean lines of the Archivist, yet with the eyes of a biological terrorist. The silent justice she sought was requiring the ultimate sacrifice of her own soul.
Far across the city, Commander Joric Tahl was meticulously compiling his investigation file. He had the Professor's lab, the ADO sample, and the Archivist's dangerous philosophy. He was closing the net on Elara Vane. He just needed the final, undeniable link to bring her down.