She looked directly at me.
"None of those events mattered by themselves. They were merely pieces being moved across a board."
She gently tapped the table with one finger.
"Over decades those microscopic changes accumulated until every Eternal in that region began behaving exactly as Aldric expected. When he finally moved, the important Eternal carrying a Contract fragment happened to be inside the same region. That alone wasn't enough because Verilux would immediately respond if the Eternal Saints died too quickly or summoned him."
I looked at her curiously.
"So how did he avoid that?"
"He made sure Verilux was looking somewhere else."
The old woman leaned back comfortably.
"Months before the operation began, resistance cells across three neighboring regions simultaneously increased their activity. Settlements deliberately exposed themselves before disappearing again. Even several fake sightings of hidden resistance headquarters were carefully leaked."
