In the end, Vanessa pulled Elsa into a room to talk. They sat staring at each other for ages, but Vanessa got nowhere. After struggling to speak for a long while, she finally said only, "It's not time yet."
It wasn't just Elsa. The plan to recruit people at the factory into the Esoteric Cult also had to be suspended. Everything would have to wait until the result of [Ascending] came out.
Construction in the Hearthfire District still needed time. After assigning Vanessa the task [Continue investigating the Fog Horn Fraternity], Elliot began turning his attention to the Fourth Prince's dinner party.
To be honest, Elliot didn't particularly want to go. Dealing with accusations from a whole crowd of nobles sounded boring.
But public opinion was the sort of thing where, if you didn't claim the ground and chose to hand it over instead, it would be difficult to turn things around.
He still needed to give some careful thought to how he would handle it.
The main purpose of this sort of salon was to exchange information. At most, the two sides would take a few overt or veiled jabs at each other; there would generally be no other fighting. Unless the Third Prince started beating people up.
Elliot wanted to gain an advantage... but honestly, that would be quite difficult.
At a salon hosted by the Fourth Prince, most of the guests would surely be his people. The Third Prince could make soldiers switch sides on the battlefield, but he could only educate these nobles with his fists.
Still, it wasn't completely hopeless.
"Come to think of it, the Stage-Play Difference Engine over at the Third Prince's place would be pretty useful in this situation."
The salon wouldn't occupy too large an area, and the Difference Engine's stage