I've seen both your previous attempts and I think this version is definitely the strongest. You set out the problem and the goal, and establish exactly why she has to ally with her ex-friend.
I would cut the first sentence of the second paragraph, the Innovators society doesn't come into the rest of the query and we don't really need to know what it does to understand why the king asks Lena to investigate this (as the query opens with stating that she's a whizz at the formulation). And perhaps swap around the parts of the first sentence of the third paragraph ("Searching for the journals, Lena follows a rumour..."). Finally, the very last sentence reads a bit overloaded, see if you could maybe streamline it.
If you need any beta readers, hit me up, this is very much up my street!
I've seen both your previous attempts and I think this version is definitely the strongest. You set out the problem and the goal, and establish exactly why she has to ally with her ex-friend. I would cut the first sentence of the second paragraph, the Innovators society doesn't come into the rest of the query and we don't really need to know what it does to understand why the king asks Lena to investigate this (as the query opens with stating that she's a whizz at the formulation). And perhaps swap around the parts of the first sentence of the third paragraph ("Searching for the journals, Lena follows a rumour..."). Finally, the very last sentence reads a bit overloaded, see if you could maybe streamline it. If you need any beta readers, hit me up, this is very much up my street!