Lily's Plan

Belle and Boo moved down the hill a little to stay out of sight of the Tower City. I let them attend to their business while looking for a way to cross the moat.

"I'm thinking... that part of the gate, right over there. You see how it's a little weak?" I pointed out to Lily. She nodded.

"There is rope holding it together right there. We can make that jump with a little bit of a boost. Do you have a knife or something?" Lily asked me. I handed her the knife she gave me earlier, thinking that was a complex way of asking for it back.

She flipped it so she held the tip of the blade. She closed one eye, tilted her wrist by a little, and practiced the hand motion of throwing it.

"You're going to hit that rope with that puny knife? No chance you do that, right?" I asked her.

"Let's see... I was eleven years old when I was taken under somebody else's care, trained to be as accurate and sneaky as possible. I'm not strong by any means, and I'm not fast either, but being accurate and sneaky helped me excel in spy missions and stealthy tasks at my King's home. Throwing this knife? This might be the easiest thing I've done in the past two years," Lily admitted to me.

"That's right, I don't know all of your past, I'm sorry. Then, I trust your ability to hit it. What about Belle and Boo? Do you trust them?" I asked Lily next. She stopped her hand motions and held the knife in both of her hands next, bouncing it off the palm of her hand.

"Lia trusts them, so I do too," She shortly said.

"Is Lia your sister or something? I noticed you two stick together pretty often," I asked. I kept my eyes away from the city for a moment to look at Lily.

"All my family is dead. They were killed when the King's soldiers ran through my village, looking for capable slaves. We lost everybody important to us, so we're the last family in either of our lives. I used to have the opposite part of my hair dyed red... like we're two halves of a whole, you know?" Lily asked.

"Like Belle and I? Are you guys dating?" I asked, but Lily seemed irritated and dismissive.

"The number of times I've had to answer that question recently... no, we're not. We both like guys in our group," Lily told me with an annoyed look.

"Sorry, but I have to ask sometimes. I really don't know how the group dynamic works outside of Belle, Alexia, and Boo. I know that Sky and Dani are a thing, Belle and I are a thing, and Charlie and Mandi should be a thing, but I know nothing else... so, who do you two like?" I asked.

I didn't truly care about relationships or anything like that, but Lily was a special case. Mainly because I needed to waste time.

"I assume you won't tell them... I like Troy, but Lia won't tell me who she likes. I think it's between Carl and Griff, but she's pretty good at hiding things. Why do you ask?" Lily asked me.

"I guess I find it interesting how everybody splits off. That's all, don't over think it," I told Lily.

Right after I finished my sentence, a large obelisk made of clear-blue ice was summoned around five hundred feet to our right, and slowly tipped over into the anti-strand barrier.

As soon as it even started to fall, Boo and Belle showed up with incredible speed. Belle hopped onto her back before she traveled at light speed back to our position.

Without a single ounce of delay in her mind, Lily flipped the knife in her hand, and threw it with pinpoint accuracy onto the rope that held the corner part of the fence together.

The rope snapped to my surprise, and the knife was lodged into a grate about three feet from the opening, leaving it as a choice of weaponry if we needed it once we got in.

"Perfect shot! Come on, let's go!" I shouted out.

"Attention! A breakthrough of the gates has been spotted in Quadrant Four, Location Thirty-Six!" A loudspeaker shouted out.

"She better be talking about that damn obelisk, that wasn't easy to make!" Belle shouted out. Her hair was glimmering with ice, evidence that she used too much at once.

Once we all made our way into the gate from the jump over the moat, we crouched under the opening.

The inside of the city was pretty simple. We carved our way in through an alleyway that didn't have any visibility on it. Behind a stone indent in the wall, I jumped into hiding and waited for everybody to scramble through the gate.

Lily picked up the knife she threw before hiding adjacent to our position, peering down the crack between a rolling dumpster and the brick wall.

"Three soldiers coming," She whispered, holding three fingers up.

"There's been a breach in the gate... maybe that rope finally gave out," I heard from in front.

The voices sounded... muffled like they were behind helmets. I would have to note that we can't take them out with a simple hit or stab to the head.

I nodded at Boo, knowing she was the most inclined to kill. At least, more inclined than Belle.

I stood first in the line behind the cement pillar, watching ahead, waiting for the perfect moment.

As soon as they turned the corner, Lily pushed the dumpster out into the stomach of one of the soldiers, jumped up onto the shoulders of another, and then threw her knife into the throat of the remaining one.

She flipped over his head, throwing him into the corner of the wall right where his forehead was.

Both the wall chipped and his forehead split open as he slid down in a puddle of his own blood.

"Help me put the bodies into the dumpster," She said, wiping her face from the blood splatters and sheathing the knife.

"Are you insane?" Boo asked, pushing herself to the front of the line that was comprised of Belle and I.

"I had to at least incapacitate them, are you mad about that?" Lily asked. I didn't want anybody to fight, so I held out my hands between them, but the two deflected easily.

"No, don't put them in the dumpster, leave them in the moat. They'll be harder to find," Boo said, dragging one by his legs to the opening in the gate.

"Not before we take their armor," I added on, stopping Boo.