The Lady of Shadows

The makings of a plan

The final day had drawn near, I was beaten down fairly well, Dominic and Lilith made a scary team. Neither of them overpowered me, but they kept me on my toes, preventing me from overpowering them as well. All in all they were amazing. I replayed the attacks in my head trying to figure out how I could have moved better, expected the attacks that caught me by surprise, how I could have put in my own share of damage... We were all sitting down to dinner when Dominic interrupted my thinking.

    "So, which of us officially won?" Dominic asked.

    "That completely depends on how you rank the challenge." I answered. I'd already decided they tied, but I hadn't told them that yet.     

    "Come on now, tell us!" Lilith jumped in, "I have so many ideas for our dates...." She mused.

    "Well, if you rank by damage dealt, Dominic is the clear winner." I said. She looked defeated, "But if you rank on who threw me off balance more, That would be Lilith." I silenced the cheers forming in Dominic's mouth.

    "But who won over all?" Lilith asked.    

    "Well.... you both were amazing, just at different aspects. Lilith, your range attacks were very effective in making me lose balance, and the few times you struck at the same time as Dominic, the heat allow fried my senses, leaving me open for more surprises. Dominic, you were in my face from the start, landing hits, adjusting your fight style to keep up with me, including making traps for my heightened senses. You managed to sneak up on me a few times. If you had worked together I would have been overpowered easily." I said, they started at me.

    "There is no way." They both said. I laughed.

    "If you had worked together, then the play would have been obvious, but expecting it and countering it are two separate skill sets. Had Lilith used her fire to back me into a corner, that would fry my sense of smell and sight, plus it would have limited my ability to sense the heat around me, because everything would have been hot. This would have left my hearing as my only option since I can't taste the air like a reptile. In a corner the sounds echo so pinning them is harder, plus if you worked it just right the flames crackling and possibly falling debris would have added cover sounds. Meaning I wouldn't know Dominic was there till he was hitting me, in a real fight anyways. In this fight I knew there were two attackers, so I avoided corners. even so, with the flames as hot as they were, making a wall of fire to pin me down or lure me into a corner would have been easy enough. But doing so would have left the final attack to Dominic." 

    "Even then, Dominic isn't as strong as you are." Lilith tried to argue.

    "No, he is not. He is bigger than me and weighs more than me. With his sneaky tricks and those to facts..." I pointed to my temple, throat, the back of my neck, and my diaphragm, "A sharp attack in any of these places would knock me out, or take my air away. With that a finishing blow would be easy." I answered. 

    "We could have won that easily?" Dominic asked. I smiled.

    "Lucky for me, you made it clear you were challenging each other as much as me." I said while they groaned. I laughed, "That being said, you both win." They cheered and before long they were arguing about who gets the first date. 

    "Clearly I should because you live here!" Dominic argued. 

    "That's why I should go first!" Lilith insisted, "That way you get to have time with her before you leave and you can rest easy knowing the next time you come back it wont interrupt the date!" 

    "Or, you can both wait till after we deal with the black market." I said. They both stalled on the subject.

    "Right.... Of course, business first. Do you have a plan?" Lilith asked.

    "Not exactly. To be honest, my plan would be to go in, shield the innocents and blast everything to hades." I said with a sigh.

    "But the girl would retaliate quickly for that, probably taking more civilians." Dominic finished the thought. I nodded. 

    "Exactly, and I also do not know exactly what she is capable of other than the imploding of living man-beast the size of two of Dominic." I nodded. 

    "So, should we try gathering information?" Lilith asked, "I actually have a great friend coming to visit that could help."     

    "Rosaline?" I asked. Lilith talked about her a bit, but all I knew was that she was pretty, petite, and Lilith's best friend.  

    "Yes, She's amazing. I can honestly tell you I know of no one better at getting information." Lilith said, "Only she's recently had some stuff happen, so she's gotten kind of shy. She wrote me to let me know she'll meet me in the market tomorrow, while she's shopping for her mother." 

    "Okay, if you trust her... just, do me a favor." I said, "Don't share that we know where it is yet, and don't tell her that I've been inside." I said. She looked at me with curiosity in her eyes, "I want to see how good she is with minimal information. Especially if she is a friend of yours, and possibly going to be part of my circle one day." 

    "A test for someone who hasn't even decided to leave home yet? How careful are you?" Lilith asked with a laugh.

    "It's not a bad idea. If she gives us useful information and it helps everyone then it'll prove how valuable she is, and Lady Shadow will need someone skilling in gathering intel when she moves on to being a noble." Dominic said, "Making a friend like that now would be good idea."

    "I see, well, I'll meet with her and keep the details limited and see what she brings back. Then we'll make a plan, and then we will discuss the date plans." Lilith accepted. We finished eating and called it a night. Before sleeping I dumped cold water on myself, then took a hot bath. After cleaning up I dumped more cold water on myself and began to dry off. As I laid in bed I thought back on the week and how strong Lilith and Dominic had gotten. I rolled over and smiled and rolled over to enjoy the sleep knowing I made some amazing friends.