Dorothea's Plan
We called my three companions into Blake’s office to go over what Dorothea was thinking about how to trap the lone assassin within The Order. She strode into the office with a big smile on her face, I didn’t know if it was because she was confident in her plan or that Derek was escorting her into the office. She seems to have a thing for very tall muscular men from everything I’ve heard from others. Every time she saw a tall muscular man, she flirts shamelessly with him. I had wondered in that moment if her husband, who had passed away, was a tall muscular man. Then my thoughts turned to Hypnos, she’d probably go crazy for him. He carried me around like I was his little teddy bear and I like to think I’m fairly tall and average in body fat. She took a seat on the couch across from the love seat that Blake and I were sitting at. Derek sat on the other end of the sofa, Jess sat in between him and Dorothea and, of course, she blushed. Vanessa sat on a chair to the left of me. Once we were all seated, Blake cleared his throat and spoke, “Now that we’re all assembled, I want to let everyone know that Alexandra has told me about your conversation on the way over. While I don’t like putting her in danger, this decision is ultimately up to her. I don’t want to be one of those guys that absolutely forbid things of the woman I love.” I blushed at the nonchalant way in which he spoke of his feelings for me.
Dorothea smiled then spoke, “Well then I guess that is my queue to speak next on my plan to trap this hunky assassin.” When she said that I had pictured the assassin to be quite tall and muscular, otherwise she wouldn’t be calling him hunky. That meant that she had laid eyes on him before which prompted me to speak, “So you’ve seen him? Do you know his name?” She shrugged, “I have seen him but his face was covered in a black cloth on the lower half of his face, I could only see his blue eyes. They called him Zero because they said he didn’t have a name when he joined The Order. From what I understand, he works specifically for the noble family that backs The Order. They said he has no family and was taken in and taken care of from a young age by this family. He would never cross their orders because of this.” I nodded, “Okay, that helps me to know something about him. I imagine if he had had a loving family, he likely wouldn’t try to kill like he is. I kind of feel bad for him…” Blake shook his head, “You can’t feel sorry for him, Alexandra. He’s tried to kill you once and threatened to kill you again. Please remember that.” I nodded and looked down, “I suppose you’re right but even so my head can’t tell my heart how to feel. It feels like it breaks for him.” Derek spoke, “He is right. That is something we all can agree on.” Blake nodded at Derek who then nodded back.
Dorothea cleared her throat to get our attention, “Moving on. We all know that his ultimate goal is either to hurt Alexandra or turn her to their side. More likely his orders were to kill her and the poison was just a way to get her in trouble so the King would be forced to execute her. It was a win-win situation for them but they didn’t anticipate that I would be on the pretty one’s side to give her the antidote. Not to mention, I had told one member about that last ingredient. I’d be willing to bet they didn’t know that our girl was so popular amongst the men folk of Vellum already.” She wiggled her eyebrows at Derek and Blake. Blake grunted, “I love your charm and beauty, Alexandra but it really works against me sometimes.” I shrugged, “I can’t help but be me. I didn’t know I’d be so popular here given my track record with people not named Batiste.” He sighed, “Fair enough. I know what the humans put you through so how could you know.” Dorothea continued, “Anyhow, since they are so desperate to kill Alexandra or force her out of Vellum, we could use that against them. She would have to put out a statement that the threat does not frighten her and she will not let a simple threat force her out of her ancestral home.” I nodded, “It’s like a ‘come at me bro’ statement.” Jess suddenly burst out laughing hard and her eyes were tearing up and I joined her. Derek furrowed his brow and Blake who was stifling a laugh beside me said, “It’s a human saying. Usually done by idiots who are acting tough when they really aren’t.” I nodded, “Yes, you’ve nailed it.” Derek shook his head, “I guess that would be accurate but I like to think Alexandra is pretty tough going through with something so reckless.”
Silence fell on the room and I couldn’t help but notice that Derek was being a buzzkill. I laid up a pretty good little anecdote to cut the tension and he grabbed the end and pulled it taut. Dorothea sighed, “The whole point to the statement is to provoke them to become bolder. Something I know for sure about The Order is that the leaders have huge egos. If she comes out and seems unfazed, they will take that as a slight and go after her stronger. We would just need an inside man to feed us intel to know when and where they plan on carrying out their plans. I know the guy that we are planning to send in will rise in the ranks quickly with my advice and his sharp intelligence. We will know in no time when this will go down. We just need to get Alexandra ‘alone’ some place to make her an enticing target for them. She truly won’t be alone; we know that her little friend will be with her and the brat has many capable spies who can hide in the shadows.” Vanessa spoke, “I can also make Derek, Jess and Blake a stealth magical tool so that they will go undetected around this assassin. I just hope he isn’t a lycan or we’re screwed.” Dorothea shook her head, “I know for a fact that he is a pyrio, I’ve seen his teeth come out after he came back from a hit. His teeth are uninhibited from showing themselves when he’s around blood.” Vanessa nodded, “Then we should be fine. I think we should make the target area in Blackwood. It’s both open in places and enough covered that it would be easy to hide.” Dorothea nodded, “I was going to make sure she was on her way from my cottage, I believe that would be remote enough for them to be bolder but close to a familiar enough place that we can easily trap him.” Blake grunted, “I think we should kill him. He would deserve it for what he’s done to Alexandra.”
Dorothea shook her head, “We want him alive; he knows who one of the noble families are at the very least. He would be valuable in gaining intel on The Order. Once we get what we need from him, then we could kill him.” I shook my head, “I don’t like that. You said he was raised by this noble family. Right?” She nodded, “That’s what I was told.” I sighed, “Would it be unreasonable to assume they really brainwashed him into this? Could he not be reformed?” Blake sighed, “I don’t like your line of thinking, Alexandra. In Vellum, you need to be ruthless at times. This is not the time for that compassion you have.” Jess shook her head, “I disagree. I think we should at least try to help him. Besides, Your Highness, didn’t you say you wouldn’t stand in the way of what she wants?” He looked away from the group and sighed, “I did.” I looked over at him and pulled his face to look at me, “Please? I would like to try at least. Give me a week with him and if we can’t begin to reform him, then you can do what you wish. I just ask that whatever it is that you do, that it be done here instead of my home.” He nodded, “Okay, I can agree to that. Just know that I will collect on your promise in precisely a week. I will leave it up to Dorothea if she sees improvement or not.” Dorothea nodded, “I believe I can be objective in this.” I was happy that he at least gave me the concession of trying to reform the assassin for a week. I knew it as likely foolish but the man couldn’t help the way he was raised and made to kill people just to give his gratitude to a family who were using him. They manipulated him and I wanted him to see that, something in me believes he deserved a second chance at life.
Blake spoke, “So after you get this assassin there, how do you plan on trapping him.” She sighed, “Well unfortunately, I would need to rely on my sister’s powers to trap him into a barrier.” I looked at her like I didn’t understand, “I thought barriers were to protect an area.” She smiled at me, “Usually they are but Z has the unique ability of creating barriers like prisons. He would just need to hit a certain mark. Knowing The Order, they will want proof of your death so he would need to kill you up close so he can be sure you are dead and take your heart.” This declaration gave me chills, the hair rose on my arms and I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself. I felt a warm hug envelope me and kiss on the top of my head, “He will never hurt you, Alexandra. Trust me, I would never let it happen.” He turned to Dorothea while I was still wrapped in his arms and said, “I think the plan is solid, especially with Sebastian being in the shadows but we will need to ensure he stays in the shadows until she really is in danger.” I nodded, “I will need to talk to Aphrodite about that. Do you know when Zebinezer will be here?”
