Chapter 20- The Plan

Aarushi turns her head and asks “We’re doing what?”

“Are you still not listening? We’re going to raid the Palace!”

The door opens behind me as I shout my ambitions. Rhea giggles and says “You’re going to raid the palace? Now why would someone like Deadra want to do something like that?”

“Do you know about the slaves? Or the issues in the slums?”

In a matter of fact way Rhea says “Of course I do, I just didn’t think you were aware of anyone other than yourself.” She pulls water from the container at her waist and begins to have it flow over my body healing me as it passes over my wounds.

Although it hurts to admit it she is right that I have been selfish and only focused on myself and friends. “You’re right, but today was a sobering experience and I wish to change.”

“Oh so becoming a murderer is a sobering experience?”

“I… I, that was an accident, when he attacked Aarushi I was overcome with anger and I just don’t know what happened!”

Rhea scoffs as she turns to leave the room. “That is still no excuse.” She walks toward the door and without looking back she says “But even though you went over bored I am still willing to work with you if it is to save other people, but I will no longer help you be selfish.”

She leaves Aarushi and I alone. Through all of the excitement of finding the slaves and wanting to improve the slums I completely forgot my sins. Just last night I killed someone. With my own hands I killed someone. As the memory of the blood dripping off my hand comes back to me I fall to the ground burying my face in my hands. My breathing becomes sporadic as I hold back the tears. What have I become?

Aarushi sits down next to me while rubbing my back with her hand trying to sooth my pain. “Deadra… A lot has happened and we haven’t had time to talk, but I just want you to know a few things first. I know you killed the prince trying to protect me and I want to thank you. He was a pig and after you were taken away the people around us explained his other crimes. He deserved death.”

Hearing someone so close to me say that what I did was justified helps sooth my tormented heart.

“I also want you to know that I love you and I would follow you to the end of the world.” She pauses for a moment before continuing, “If you ever need anything.” She puts extra emphasis on the next part while nudging me with her elbow “and I mean anything (ahem) ANYTHING” once again becoming serious she continues “Then just ask and I will be there for you!”

Taking her advice and knowing she truly means it I pull her into me wrapping my arms around her. She makes a small squeak from my sudden action. I truly needed to hear her words. Having her here to support me is more than I could ever ask for. Without her being my support I would surely crumble. I spend the next several minutes holding her trying to hold back my tears, but eventually I break and release everything as she pats my back. Releasing my fears, pains and sorrows I sob into her chest. This lasts a while before we stay up all night talking about small meaningless things. Eventually we both drift to sleep staring into each other’s eyes. Her beautiful bright green eyes will forever be burned into my heart.

That night was the first night I finally opened up my heart and completely let someone in. I shared my feelings with her about everything. I shared my feeling on purgatory, on this world, The few memories I have of my first world, on my actions, and even on how I feel about her. She shared everything she had as well. She is the first person I have truly loved both in this world or any of the other ones.

When I wake up in the morning our fingers are still intertwined. Her sleeping face sits inches from my own. Her crimson hair frames her flawless fair skin. Her adorable button nose makes me want to kiss it. Her tender soft lips bring a smile to my face. I can’t control myself any longer and attack her with a kiss. It wakes her up but instead of getting angry she smiles and kisses me back.

She says “I love you Deadra” With a smile before closing her eyes once again. Surprisingly she does not try to force me to go further. Usually when I kiss her she always pulls me forward as I pull backwards. Were her outbursts of desire actually just cries for me to open up to her? Was she trying to get closer to me emotionally through a physical manner?

“Hey Aarushi umm why aren’t you… you know doing your usual thing?”

She releases my hand and wraps her fingers behind my head. She inches toward me pulling her lips less than an inch from my own. She holds this position without moving. Her enticing sent envelopes me. The lack of pressure of a kiss pulls at me like invisible strings. My heart nearly wants to skip a beat as it begs to push forward. Being unable to resist I move the last inch pressing my lips against hers. She pulls back while opening her eyes. “Hehe, I felt so much closer to you now than ever before, and I love being next to you holding your hand. I don’t need sex if I can just have you by my side, your vary presence brings me happiness.” She gives a devilish smile while licking her lips “I also realized that the harder I push the more you resist, but if I sit and wait you start becoming more ummm… aggressive!” She gives me a seductive wink with the last word.

Is that actually true? I guess a minute ago I did admit to myself that I pull away as she pushes. That’s not fair to her; I know what I must do. “Hey Aarushi, do you want to go on a date a little earlier than I promised?”

Her eyes sparkle and her face glows with excitement. She vigorously nods her head. “Yes, yes A million times yes!”

A smile spreads across my face as I say “Ok we shall go on a date the day before the raid, but first I need to prepare!”

She gives me a reassured head nod before saying “We need to get Lucarus and Rhea on board first right!”

“Haha correct, we also need to do some training.”

After talking with Aarushi more we find Rhea and Lucarus eating breakfast. When everyone finishes eating I pull Lucarus to the side.

“Hey we need to talk.”

“About what?”

My head jolts back from the shock of his question. “What I did to the prince for a start.”

He crosses his arms and shakes his head. “No we don’t. I would have thought you would know me better by now. I love Aarushi, just as I love you. I was seconds away from killing him myself. Now what’s the next subject?”

That was surprisingly easier than expected. I guess him and I truly think alike. Maybe he will also believe in rescuing the slaves. “I want to attack the palace and save the slaves from their imprisonment. Will you help me?”

Lucarus rubs his chin for a few moments thinking. He then blatantly says “No”

“What? Why?”

“I can’t help you, but you can help me! Rhea and I already have some plans, and if you and Aarushi join we may very well succeed. We will need your strength.”

“Wait what? How long have you been planning this?”

“Rhea has actually been planning this all along since before we met her. Just about three months ago did I learn of her plan and start helping her out. That’s when she taught me ways of the water tribe which allowed me to create my unleashed form.”

“Well if you could I would really like to help with your plans, I am sure Aarushi will also join me if I explain the situation. Could Rhea also teach me water tribe skills?” Lucarus has truly been growing up quickly. He is starting to make his own decisions and becoming his own person. He may be becoming more mature than me.

“I don’t think Rhea could help you, but if you train with me for a few weeks with your advanced skills of fire manipulation I am sure you can learn it. You should tell Rhea about the news and learn of the plan. Our training will start in an hour and every day after that it will be early in the morning, and then we fight in the arena against monsters to sharpen what we learned, no more hiding our skills from each other we must consolidate our knowledge.”

I nod my head with a humph then go over to Rhea. “Let me in on the plans. Aarushi and I want to help. What do you want us to do?”

“Just get stronger for now, in one month we will make our move, I will let everyone know then.”

…

After that Aarushi, Lucarus and I train every morning and fight in the arena individually against monsters or against each other after lunch every day.

The morning is the three of us exchanging skills. Lucarus shares the idea of morphing fire into a more physical state of being. I explain my method for strengthening my body and pushing myself past the limit. Aarushi doesn’t have a special technique to share and merely tries to learn ours or help us with our own training.

Lucarus can’t use my technique very well because he is unable to create explosions. He fails to force his muscles to move stronger or faster however he does learn to increase his perception skills. He learns to slow down the world around him within his own mind without losing his vision, and also increases his hearing. He adds his own power to this and created a new skill to allow him to feel the things his flames touch. This allows him to know when someone is trying to penetrate his fire armor or to make a circle of fire around him and react to anything that comes in contact with the circle.

Aarushi is unable to learn any of Lucarus’s power but excels at the physical sides of mine. She can not only increase her strength and speed but was able to learn how to strengthen the durability of her arms so she doesn’t break them while using super human strength. She can’t strengthen more than just one of her fists and arms at one time, and if she uses her full strength with my special technique consecutively she will still damage herself to the point of being unable to fight. Instead she adapted her explosive punch in conjunction with her new skill to lower her chance of injury and increase her attack power and speed.

I was able to learn most of Lucarus’s move. I can now shape fire and condense it enough to form a solid shape. I am unable to make it into an extra set of arms, but I did learn to create a smoldering hot armor and a few other new skills. I can now make grenades without needing the daggers, and I can activate them any time I want instead of only on impact. I can also use it to extend a hand out from my own to grab objects, or extend it from my blade doubling or tripling the sword size at will. The length of time I can use my self-destructive skill has increased tenfold since Lucarus helped me learn better and less draining ways to implement my power.

At the end of the month each of us can destroy a rock golem individually with ease. Aarushi simply launches herself with super human speed into its stomach while unleashing a barrage of explosive punches until she digs straight through the beast. Lucarus gracefully dances around the beast as he leaks fire into the cracks. He snakes his flames through the weak point of the golem then crushes him from the inside out. I merely summon power through my sword and around it then with my special technique I speed past the golem while slicing him directly in half. The three of us grow ever stronger in our own ways.

The plan is two parts. The king and the second prince plan to have a party to have the second prince ascend to the thrown in his elder brother’s stead. The first is to sneak in to the party having Rhea and Aarushi dress as suitors for the second prince. Lucarus and I will be able to bring our weapons into the palace because we will be their body guards; a normal occurrence for nobility. Once the festivities pick up we can execute the second phase. We will sneak away from the party and release the prisoners and slaves. Since the king does not want them near his guests he keeps them all locked away during events such as this.

The day Aarushi and I go on our date I wake up early and bring her breakfast in bed. “Aarushi wake up I have a surprise.” I place a large plate of steaming bear meat with a side of Shiek eggs. The delicious smell that fills the room reminds me of ham and eggs.

She stretches her arms as she sits up from bed. “(yaaawwwn) Oh my that smells so good! Is it for me?”

I sit next to her and set it on my lap. I scoop up some of the eggs with a spoon and blow on it softly. “Here open your mouth I’m going to feed you.”

She opens her tiny mouth wide while saying “Aaaaahhhh”

I decide to tease her and make train noises as I put it in her mouth. “Chooo Chooo!”

With a full mouth she asks “what were those strange noises you made? It was like choo choo or something!”

“Oh yeah I forgot we don’t have trains here. It’s something parents do to their kids to make them eat their food.”

“Hey stop treating me like a kid! I thought we were going to have a date today.”

“But I love teasing you!” I then slide my hand onto her inner thigh while putting my mouth to her ear. I whisper “But if you would rather I can tease you in other ways.”

Her face turns bright red and she squirms around in place. “(gulp) hehe ugh yes yes teasing is nice, you can do it as much as you like.”

I take another spoon full and raise it in front of her. “Ok good! Now here comes the train! Choo Choo!”

She makes a sour face while pouting but gives in and accepts the food.

Later that day we walk around hand in hand around the town. “Aarushi If you see anything you like let me know so I can buy it for you. Do you have any clue of something you might want?”

Aarushi tilts her head and places a finger on her lips with a hmm. “Oh I want a dress! Rhea says dresses are girly and will make you see me in a new light! Also we kind of need one for tomorrow night’s event.”

“Alright let’s look around.”

We search around for almost two hours. Aarushi tries on many different dresses, all exemplifying her already astonishing figure and assets. In the end she finds a dress as she describes is perfect. For some reason it gives me a feeling of Deja vu. It is a beautiful white gown with silver Jewels embroiled around the neck and on the chest in a circular design. It is slim fitting and flows down to her ankles. Being strapless is shows of her slender yet firm shoulders. I can’t remember why the dress looks so familiar. Perhaps it resembles a wedding dress I saw once in my past life.

When night falls we find ourselves outside the large twin trees near the entrance. A group of people with make shift instruments play songs. Several other people dance and sing along. One couple dressed in light armor that I have seen at the arena before were particularly good. They were doing something similar to the tango. I grab Aarushi’s hand and drag her into the crowd with me. I don’t know why but the moves come naturally to me, Like I used to dance in a past life. Actually that is probably true now that I think about it. I wrap one hand around her waist and begin doing the tango myself. Guiding Aarushi with my hands she slowly learns as well. Her movements are awkward and forced in the beginning. At first she drags her feet and steps on me several times, but due to her excellent reflexes from hundreds of fights she quickly picks up on the moves. Eventually we look like experts dancing the night away.

The two of us get caught up in our own world as we dance for several songs. I hold her body tight feeling her sway from side to side, perfectly matching my movement. Blocking out the outside world we stare longingly into each other’s eyes. The music seems to go in one ear and out the other as the only thing I hear is my heart banging to the beat of happiness. I feel like a teenager again. Oh wait I am! Eventually we get tired and stop. Rejoining the real world we realize the crowd has been watching us in amazement. When we stop I give a slight bow while Aarushi simply tilts her head in confusion. The couple with armor on comes up to us.

The man asks “Will the two of you be going to the celebration tomorrow? It would be an honor to see you there. If you need I can prepare an invitation.”

I put my hand up and shake my head. “No thank you we already have our invitations.” After that Aarushi and I both scurry off back towards the inn.

When we reach the room I take my armor off, leaving nothing but my under shirt and pants. “So Aarushi is there any last things you wish to do today?”

She rubs her hands together behind her back while thrusting her chest upward. She avoids eye contact with me by looking toward the corner of the ceiling apposing me. Bouncing from her heals to her toes I can tell how nervous she feels. “I don’t know, is there anything you want to do?”

I see she wants to play it cool. She also might be afraid if she pushes to hard I’ll pull away again. Well tonight I plan to change that. “Well should I be blunt?”

“Yes”

Without saying another word I simply drop the remaining clothes I wear. She covers her mouth with a squeak. She whips her eyes away from the corner toward my direction. Her cheeks turn red as her eyes become wide. Reaching toward the strap holding her clothes together I stop to catch her when suddenly she drops to the ground. She lies in my arms with her eyes closed and a perverted smile across her mouth.

“Aarushi? What are you doing?” she does not respond. “Hey are you awake?” a shake her slightly and she lifts her head with a start.

“Wow! I just had the craziest yet best dream ever!”

“Oh and what was it?”

“Well you see” she looks over to me as she begins to talk. “Oh god did I faint! Wait does this mean it’s real?”

I give her a gentle smile as I kiss her lips. They taste sweeter than anything I have ever had.

…

Aarushi was hyper and girly all day after our little escapade. Several times she would drag Rhea away to tell her everything. I’m glad I made her happy.

Lucarus slaps me on the back and says “You seem real happy today.” He nudges me on the side “Did something happen last night?”

“Can you really tell that easily?”

“Both you and Aarushi have been frolicking around like crazy!”

I point a finger at myself “Me too?” He nods his head with a matter of fact face. I guess she made me very happy as well. “Well let’s just say we took it to the next level.”

“Holy shiek no way! It took you two long enough!” he slaps me on the back once more. “Rhea and I started doing that almost immediately after we started dating!”

In surprise I almost shout “You two already had sex?”

Covering my mouth Lucarus whispers “Sshhh. Don’t say it so loud!” I nod my head and make a zipping motion over my mouth while walking toward the two girls. They are beautifully dressed in preparation for tonight

Rhea gathers us together. “Alright everyone, tonight is very dangerous and we may not all escape without injury. It is vital we focus on the mission. This means you two love birds need to hold it together.” Rhea gives a stern look toward the two of us. Lucarus giggles at our prosecution. “Does everyone remember our plan?”

“””Yes!”””

The four of us head toward the palace gates. Today we will be changing history for every.