The City of Two Halves

✽Chapter 8✽

It was a surprise to Cerena when Dorian and Grace returned with Ashton and even more of a surprise to learn that he had cleaned her apartment and waited all night for her to come home. As soon as she was given her laptop, she was reading, replying and searching her emails to find something, that something being a window of opportunity to get the amulet back. 

Grace told Ashton what was happening and asked him if he wanted in, he graciously accepted to Dorian's dismay. Grace excused herself to look for the meaning of begonia in her notes and after a few too many moments of silence Dorian went to grab something from his room, Ashton sat next to Cerena on the couch. "Are they actually dating?" He says, 

"What? Where'd you get that stupid idea?" 

 "But he said-"

"Ah, Dorian's very protective of Grace and if you're smart you'll remember that," 

"I don't think he likes me,"

"He most definitely doesn't and I know they just left but would you get them, I think we have an opening." 

Ashton gets up to look for them and Cerena re-reads the email about the gala and opens a new tab hoping to find a floor plan of Crawdad Towers.

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"So there's a masquerade gala at Crawdad Towers?" Grace repeats,

"Yep, most of the guards will be at the event, leaving the amulet fairly unguarded," Cerena replies,

"So we break into the Towers during the event and get the amulet back?"  

"Not that simple, if Crawdad catches wind of the break-in, he'll send the guards over,"

"Then we need someone at the gala itself,"

"Yep, you and Dorian, Ashton will be with me." Cerena goes into more detail about how everything should go and what to do if something goes wrong until they hit a roadblock,

"We won't be on the list," Dorian says, 

"Oh, right, you'll need an invitation," Cerena pauses to think and Ashton pipes up, 

"I know a friend of Crawdads', I'm sure she has an invitation and I would love to get her back for badmouthing Jimmy Chew,"

"The guinea pig? You're joking," Cerena exclaims,

"She insulted his weight, it's fat shaming."

A name and address are exchanged as well as instructions on how to push her buttons for leverage. The plan has been decided.

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The week leading up to the gala was a busy one.

Grace had managed to negotiate a suit and dress hire for under $100 and was feeling very proud of herself, remaining blatantly unaware of the glare Dorian was giving the cashier throughout their conversation.

Ashton and Cerena had learnt the layout of Crawdad Towers off by heart, it was a strange building, 4 main towers were arranged to look like a cross but had a hole in the middle, invisible from the outside. They theorized as to what the hole contained, a steep drop, a square of greenery and maybe even an entry to the underworld.

Grace kept her dream to herself but it stayed on her mind until the day of the gala as she stockpiled potions. Now all they needed was an invitation. 

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