Mirror, Mirror {#Wattys2016}

Chapter 18- Expectations

The incident in Sector E had brought Cassandra to a realization: all the Sectors were constantly watching for a chance to turn her and Liam in to Queen Pandora. The task of breaking into a citizen's house was seeming very unlikely, seeing as they had only walked into the very edge of Sector E before a watchful man had caught them.

When they had broken into Sector A, the same thing had happened. They were found out and somebody must have alerted the Queen, making the citizens go on even higher alert.

Not a single house would be unoccupied now, every citizen on edge. Now that the pair had made two appearances so recently, it would be expected that they make another. The only question would be where.

I don't plan on letting them catch me in a Sector anytime soon. But at the same time, it's going to be hard avoiding them if we try to Portal.

Cassandra began going through a mental list of all the Sectors and figuring out which ones would be most obvious for them to go to. Sector C was out of the question because she had grown up there. Same went for Sector E and Liam's childhood. It would be harder to break into Sector A again with everybody on high alert after their previous excursion. Which left Sectors B and D.

"Liam, I think I've narrowed which Sector we should go to into two choices. Sectors B and D are probably the better choices, but I can't figure out the one that's best."

He looked thoughtful for a moment before responding. "Well, B is going to be filled with higher security, yet the people in Sector D are going to be more eager for the reward. They're probably both equally dangerous, we'll just have to take our chances."

Cassandra sighed. That was the conclusion she had been coming to, but it would have been nice for Liam to have a more definite answer. Leaving such a momentous thing to fate seemed kind of irresponsible, but there wasn't much else they could do.

Since Sector D was still the closest, they eventually decided on visiting there. As they were nearing closer however, they realized that there were still people riddling the bushes trying to catch a glimpse of them. Why do they never come out into the forest?

Wherever they went now and in the future, they would be expected. Visiting Sector D wouldn't change that, nor would visiting any of the other Sectors. Cassandra hadn't seen Queen Pandora for over a week now, but she knew that the Queen was doing everything in her power to change that, thanks to the shouts of the Sector E citizens.

No amount of careful planning would release them from the ever present eyes lurking behind the bushes, waiting for them to wander into the next Sector. Nothing could change the fact that Queen Pandora and every one of her guards had abandoned the palace in an attempt to track them down.

Queen Pandora and all of her guards gone from the palace... Leaving the palace deserted with nobody inside.

An idea came to Cassandra, slowly at first and then all at once. The only place they weren't expected to go was where the Queen herself resided. And if nobody was there, they couldn't get caught.

She thought back to the map that had always hung in the library. It had shown the Queen's palace in the middle of Echo and the Sectors spread evenly around it, except for the path between Sectors C and D leading towards the palace.

That mean all they had to do was sneak through the path until they reached Queen Pandora's palace. Cassandra found it amusing how in the Queen's desperate attempt to capture them, she had left them the answer to their prayers.

An overwhelming sense of joy rushed through her emotions. The new shot at leaving behind Echo exceeded all of her previous expectations. She had figured it would feel good of course, but nothing would have prepared her for how great it truly was.

Liam was walking a few paces ahead of her, so she quickly jogged to catch up. Tapping him on the shoulder, she said the words that made it all real, "I have a plan. We're going to be out of Echo by tomorrow evening."