The Elementals | Book 1. The Cliffs of Immensi

Chapter 14

"So we're setting a trap?" Omar asked.

"Yup," Cascade replied. "We're the bait, and Sephtis thinks that he's got us all in one shot. But Concord sneaks up from behind him and takes him by surprise."
"But I thought you said all of us need to attack him for him to die," Omar said.

"Yes, we do. But all Concord needs to do is trap him. Then we can all work together to defeat him."

"I don't know. It all looks too simple and easy," Andrea said suspiciously.

"Simple plans are less likely to go wrong."

Andrea shrugged. "If you say so. But I still don't like it. We've just met this guy, Concord, and now we're trusting our lives to him?"

"I'm sure he's trustworthy."

"How can you be so sure?"

Concord looked uncomfortable. "Everyone will be at risk if we don't deal with Sephtis."

Andrea glared at Concord and crossed her arms.
Cascade threw her hands up in the air. "Can we just focus on the plan?!"

Andrea was shocked at Cascade's sudden outburst. Cascade had always seemed so calm and composed from her point of view, to the point of driving Andrea crazy. The fact that it had only taken a few sentences to get Cascade to start shouting showed a lot about her mood in the moment, and what parts of her personality she had been hiding from Andrea, and from others.

Cascade was definitely stressed out and frustrated about the situation. And when Andrea really thought about it, she realized Cascade had every right to be. It was a stressful situation by itself, planning something that put their lives in danger. Andrea's pushback, trying to make Cascade recreate her well-laid plan, would probably be incredibly frustrating to Cascade.

"Sorry." Andrea shuffled her feet sheepishly, looking at Cascade and Concord.

"It's all right." Cascade seemed surprised. Andrea seemed to suddenly have this bubble of respect for her that had never existed before. I never expected that to happen.

"I think the plan's good," Omar said. "I trust Concord well enough. There's no reason for him to betray us. I'm pretty sure he's trustworthy."

"I think it's a good plan. Only thing is, Sephtis will know I'm here afterwards." Concord seemed tense as his hands clutched a stone that he had picked from the ground.

Cascade nodded. "That's fine. Because, probably, by that time, we'll have him defeated. At least, if the plan goes the way it's supposed to."

Omar crunched down on a nut that he had found. "This is a good nut."

Andrea frowned. "What? The plan is a good nut? I've never heard anybody call a plan a nut before."

"No, no, I mean the nut. Not the plan. The nut. From the vine that I found growing on one of those pillars over there." Omar pointed towards where he thought he had found it.

"Um... there's no pillar over there," Andrea said.

"Oh. There isn't? Well, I only had a one in seven chance of pointing in the right direction anyway. But there is a pillar over there somewhere. In fact, I believe there's multiple."

Andrea sighed. "We're getting off topic. Have you all memorized the plan?"

"Well..."

"It was a rhetorical question," Andrea quickly said, an exasperated frown on her face. Then she sighed again. "But if you don't have the plan memorized, you each have a sheet of paper that has the plan written on it."