"Works for me." Emilena lowered her voice as they pulled into the parking lot. "When the time comes for your strike, let me know. I'm ready to put it all on the line to knock Rhaegson down a peg."
She walked into the hotel room with the food. "What have we learned?" she asked Axel, who was closest to the door.
"Haven't started yet," he said dully, continuing to stare disinterestedly out the window.
"What the hell have you all been doing this whole time?" she exclaimed in exasperation. Grabbing the smelling salts from the table, she wafted them under their captive's nose. "Come on. I know we have all night, but we're running on borrowed time here, until somebody realizes he's missing."
------------------------------------
Flora yawned and stared tiredly at her fried chicken and gravy. At first the all-you-can-eat special at the diner seemed like a no-brainer, but she hadn't even completed her first portion before her stomach was protesting the truckloads of grease and starch she was ingesting. The bottomless-refill strawberry lemonades likely weren't helping.
But then her stomach did a completely unrelated flipflop when Lily came sidling through the door, spotted her in the corner booth, and sat down in front of her. "Hey, um, excuse me?" Flora raised her voice, looking around urgently for a waitress. "Can someone eject this person? They're disrupting my eating experience!"
"Relax, I'm not Lily," the newcomer assured under her voice, and something about her demeanor convinced Flora. "I'm a friend of hers, and I'm worried about her, but I'm in far better control of myself."
Flora nodded nervously. "So, uh, what do you want then?"
The woman who wasn't Lily sighed. "Lily used to be such a loving woman. You'd have never had a more loyal and kindhearted person on your team. But she's possessed by something. And I need help to fix her."
"If it's money you want, I'm not interested," Flora pointed out quickly. She'd seen too many panhandlers to deal with one right now.
"Don't worry," her dinner partner assured. "I have all the resources already. If my plan works, I'll be taking Lily with me. Your reward will be never having to deal with her again..."