"What do you think, Victoria?"

Victoria looked up from her rice, surprised to hear her name at all. "About what?"

Shaina rolled her eyes in mock irritation. "The Kislev girl! Didn't she look remarkably like Elanore here?"

She glanced at Elanore -- the girl was picking at her rice without an appetite, while the two Lambs she called friends were trying to coax her into talking -- and shrugged. "I suppose so. I don't see why it matters - it's a simple coincidence."

"You're no fun, Victoria......" her friend said dryly, kicking her under the table.

"One of us has to think of a way to get out of here." Victoria gave up on the rice and shoved it away half-eaten, wishing she had been given more bread with her daily rations. These people couldn't have cooked a decent meal had their lives depended on it! It was hard to remember she had ever been a Lamb, when compared to these Aveh fools.

"Why not just...... leave?" Xeilia muttered beside her. "They won't stop us if they think we're unarmed. Our gears certainly won't be in trouble -- we can rough it a few days, until the Commander brings reinforcements."

"You call that sound strategic thinking?"

Victoria shushed both of them with a gesture. "Sound strategic thinking isn't going to get us out of this, you know, or Aveh would have won." She took a sip of water -- which was, thankfully, drinkable. "They have numbers on their side, simply put. Anything we do will be detected, so we're just going to have to figure out how to hide ourselves as well as possible and get out of here."

She sighed, tuning out whatever responses they gave to her statement. She wasn't in charge during this little excursion, but she would be the one blamed if they screwed up...... Sometimes she wondered why she had remained an Element, after her promotion. It was nothing but trouble, and she didn't particularly like any of the girls but Shaina.

Elanore would replace her, if she gave up her position in the group. A few simple forms to fill out, and she would never have to take orders from Xeilia again......

But...... she raised her eyes again, resting them on Shaina. **Could I leave my best friend?** Pulling a few strings would get her a promotion as well...... but would she appreciate it? She had an obsession with getting things done on her own - quite literally. She had broken rules and ignored orders on more than one occasion just to achieve some goal without the help of her comrades.

She may act like an irresponsible child, but when it came to getting her job done...... no one could be more focused.

"At least we have privacy......" Shaina's voice came through again, beaking into her thoughts. "They really haven't realized who we are yet."

"All the better," Xeilia responded. "It'll be easier for us to outsmart them if they're underestimating us."

"If you're so confident in that...... why not try the direct approach?" Victoria propped her elbow on the table, resting the side of her head in her hand, so she could look at them directly. "We have our gears. Kislev won't have any warning......"

"You want to attack?!" Shaina asked incredulously, dark eyes widening. "Have you gone -completely- crazy? I know you miss Mor--"

Victoria reached over and clapped her hand over Shaina's mouth before she could utter the name. Shaina grinned behind her hand -- or so she thought -- and Victoria glared at her. "Of -course- not! I was thinking more along the lines of a little vacation in the desert."

She paused, hoping her friend was right about their privacy. Talk of escape would give them away for sure, if nothing else did. They had been lucky, that first day; mere minutes after they had entered the servant quarters and changed from uniform to civilian clothing, Kislev soldiers had popped up out of nowhere and herded them to a checkpoint.

She -hated- being herded. If she ever managed to run into those impertinenet 'soldiers' again......

"Like I said......" she continued, releasing her friend when she was sure nothing more about Mordon was forthcoming. "We have our gears safely hidden...... strictly speaking, we are free to leave any time we want."

"Under the right circumstances of course," Xeilia muttered, giving her a sharp look. "You know they have patrols at three intervals around the city, don't you?"

"Why worry about them?" Shaina scoffed. "Do you really think they'll be a problem?"

"They will be if we want to leave quietly."

Victoria shrugged. "We'll figure something out. We can always use one of the Lambs as a distraction." She jerked her head toward Elly's friends, and shrugged. Shaina raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond.

**So this is it?** Victoria scowled down at her half-eaten bowl of rice. **This is what we're here for? To bail out a couple of Lambs and an amnesiac?**

What -was- wrong with Liuna, anyway? She seemed normal enough, most of the time...... **She's had a few memory lapses, but nothing important. Nothing her family wouldn't be able to take care of, anyway......** Of course, the Lambs might be bothersome -- they wouldn't leave her side at all, even at night.

**-What- possessed Ariath to send her down -here- for her recovery?!**

"Well......"

The strained tone in Shaina's voice brought Victoria out of her brooding thoughts yet again. "What is it?"

"We've got our orders......." Her friend held up a hand-sized communicator, banded blue for the department of Intelligence. "Looks like we don't have a choice about escape. Mordon wants Elly, and he wants her -now-."

"Oh really? And how does he expect......."

"Doesn't matter." Shaina pocketed the device. "Guess we'll be using your plan after all, eh Victoria?"

Victoria snorted, going back to staring at the rice bowl. **So he wants Elly? Why not come and get her himself?** It was all too trite to be believed.

**-Please- tell me there was an intelligence leak......**

(Summary: The Elements discuss their plans for escape from Bledavik, and Shaina receives orders from Mordon.)