The next day Jake woke her up. She drifted out from a dream of a talking corpse sailing an exploding ship. She turned with a groan to see Jake avoiding eye contact with her.
"Hewet?" Cutlery asked very concisely.
"We need to start early," Jake said at the wall.
"Why?" Cutlery mumbled.
"They announced the ascension ball," Jake said as if she knew what that was.
Cutlery groaned as she got out of bed. Jake shuffled out of sight. She slept in her underwear these days. While she was pretty comfortable with little privacy, it was nice to see someone care.
After changing, she followed Jake to a small room labeled meeting. Jake told her to look around for anything magical or odd.
The room was short and featured a long table. Twelve chairs surrounded it. Maps, sticks, wooden figures, and more adorned the walls. Jake found and removed a small stone from behind a wooden rod on the wall. Then he punched at a corner in the ceiling, a squeak came from the air and something clattered against the wood tiles. An invisible creature cursed at them and scampered across the floor with clacking talons.
The door opened and slammed closed. Cutlery looked at the door, then back at Jake. He kept a straight face and sat down.
"We will poison the three total fourth slivers at the ball," Jake said. Straight to the point, huh? Cutlery wished he would explain what had just happened.
"How?" Cutlery asked. He tilted his head up and squinted his eyes.
"I don't know" He answered.
"So we are here to..." Cutlery said.
"Plan." He responded. "The others in the rebellion are going to use this chance to meet the golds and ask about-" Jake said and was cut off by Cutlery saying,
"What ball! I don't know what's happening. Explain all this to me!" She said a little loudly. Jake glanced at the door and then back at her.
He nodded. "Every time they make new fifth slivers they host a ball. It's considered the first important sliver. All first through fourth slivers are just their soldiers till then. The first half of the ball is just dancing, snacking, and talking. Then the candidates are taken away. They return as fifth slivers and then the real party starts. Alcohol, people from outside the tower, the fifths families they probably haven't seen in years, and lastly the tenth slivers show up." Jake said.
Ten slivers! Haze had nine right? Someone with more slivers than Haze! They would have to be royalty or something!
Jake let it sit for a minute and then continued. "The tenth slivers are rumored to be the original council of the Eternal One from when he was betrayed. Most have died, left, retired, or been finagled into Temple politics. Our goal doesn't have to do with them though. We are going to try and poison the new fifths with intent to kill."
Cutlery smiled. A real self-assigned quest. This one was for the good guys.
-
Jake quizzed Cutlery on the list of poisons. She expected a slaughter but did well. If the subject could be put on a blade, she studied harder. Especially when it was things like skin contact causes excessive bleeding from the anus within one hour.
On her first try, she got half the details right. With some help, she got all except six. Jake approved and told her to keep studying.
They moved on to planning the assassination. Jake explained everyone at the ball would have a job. Their job happened to be punishable by death.
Jake told her how during their work the other rebels would be socializing alongside the most powerful of the tower. This would keep their superhuman eyes occupied. Their goal was to gauge the upper crust's powers. Hopefully, they could figure out who among them had better intentions than Haze.
Cutlery felt empowered to help plan for once. Being an arrow was more her style thus far. The tower just pointed and shot her at certain issues. That was over now.
Deciding on her own how to do the work felt nerve-wracking. The obvious method they came up with was spiking the to-be fifth slivers drinks. Jake pointed out they could have everyone's drinks with strong spirits.
Cutlery suggested the most devious plan. She would wear heels. By poisoning the heels, she could pierce the feet of their targets. Nothing too brutal, just a needle-tip insertion. They came up with a mock blueprint for Tool to create. A set of heels that doubled as needles. Soreness from the injection would be blamed on any toe-stepping Cutlery did.
"The spiking of the drink is pretty standard at this point. They may investigate us after but they won't kill their precious slivers without hard evidence. Us being assassin slivers will excuse our ownership of poison. It's usually people like us that do the spiking anyways. They will use this incident as an excuse to bust in a few Zurkonian doors looking for heretics." Jake mused.
A second shoe was drawn up should anyone refuse Cutlery a dance. The extra shoe was to go to the ever-hot Gill. More people with weaponized footwear could help spread out suspicion as well.
They got the plans to Tool. They were elated by its unique design. A chance to enter the fashion industry also seemed to help. They worked with the others over the next few days to nail down the details.
Then the ball came.
-
Cutlery found a yellow dress hanging on her bedroom door. It was fairly simple. The skirt reached just below her knee. The top was a tank top with thin straps. She wore less clothing on missions. A fancy ball it would be then.
Inside the dress was a letter. It told her the ball would be during dinner as well as some schmancy words and shapes. It came with a flowery invitation to present at the door. Exciting. She had almost forgotten the ball was an actual ball. She thought it was just a murder party at this point.
Light training kept Cutlery's mind off the impending quest. Should she flee the tower, any soreness wouldn't help. Now that she thought about it, she didn't take any days off. Perhaps for her sanity, she should lounge. The sliver made it easy to never stop and think.
Cutlery got her poison high heels. She had never used high heels before. Her's were tall from what she could tell. It was nice to gain a few inches. It was like always walking on a tightrope, easy. The mechanism needed to be tested though.
After some clicking of her heels and pushing it worked. The needle would retract if it met something truly hard like the floor so she didn't need to worry about snapping it. After a dozen tries she could get it out and in with one motion.
The dress fit well. It didn't quite match the high heels, which Tool had made red. Both were grandiloquent enough. She thought about makeup for the first time ever. The mirror informed her of its existence. She was attractive. More in a cute way than a smoking hot way. A hint of intimidation came with that cuteness due to her toned body but she was just too small to upgrade to that level.
Makeup was nowhere to be found. Luckily nearly everyone with slivers was some kind of attractive. Ugly demi gods would surely be heresy to the Temple, Cutlery thought with amusement.
Dinner loomed by the time she started to contemplate shaving her legs with a dagger. A warriors ball wouldn't care.
She made her way to the ballroom. On the way, she ran into others. By the time they reached the door, everyone was assembled into a large crowd. The boys wore puffy silk coats and white napkin things stuck out of their collars. Some of the warriors strained their coats with bulking muscles.
Everyone had clothes that appeared tailored. No buttons went flying from bust or bulk. After a short wait, the dinner bell rang. This time no food came out. The ballroom doors opened to reveal a decorated space. A dancing floor spread near the window. Gentle tunes with a distinct rhythm entered their ears.
Inside they walked. The floor clacked with the fancy footwear of the fourth slivers. No fifth slivers or golds had deigned to be on time it appeared. A giddy wave of excitement passed over the fourth slivers. Their mission became an after thought.
