Raise It to the Ground

[Ailith Rayner]

Laila spun her head round to glance dirtily at the stroppy boy that had just kicked the door in. On laying eyes on the guy, however she jumped to her feet and stood to attention automatically.
"Sah." Laila greeted him formally in her rough East-end accent. She looked back at Hoodham to recieve her dismissal. He nodded.
Awh for God's sake!, she thought. She had been on the verge of hearing the deliciously dirty details of her daughter's big mistake. Of course the death of Orla was devastating to the ranks but Laila's hatred for her daughter simply over-rided that. Laila was tempted to grin but she kept her face blank and left the room silently.

[Ailith Rayner]

Laila listened at the door and listened good. It became evident that Reuben had only just found out and also that he was extremely annoyed. Why? Maybe Orla owed him something? Or maybe-
"Orla didn't kill herself."
Aaaah. So Knight and Ryder eh? Huh. Well this was going to be awkward. Laila leaned in closer as the voices dropped to a malicious tone.
"Knight, we kept it from you for your own good. Your father thought it would be best. And we needed you at your best. There was no way you could have taken her place otherwise. We needed you strong."
OOOOH! Feel the rage Knight! Woo! Laila grinned at Hoodhams harsh tactics. How filthy was this! Laila listened hard again to hear, "we had Ryder under surveillance. She was skating on thin ice, we had to make sure her alliances weren't shifting. You know about her brother...we were just guarding our backs. Do you want to see it?"
This was what Laila had been waiting for. She'd never seen her daughter actually kill anyone before so Laila was excited. There was no way she could miss this. She opened the door a crack and peered through.
It was fantastic. Sure it was a little unfortunate that it was Orla Ryder and not any other expendable person but the whole episode was brilliant. Despite Laila's basic hatred for Ailith she couldn't help but feel some sort of what you might call pride. Orla was a formidable opponent but Ailith played her cards right. Had the stupid little tosspiece of a "head Warrior" not cocked everything up, the fight may have got just that little bit more epic.
But no.
However even with that little disappointment Orla's death was a pretty good way to go. And another thing. Ailith was going down. Laila was anticipating when Ailith left Orchid so that she was free to be messed about or became either no longer useful or too much of a risk. Which ever came first.
Laila shut the door before Reuben opened it again and strode through it like a man on a mission. Just the way she liked 'em.
She followed after him outside where he took a hot right and Laila heard the familiar sound of retching. Laila smiled. Ah, young love.
She rounded the corner and patted the sobbing boy on the back. "It's all right dahlin'. How do you fancy a good old fashioned revenge plan? Hmm?"