For one crystal-clear moment, Lily stood at the manhole, her red hair blowing in the wind like a flag. She ushered Emma and the child down in front of her, screams and the crackling of fire ricocheting in her ears, before looking up. The city was aflame. She could see some of the wall from here, blackened tree demons still swarming over the sides, the few guards still left completely overrun. Gouts of fire shot from the hands of more pot-bellied robots, setting both demons and buildings alight indiscriminately, the smell of charcoal thick on the air. A sudden stab of guilty horror was only the third thing that occurred to her, though; the second was [i]Meryn, have to find Meryn[/i]; the first was only [i]Rose, Rose, [b]Rose[/b][/i]—her sister's name on repeat.

For a brief second, Lily considered shutting the manhole behind Emma and running off to find her sister, despite the chaos consuming the city—but then the boy looked up at her, a tree demon shrieked as it died somewhere down the street, and the next thing she knew her boots were splashing into the sewer filth.

[color=DDA0DD]“They might not come down here,”[/color] she gasped out, trying to catch her breath. She glanced down, wrinkling her nose but otherwise not protesting as she stepped forward to try and get a better view down the sewer tunnel. [color=DDA0DD]“We need to—we need to head downwards, see where the sewers empty out, it might get us out of the city—”[/color]

After a moment, she squared her shoulders and turned to the left, towards what looked like a flicker of sunlight, and started marching. Despite the disgusted look on her face, her pace slogging through the muck didn’t slow. She continued forward even as she turned to Emma.  [color=DDA0DD]”Meryn’s still up there. We have to find her, but—you know her best, where would she be? If she got lost?”[/color]