The Princess coughed after the moment of stunned silence. "Should we try and sneak by? Or perhaps we can look for another entrance?"
"At this point I think we'd be more suited to the city streets."
"If trouble starts here, it's at least remote. I believe I can get us in. I can make myself look official and say that you all are "intrusion experts" to examine the security. With a little mentalism I can enhance this. Even those that resist often don't know anything was tried."
"A thought just came to me while I pondered a way though. Ellara, can you take the princess' guise? Security might be a little more lax everywhere, if they've spotted the 'princess' at some remote location. And you're the most escape-capable of all of us to lead them on a merry chase."
"That's true." Ellara noted without shame. ...And in fairness, it was. It was a point of pride for her... but she was also a little hesitant to leave the princess all alone. "Would you like me to do that, Your Highness?"
"Yes," she said, but with a note of hesitation to her voice. After a moment, she asked, "Are you going to distract the Guards from the facility so we can get in with Kiyomi's help, or draw more guards to this place so we can try another route?"
Lady Karnelia listens quietly as the plans are formed; whether she has nothing to add or is hesitant to speak up is hard to tell.
"From the facility." she said with a grin. A moment later, her body blurred, and a rather frighteningly close copy of the princess stood there. It wasn't perfect - oddly, Ellara's shifting couldn't easily duplicate a specific person - but she had enough traits in common to likely fool distant observers. She vanished a moment later, warping away and heading out to go draw some attention while the rest of the group proceeded.
A second presence made itself known to Ellara as she prepared to move forth. Little Sister peeked out from nearby, shifting back into ethereal form. "Big Sister asked me to come with you." She ducked out of sight into a nearby alley, watching for any signs of trouble.
Thankfully, the guards were observant enough to spot the 'Princess' but not observant enough to notice any issues or inconsistencies. They weren't especially disciplined or well-trained...there was a reason they were guarding a facility meant to process waste into fertilizer...and soon swarmed out in the direction that your decoy had gone. Little Sister followed, keeping an eye on the shapeshifter.
Ellara continued to move at a rapid pace - helped along by an improved land speed, courtesy of one of her types of transformations. She made sure to stick to a pace others could follow at, though, since it wouldn't do to make them believe they couldn't catch her if they kept at it. The longer she could distract them, the better off her group would be.
"Mmm... Excellent, I hope Ellara will never run out of tricks, let's go."
With the guards continually distracted and led away, it was a reasonably simple task for the rest to enter the facility's grounds. Three entrances presented themselves - the main entrance, a smaller staff entrance, and entering through the, for lack of a better description, water.
Ellara... continued leading the guards away, although she did take care to look like she was getting out of breath. Nobody gave up a chase when they felt they were close to victory, after all... and she wanted to buy the rest of the group as much time as possible.
"You said you new of secret ways? Well.. I suppose now is the time for them." Julie offers to the bodyguards.