“What, why?!” Sarah exclaimed, surprising herself even with how reflexively she said that with how little she has spoke in the last couple days.

Sarah’s mother gazed into her eyes, her face full of reluctance and sadness. “Honey, where did you get that necklace you wore when you came home three days ago?” She asked with seriousness in her voice.

“What necklace?” Sarah asked, eyes swimming in confusion. ‘Did I even have any jewelry in my room?’ She thought to herself, trying to recall back. Her desk certainly didn’t have any in it. Maybe, hidden among her many dresses in her closet, there might have been one hidden in the clothes somehow? She certainly didn’t recall seeing any, which is rather strange for a duke’s daughter. ‘Or perhaps not? I don’t know how rare or expensive jewelry is here, after all.’

Her mother's eyes widened at her response. “Honey, like I said, it was the one you brought home from the tea party you went to three days ago. Who gave it to you?”

‘Tea party?’ Sarah thought to herself. ‘How very typical an event for a noble’s daughter.’ Sarah hesitantly spoke, “I can’t quite recall. I’d have to ask one of the...” ‘Many? Few?’ “… Ladies that attended. I’m sure one of them might recall.” Sarah spoke, realizing she didn’t need to know or describe whether the party was big or small.

Her mother let out a deep sight, and Sarah felt like her eyes looked angry. “I’ll have to deal with this later.” Sarah barely managed to hear her mother mumble under her breath, before she turned and spoke to Sarah. “Honey, the doctor believes you were affected by a cursed item, and there are marks around your neck the doctor believes where the skin is slightly discolored from the curse seeping into you.” Tears started to form in her mothers eyes, as Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise. “Also, your – ” Her mother let out an uncontrollable sob. “ – your mana veins have been badly damaged. You might not even have enough mana to operate your status, and with how mangled your mana veins are, the doctor suspects… suspects...” Her mother started sobbing now, unable to finish her sentence.

Sarah’s mouth hung open slightly now as she realized just how important the information she was gleaning from this conversation was. “Suspects what?” She asked softly, and she stepped forward and started to softly stroke her mothers back with small circles with one hand as she grabbed one of her mother’s hands with her other.

“Oh, honey.” Her mother sobbed, looking deeply into her eyes. “He has reason to believe that not only would you not have the mana required to use your class skills, but you may have lost your class network entirely, what with how badly damaged the veins are.” Her mother then pulled her into an embrace as she sobbed further. “Oh, sweetie. I know how much that class meant to you. You’ve been working towards the class requirements of becoming a princess since you were a little girl, and now you may have lost all of it.” She choked out. Calming down slightly, her mother then held Sarah slightly in front of her. “You will jump out from this window, and I will have my wind magic take you out of the duchy walls. You must go and find your Aunt Esmerelda. If anyone in this kingdom could repair damaged mana veins, it would be her. You must not be caught by your father or the prince’s men on your way. If they find out you have lost the requirements to become the princess, the consequences could be dire.”

Sarah gulped nervously, even as her head swam with all the new information she was desperate to remember. “How dire?”

“Oh, honey. You do realize what would happen if your father rushes your marriage with the prince without you having met the [princess] requirements, don’t you? I did not raise my daughter to end up with such an… Unflattering class. Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise me if the whole marriage would even be called off, and you being rushed into a marriage with a lower nobility could lead to even more inferior classes. You might be able to claw your way back up in either case, but the difficulty in doing so would be immense.”

Sarah bit her lips a bit, and hesitatingly spoke up. “And Aunt… Esmerelda can help me?”

“Yes, sweetie. If you just go to your Aunt, she should be able to repair your mana veins. With luck, your class tree isn’t as damaged as we fear and that will be enough to regain the [princess] class requirements and you can return home immediately. If not… Oh, dear. I should write a letter to send with you. If your class tree remains damaged, you’ll have to go into hiding temporarily and work to regain requirements as quickly as possible. I doubt you’ll be able to hide for longer than a year, even with Esmerelda’s help, but you should be able to regain at least some of the requirements by then.” Her mother said, pacing over to her desk to begin writing as she spoke.

Sarah didn’t like the sound of this one bit, but this also proved to be the most promising way to escape her situation yet. She didn’t like the sound of leaving her mana veins mangled, however. Especially considering her mother implied mana was important for operating the status window. Hopefully her mother was right and her “class tree” was damaged, or she would quickly find herself being married off to the prince again. A year of learning to hide from Aunt Esmerelda could be sufficient enough a time to find a way to disappear for good.

“If you can at least ensure the work your father would have to put in to finish the [princess] requirements is small enough, that should be enough to further delay the wedding as we fulfill them. As desperate as he is to secure the relationship with the crown and advance to [Grand Duke], having a [princess] for a daughter is far more valuable to him than a prince’s [mistress] or [concubine].” Her mother continued, her pen practically flying across the page as she finished a letter quickly, sealed it in an envelope, and stamped the envelope shut with a seal of wax. “Here, honey. Take this letter and keep it safe to give to Aunt Esmerelda. We need to move quickly now, before someone comes in and checks on us. It will make our alibi’s stronger.”

‘Alibis?’ Sarah thought to herself as she took the letter, only to widen her eyes in surprise as he mother pulled out a small dagger. She felt her heart jerk in surprise as she watched her mother cut her own arm.

“The stage is set, now, sweetie. Please jump out the window. I will then close and break it. That should be sufficient to declare you were kidnapped. If you are found out in Esmerelda’s care, remember to just tell them that your Aunt saved you from the bandits which stole you away. Now, quickly! Jump!” Her mother continued, seemingly unfazed by her self-inflicted wound.

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Sarah found herself momentarily unwilling, which surprised herself. ‘Why do I care about Sarah’s mother so much? I don’t have feelings for being a princess as the original Sarah did, so why are Sarah’s original familial love different for me? Is familial love ingrained in the body, somehow? Much how I can wear and move around in these uncomfortable dresses and shoes the original Sarah wore from muscle memory, is loving her family somehow ingrained in the very fiber of this body’s being, somewhere?’ Sarah forced herself to started walking towards the window. ‘That bodes poorly towards my goal to escape. If my love for this body’s family becomes too strong, I doubt I could bring myself to abandon them entirely. I’ve barely known my mother for a day, and already I find leaving while she is hurt disturbing.’

Sarah let out a long sigh as she raised a foot up on the window sill as she began to climb up into the window. ‘If I can’t bring myself to escape fully, I will need work towards other plans. Either I would need to marry someone before I am caught, removing the risk of being forced into a marriage with this prince I know nothing about, or I could somehow gain more authority than the duke, somehow. Then, I could make marriage decisions for myself. Though either one of these plans probably could backfire in some way, especially with how little I know about this world.’

“Jump!” Her mother commanded then, noticing how Sarah was lingering in the window.

Sarah bit her lip in frustration, but nodded to her mother and leaped forward, even as her mind started regretting it. ‘Oh gosh, we are so high up!’ Sarah might not have a fear of heights, but this was terrifying, even as she felt a wind pick her up. She may logically have realized she was probably safe under her mother’s control, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. Sarah shut her eyes as she picked up speed, traveling far faster than she felt comfortable while essentially free falling. Her mother was certainly right in that she would easily clear the wall surrounding the estate and then some.

As Sarah felt her speed start to slow down, she opened her eyes and looked towards where she was going to land. It was at this moment that she remembered one important detail she didn’t discuss with her mother. Not that her mother could be blamed. ‘What does Aunt Esmerelda look like, where does she live, and how am I supposed to get there?’ Sarah thought to herself. ‘Mother’s plan might as well be dead on arrival.’ Sarah chuckled a bit as her feet began to reach the ground, and she jogged to try and help break her forward momentum. ‘I guess I’ll pick a direction and run for now. I’ll need to get further away if I want to keep father’s men from finding me right away, assuming mother alerts them quickly.’

Sarah jogged forward, keeping an ear out for sounds of water. While she may not be certain that hounds or the equivalent exist in this world, it seemed a likely enough possibility that throwing off her scent as she fled would be a good idea. ‘What if the hounds of this world are just as gigantic as that spider was?’ She thought to herself with a morbid chuckle, only to have her eyes widen and almost to trip on a nearby root as she continued forward. ‘Oh, no. No, no no. Could there be spiders in these woods?’ Her eyes darted around frantically. ‘Well, I don’t see any webs?’ She thought to herself meekly. ‘I really shouldn’t let myself think so much.’ She thought to herself with a grumble. ‘Was that a spider?! Oh, no, it was just a shadow from the branches of that tree. Stupid tree.’

Sarah ran until she was out of breath, which happened far to quickly for her liking, before she slowed to a walk, her lungs burning as she went forward. ‘Well, I certainly am not feeling any lingering feelings of wanting to go back right away, at least.’ She thought to herself, turning her thoughts towards her ideas of escaping semi-permanently. ‘I don’t think I’ll have any serious scruples about remaining in hiding, after all. Not unless my mother was in danger. I think I like her enough to at least care that much, but no further as of yet.’

“I do hope I don’t have hounds chasing after me.” Sarah murmured as she went, finding no indication of water as of yet. ‘With how out of shape I am, I don’t know if I’d find water before a hound would be able to find me. Although, considering my mother had wind magic, I suppose magical tracking would be the bigger concern. What would even stop magical tracking? Magical anti-tracking? Perhaps, with my mana veins damaged, I don’t have enough mana to be tracked by magical means? I did have at least some mana, I imagine, or I couldn’t have exhausted it in the first place, so I suppose I shouldn’t count on being immune even if mana is the only thing magic could use to track me.’

As Sarah thought about it more, and forced herself into a pathetic jog she wasn’t even convinced was faster than her walking speed, Sarah guessed she might be safer than she was expecting. ‘Surely mother wouldn’t expect me to escape to Aunt Esmerelda’s if it was so easy to track me. Unless Aunt Esmerelda’s was surprisingly close to home, in which case I’m in serious trouble since I’m far more likely to be going the wrong way and be caught.’ Sarah frowned deeply. ‘Actually, that sounds quite likely. I have a head start, so maybe she figured I’d make it safely there, and she did say that with Aunt Esmerelda’s help I’d be able to hide for up to a year. She must have a way to evade the lighter tracking attempts, but some better tracking mumbo-jumbo must be available with a years worth of prep time. That, or a better tracker who is gone and only is expected to return to the kingdom in that time.’

Sarah stewed on this idea for a while before shaking her head and steeling her attention on moving her feet forward instead. She would have plenty of time to overthink things after she put more distance between herself and home and found a place to hide for the night.

Sarah proceeded onward, jogging intermittently for some of the journey, but mostly returning to a walking speed instead due to her protesting lungs and leg muscles. Just as the sun was getting dangerously close to setting fully and she was planning to find someplace to sleep, she finally heard the sound of moving water. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only sounds she heard. She was fairly certain she was hearing the sound of horses approaching. Mumbling a small curse under her breath, she pushed her overtaxed lungs and legs forwards, and sprinted towards the water.

‘I am not getting caught this quickly.’ She thought to herself in anger, and broke through the underbrush into a small clear area around a stream, with a waterfall visible just to her right further upstream. Along the shore she also saw reeds growing, and various rocks jutted out in the stream. With the thundering sound of horses becoming louder, Sarah jumped into the water and swam up towards the waterfall against the push of the stream. Finally, she took a deep breath and dived down, intending to surface on the other side of the waterfall and hope there was a pocket of air there. Instead, she noticed a hole in the wall below the waterfall, still barely visible from the little sunlight peeking into the depths of the water.

She briefly struggled in her head mentally between the fear of getting caught and dragged back to Sarah’s home and the possibility of drowning while attempting to find her way into the hole, and then decisively swam towards the underwater cave, praying desperately that there was breathable air found deeper inside and that it wouldn’t just reach a dead end abruptly.

She pushed her overtaxed muscles onward, her lungs screaming at her their desire to breath, but she kept swimming. Finally, she managed to surface in complete darkness as she gasped a desperate breath full of air. Just as she was about to choke out a sigh of relief, she felt something slimy grip onto her arm and start tugging her further ashore and drag her deeper into the cave, her other arm and her legs failing to find anything to grip and hold herself back. Sarah let out a small sob and flailed her arm and legs about even more, but even then she failed to find anything to latch onto in the impenetrable dark environment.

Suddenly, something pierced her skin on the hand from which she was being dragged, and Sarah felt her thoughts slow down as sleep took her.