I stood beside the body of my sister, racking my brain to try to make sense of what I was seeing. The scar was missing from Faria’s hand. What did this mean? It was plain to see that she wanted me to see that the mark was gone from the note she had left in the storage ring. As I stood there, pondering, the sound of footsteps echoed easily through the silent room. The grand hall was dark and enormous, so it was nearly impossible to find out where the footsteps were coming from. Quickly, I moved Faria’s arm back to where it had been before and crept away from the palanquin.

“You called for me, Your Highness?” A voice I didn’t recognize sounded from the darkness. He sounded scared.

From the shadows, I could see two figures approach the palanquin. One was dressed in dark clothes that made it hard to discern the shape of his body, while the other I recognized immediately. It was my father, the king. He was still dressed in his brightly colored robes that made him stand out in the little light that came in through the draped windows.

“Can you explain why my eldest daughter is currently lying here, dead as her mother?” The king spoke, his voice neutral and quiet.

“I-I cannot. I’m sorry, Your Highness.” The man stuttered. “I will have her watcher punished severely.”

“That is not what I am worried about.” The king growled. “Without her, my plans are thrown to chaos.”

“I’m sure we can find another-”

“I have been planning this for more than a decade. The people are growing weary of the war and have begun to question my rule. I can still accuse Farrol of having a hand in this, though the rebels will still be a thorn in my side.”

“I assure you, Your Highness. The rebellion is being dealt with as we speak. No-”

“How can I trust you to deal with the leaders of a rebellion led by some of the most well-known nobles in the country if you can’t even watch over a single child.”

“I-”

“We will speak of this no longer. I must make preparations to reveal this to the public.” The king spoke, brushing off his subordinate. “This will most definitely create an uproar among the commonfolk. More soldiers to fuel the struggle.”

I watched as my father strolled aside the palanquin, looking down at his daughter. I realized that I had been holding my breath ever since they started speaking and slowly breathed once again.

“Hold. Her arms are placed differently.” My father spoke again, causing me to suck in sharply. “Someone has been in this room. They may still be here. Guards!”

My fathers cries caused the entrance to the room to slam open as more than a dozen armed soldiers charged in.

“An intruder has entered this room and has laid their hands on my daughter! Find them immediately!”

The guards rushed to both sides of the room and opened the drapes covering the window. The light was blinding, though I still had the invisibility ring activated, so I was safe for the time being.

With the guards rampaging through the room, searching everywhere, I had little room to move without the possibility of colliding with someone. I found a decent spot to hide beside the palanquin, opposite from my father. I peeked around to try and see who he had been speaking with, but whoever had been there was gone.

The guards did a very thorough job searching through the room, though they didn’t find any intruder, so my father commanded them to keep searching elsewhere. I continued to stay absolutely still as the guards closed the drapes and filed out the door, closing it behind them.

Alone again, my father strode over to Faria’s side once again and gazed down at her face.

“Poor child, you died far too soon. I still had many things planned for you.”

I stood slowly and peered over the edge of the palanquin and watched my father stare down at Faria, inching his face close to hers.

“You look so much like your mother. Especially now.” He spoke with an ugly grin as his eyes widened with rage.

Suddenly, my father’s head snapped to the side as we met eyes. I froze in fear, like a mouse in front of a cat. Slowly, my father tilted his head to the side, maintaining eye contact. Then, he stood tall and started towards the exit like nothing had happened.

Then, in a moment, my father snapped around and darted forward as a yellow aura flowed through his body. He leapt towards where I had been standing just a moment ago and swiped at the air with his hands. The aura around his body had condensed around his hands, extending past his hands in long, dagger-like claws.

“It seems like I’ve found our little intruder.” He growled with pleasure.

I had managed to dodge his attack by mere chance as I slipped and fell to the ground. He was crouched directly above me, a horrible grin spread out across his face. Despite seeming to know exactly where I was before, he darted his head back and forth, searching the room while I was curled up just below him.

“Do you enjoy making a fool of me? Ruining my plans?” He growled as he darted towards one side of the room. “I’ll enjoy tearing your body apart as your friends and family watch.”

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Seeing this part of my father made me doubt if I really was his child. If I didn’t look so much like him, I wouldn’t believe it. My vision started to blur, and it became hard to focus.

“Are you cowering? Are you afraid? I felt it for only a moment, but a moment is all I needed. Lettting your source falter and revealing yourself to me like an amateur. Now you’ll never get out of this room alive.”

Trying to regain control of my mind as fear started to take over, I realized that I had watched my father leave this room through the only entrance and then reappear without using that door. There must have been a secret path out of the room.

My father had unknowingly told me the way to hide from him. The source was the gate through which every person was able to use mana. Strong emotions affect the source in many ways. The shock and fear of seeing my father’s true self must have allowed some of my aura to seep through and reveal my presence to him. I just need to stay calm and find that secret path.

I slowly breathed in and closed my eyes, listening closely for my father’s heavy footsteps. Knowing that staying calm kept my presence from him made it slightly easier to stay calm, though the fact that I was still locked in a room with my insanely murderous father didn’t help my mental state.

Eventually, through my extensive searching, I found a hidden pathway behind one of the large tapestries hanging on the walls was a stone tunnel. Silently, I slid behind the cloth and into the tunnel, making sure to be as quiet as possible as I passed through. The other end of the passage opened to my father’s study. I tried the door, but it was locked. The only other exit was through an open window.

“I hope you didn’t come this way. That would be a foolish decision.” My father’s voice echoed through the tunnel.

Without a second thought, I dropped myself out of the window, barely hanging onto the frame. I could either descend into the courtyard below or climb up into Faria’s bedroom. I weighed the two options for a moment and decided on the latter, pulling myself to the side and using all the strength I had left to pull myself upwards.

Just as I began to climb, my father leaned out the window, growling like a beast. Frustrated, he slammed his clawed hand down on the windowsill, cracking the stone around it. A torrent of curses began flowing out from my father’s mouth as he leaned back into his study.

It took every ounce of strength I had to pull myself up to Faria’s balcony. As soon as I made it over the edge, I dropped down onto my back and breathed in deeply. Every muscle in my body was beyond tense and even more sore. I had somehow made it to safety.

I laid there until the numbness had faded from my arms and sat back up. I needed to make sure that my father never knew that it was me there, and to do that, I need to get back to my room. I walked over to the door and peered through the keyhole to see the hallways full of guards. I couldn’t just open the door, invisible or not, and I needed to beat any of the guards to my room. So I had to do more climbing.

Fighting through the pain, I managed to lift myself onto the roof of the castle and traverse all the way to my room. I silently dropped down onto my balcony and turned off the invisibility ring. I then turned around to see that someone was in my room. Sitting on the floor against the wall was Hazel. She had Bella on her lap and was gently patting the purring cat.

“She’s not usually this friendly with people.” I spoke, causing her to jump and launch the cat across the room.

The servant girl started panicking, “I was- I heard- I thought-”

“Don’t worry about it.” I spoke, dropping down next to her as Bella came back over and sat on my lap. “What did you hear?”

Hazel’s panic turned to sadness as she looked down at her feet. “I heard that Lady Faria…”

“The gossip spreads quickly, doesn’t it.” I sighed.

“Is it true… is she…”

“I think.” I answered, unsure. “It’s hard to explain.”

“I have time.” She answered, reaching over and scratching Bella under the chin.

“How long have you been here?” I asked, turning to look Hazel in the eyes.

“Ever since I heard that Faria…” She replied, meeting my gaze and going quiet.

“Good.”

“Good?” She responded nervously.

“Hazel.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll tell you everything that happened if you do something for me.”

“Something?”

“If anyone asks, regardless of who or why or when, you need to tell them that I’ve been here with you the entire time.”

“Okay.” She spoke, the nervousness turning to intrigue.

I then explained to Hazel everything that had happened since the king had called the whole family to meet in the grand hall. From my invisible excursion to my invisible escape. At the end of the story, I realized that I was crying. It was a mix of fear, sadness and anxiety. My own father had tried to kill me, and from what I had heard, I suspected that I wouldn’t have been the first in the family to die by his hand.

Suddenly, Hazel leaned forward and pulled me into a hug.

“No matter what. I’ll help you. If not for you and your sister, I’d have been executed a long time ago.” Hazel whispered. “I’m sure Lady Faria is still alive and that she’s out there somewhere, waiting for you. And-” She paused and pulled back, reaching into one of her pockets.

From her pocket, Hazel pulled out the envelope that Faria had given to her days ago. It had been opened already.

“Lady Faria gave me this envelope. It had the usual instructions for getting food sent to the people in town, but there was this as well.” She explained, pulling a slip of paper out of the envelope.

The paper had a symbol drawn on it. A symbol that I recognized immediately. It was the symbol of the Sunbird, something that most people were familiar with from myths and legends. When I was little, when my mother and I both lived in the city, we stayed near an inn that bore that same symbol. It was the only one in the entire capitol.

“I know where we need to go.” I beamed.

This time, I was the one to pull Hazel into a hug. She seemed happy to comply.

As the two of us were embracing, both of us sitting on the floor, the door opened as a guard poked his head in. We must have been a sight to see. The fourth prince, a bastard, born from a commoner, embracing a servant girl with tears staining his face. The guard immediately turned his eyes toward the ceiling as if there was something incredibly important written on it and closed the door as he pulled his head out.

Hazel chuckled as she pulled back and stood, reaching a hand down to help me.

“When is the next shipment of food going into the city?” I asked as I accepted her hand and stood.

“Two days from now.” Hazel answered, her eyes then going wide as she realized what I was suggesting. “You’ll escape with the food. But where will you go after that?”

“The symbol on the paper is from an inn in the city. I’m sure that someone is there to meet with us once we get there.”

“We?” She asked, confused.

“We’re in this together now. There’s no way I’m going to leave you here with my monster of a father.”

Hazel beamed at my words.

“I have a lot of work to do if we’re going to do any traveling.” Hazel spoke excitedly. “I’ll make sure to arrange everything for the both of us.”

“No, we need room for one more.”

“Ah… Right!”

“I can’t leave my mother here either.” I frowned. “There’s no telling what they’d do to her.”