Last night after everyone had left them alone for the night.
“I don't trust them.” Her mother was quick to comment as soon as the others had left.
“I don't either. There isn’t a whole lot we can do right now. I don't think Corrin and Nina will do anything stupid but you know Ardon and Judy have been looking for a way to get back to a city ever since we got here.”
Her mother then turned to her and said “Violet, I need to know something for sure. Do you have magic? The night you cut your hand I thought I noticed a symbol on your tummy that night. It looked similar to the mark for illusion magic.”
It seemed this would be a night of airing secrets for Violet. She was in a bad spot no matter how she answered. Deciding to give her parents a chance, she came clean about her illusion magic. It was like a dam had broken and she told them about all of the times she had snuck out to gain more aspects and the aspects she had earned so far. Her thinking was at this point she had nothing left to lose. If they reacted poorly she would use her magic and run away on her own.
“We were worried when we saw the symbol initially. It would have been difficult, but we were ready to take you and run the second someone else noticed it. You somehow found a way to hide your symbol and never showed your magic so the two of us decided to let you keep your secret.”
Her father interrupted with “Ok enough of this, Violet do you know another way out of this place? We are going to need to sneak out past the guards and there is no way they will let us pass with us carrying large packs filled with supplies.”
“There is an underground tunnel that connects all of the buildings together. When I unlocked water magic, I gained access to the water areas. I can get us out through one of the water magic barracks.”
The stunned look on her parent’s faces was priceless. It was her father who was able to speak first saying. “Of course our daughter has two schools of magic. We are going to talk about keeping such dangerous secrets from us after we get out of this. Let’s pack up everything that would not be immediately noticed and place it in the room on the other side of that secret door.”
After they had finished packing their belongings up, they had all visited the pantry. The pantry was located in another classroom so it was just a matter of finding the correct door. That alone was nerve-wracking. If it had not been for silent doors, they would have been found out several times. Thankfully every wrong door they opened had sleeping people in them and nobody had woken up.
The pantry was well stocked with dried meats and oats for porridge. They made sure to pack as much food as they could reasonably carry. It would take them several days just to reach the edge of the barrier and then they would need to start being careful of the local wildlife. Her ability to manipulate water will be very useful if they have difficulties locating water sources.
Her father would be a big help when their food eventually ran out. One of his passions for research was plants. He would be able to spot any edible plants they could forage along the way. He said with the abundance of rain this area got, finding edible plants shouldn't be an issue.
----------------------------------------
Present time.
Arriving back at their assigned sleeping area, the trio quickly packed up what remained of their personal items. With all of their items removed from the room and the beds made, they hoped that someone would look in the room and assume it was unoccupied.
“Did you remove our name from the door?” her mother asked.
“Yes I got it when we came in, I don't think it will delay them for very long but every extra second will count.” Answered her father as he picked up the box he was packing.
With a nod, Violet opened the secret door in their room. They all took one last moment to make sure the room was spotless and then turned to make their way out. As the door closed on their living area for the last time, Violet was almost excited about where their journey would end up.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
The underground passageways in the water area were a mirror image of the illusion passageways. When they made it to the crafting area beneath the medium-sized building, there were still some supplies left at the crafting station. While it was very tempting to explore the area, time was of the essence. They needed to be long gone before their appointment with the noble came up.
When they made it to the armory underneath the barracks, her father had them stop. “We are going to need to defend ourselves and hunt. I know it will be heavy, but you two should put on some of the lightweight armor. It will hold up better than your dresses out in the wild.”
Finding armor to fit Violet was comical. Her seven-year-old body was far too small to wear armor made for an adult. In the end, one of the sleeveless vests was all Violet could wear. It was long enough to be a dress on her. Shoes were going to be an issue for her as well. They ended up packing a few extra vests so her mother could sew her a pair of pants and shoes. The armor in this area was all dyed a deep blue that was very close to being black.
Her father decided on a chainmail shirt that was covered with leather to muffle the noise. She needed to inspect his armor later to see if it was enchanted to remain quiet or if it was just an effect of having something on top of it. He also picked up a sword, a few daggers, and a bow with a quiver of arrows.
Her mother was dressed in lightweight leather armor. It was easy to see her mother had not worn pants often in her life by the way she was walking around in it. She picked up a sheath for each leg filled with three throwing daggers each as her weapon of choice. The knives were her father’s idea, he wanted her to stay away from danger whenever possible. Violet was also given a dagger that was attached to the makeshift belt they cobbled together for her.
They were done in the armory no longer than ten minutes after they got there. Time was not on their side and they needed to keep moving. It was nearing lunchtime when the servant had given them her summons. She estimated they had burned about an hour packing up and walking quickly to the barracks. They had about three hours left before they would be missed by the noble but if anyone else noticed them missing, the alarm could be rung early.
The barracks were all separated by color and arranged in rainbow order. The noble was located in one of the middle illusion barracks. There were four barracks per color. The smaller buildings were arranged in the order of black, white, purple followed by blue. They made sure to leave from the furthest water barracks to exit twelve buildings away from the majority of activity. Their plan was to sprint to the treeline as fast as possible when they left the barracks.
It was decided that her father would carry her while her mother held her hand so she could use Cloaking on their group. She was not far from being 100% synchronized with Cloaking so she estimated they had at least thirty minutes of invisibility. It was hard for her to calculate but she knew it cost a lot more mana to cloak other people with her. Being carried helped her focus on keeping everyone covered. Her parents were also able to run faster than she could with their unlocked stats.
Unfortunately with their heavy bags, their escape was anything but quiet. They were far enough from the majority of people for them not to hear anything. A guard near the outer edge of the water barracks was alerted by the noise they were making. When her father noticed the guard, he angled their group directly toward him.
The guard was raising his whistle to his lips when a deep line of red crossed his neck. She was still able to keep the cloaking going during their run. The guard could hear them but he could not see them and his hesitation cost him. Her father left the guard where he fell not far from the treeline and they kept running.
They ran around the inner edge of the treeline away from the guard until they entered the trees in the direction they needed to go. She hoped entering the trees away from where the guard was slain will throw off any tracking efforts. Her mana gave out and they lost their invisibility when they had made it past the second tree inside the treeline.
When they made it about half a mile into the treeline they stopped behind a large tree for a breather. “I had to do it. He was going to alert everyone.” was what her father kept repeating to her mother. They both hugged him and her mother told him it would be ok. Her father was a strong and brave man but this was likely the first time he had ever been forced to take a life.
It was her mother who spoke up a few minutes later. “We need to keep moving. We don't know if they have any trackers with them. One of the guards may have that skill.”
Two hours later, they were able to barely make out the sound of a whistle going off. It was sooner than they expected so it was likely because the guard’s body had been found. The people who found the body didn’t know whom they were looking for yet. They would likely look at other guards first since a sword was used for the kill and normal people were not allowed to carry weapons.
When the night began to fall, it got difficult to navigate the forest terrain. They were all stumbling over roots and branches. Violet didn’t have any spells to create light other than Dazzle and she didn’t think a bright flash of light was a good idea to use. There weren’t any lights following behind them but they wanted to get as far as possible before the search was started.
When night had well and truly fallen, she ended up accidentally finding where they would rest while they waited for the sun. The ground beneath her feet caved in as soon as she put weight on it. Her father retrieved an enchanted item from his bag. When he activated the enchant, it glowed softly. The item he was using was not one of the beginner items they had been sorting and organizing all this time.
When he shined the light down to her, it revealed a circular hollowed-out area roughly six feet in diameter and seven feet tall. Only a small portion of the ceiling had caved in on the edge where she had fallen in. It was the most ideal shelter they were going to be able to find without light. Her parents made their way into the underground cavity with her and they were all asleep shortly after.