"Alright," Starlight closed the door and the room sunk into darkness once more. "We don't have much time; we'd better hurry."

"Wait a moment, bro, I'll change." Feather said putting down swords in her hands.

It was a pair of differently shaped swords: one was straight and double-edged, the other was slightly shorter, a bit curved, and sharpened on one side and a third of the other.

These swords were custom-made for her on the order of the eldest uncle. They were replicas of her father's swords.

The swords of Fireblood Brightsword were in Starlight possession, as he was his direct disciple.

And anyway, father's swords would be too heavy for her, so uncle Skysword especially ordered for these swords to be made in accordance to her height and strength.

She went to a screened-off corner of the room and in a moment came out wearing regular commoner clothes, simple and inconspicuous.

"How am I?" she asked.

Starlight looked her up and down.

"We should do something about your hair," he honestly said.

Feather's hair was of bright fiery-red color, betraying her high affinity towards fire. There was no doubt, were she to go around like that, she would be found out and brought back home in no time at all.

"No problem," she said, took out a knife and then with one swift motion cut off her tail. Then she took a piece of cloth and covered her head with it. "Should be enough for now. Take it," she gave the hair to Starlight, "you can burn it later. No one will know then."

Starlight put the tail of bright red hair into his spatial ring.

"Have you taken everything?"

"Almost. I just need to put away my swords, and that'll be it."

He took out of the ring a package and gave it to Feather.

"Take this too. That's dried meat and vegetables. Enough to last you for a couple of weeks in case of an emergency. Maybe more if used sparingly."

Feather took the food package and stuffed it into a small purse on the table, then she stuffed her swords in there too.

This purse was a very rare commodity - a spatial bag. It was very hard to produce, way harder than spatial rings.

Spatial jewelry could be made by using minerals with spatial properties, which were if not common still not so rare.

Spatial bags, on the contrary, needed either skin or wool of magical beasts with space properties which were quite rare, or the fiber of the plant with spatial properties, which were even rarer.

The only thing which made spatial bags worth producing was that unlike spatial rings, which could only be used by mages, bags were able to be used by commoners. And many of the more wealthy ones were willing to pay exorbitant prices to get their hands on it.

Starlight got one for Brightfeather with great difficulty after getting to know about her decision to flee.

Through the past year, the purse was filled to the brim with lots of handy things. From money and medical herbs to blankets, change of clothes, maps, papers, inkstones, brushes, a range of weapons, talismans and whatever else.

"Alright, all done!" Feather looked around the house one last time.

It looked desolate. The place she had spent her youth in. Will she ever return?

Probably not, she thought. At least, not if she succeeded.

And she must succeed.

The two, brother and sister, stealthily left the house through the rear window.

They quietly moved through the garden. No one would look for them here, but they still needed to be careful.

In the deeper part of the garden there lied an entrance to an underground passage.

There were several entrances to the underground passages throughout the manor, and one of them lay in this remote garden. Feather found it by chance while playing here several years ago.

There was a pit in the ground under the roots of a tree.

It was a miracle nothing happened to her and she was able to come out of this alive. Starlight scolded her heavily that time. It was the only time she was scolded by him so sternly. Later she came to know the reason for this, but she had no idea at the time, so she explored the ditch and found a way to exit the manor from here avoiding all the guard posts and fortifications.

It was an old escape path made by the family who knows how many years ago. They didn't know if the path was still known to the family elders today. At least, it seemed not been used for a long time.

Now they were going to use this path for its main purpose - escape.

The sun finally settled behind the horizon, and it was getting darker by the minute.

The ditch under the tree root was well hidden, but they knew where to look, so they swiftly squeezed themselves in.

The passage was not so spacious, and it was pitch black inside.

Feather took out a light pearl. It was one of her few exceedingly valuable possessions. The pearl was an autonomous lightening artifact. As any treasure which didn't need the user to be a mage, it costed astronomical sum of money. It was bought for her by uncle as she couldn't use fire at home so that she could read in the evenings and her home wouldn't be dark. She just had it hidden in her purse earlier so as not to forget such an important thing at home. The pearl was very easy to use. It only needed to be recharged in the sunlight once in a while and it would be able to glow for at least a week before going out.

The pearl lightened the path. The passage was dug through the ground so most of its walls were made of dirt. Here and there occasionally were inserted stony patches, and patches of melted ground and stones. There were even sections where the walls were turned into glass by the temperature.

The passage was tidy, even if no one visited here for so long.

Starlight and Feather went through a passage and soon enough exited the tunnel on the other side of the manor wall.

Starlight looked at his little sister. It would be a long time before they would be able to meet again.

"Are you sure, you remember the path to the road," he asked.

"Yes, brother, I remember it like the back of my hand. You don't have to worry."

"Don't forget to eat properly."

"O.K" Feather confirmed.

"And don't flash your money, don't bring troubles on yourself."

"Yes," she nodded.

"And your swords, unless it's life or death situation you better not show them to anyone."

"Really, you can stop nagging at me already, I'm not a little kid!" Feather finally couldn't endure it anymore. "You don't have to worry that much, brother, I won't do anything stupid and harm myself. Be well. I'll definitely find a way."

She didn't continue, they both knew well what way she had to find.

"Be well," Starlight echoed.

Then Feather waved at him and went away.

After Feather's figure vanished in the bushes, Starlight sighed heavily:

"Not to worry, she says. It's not as if I wanted to worry about you, stupid girl."

He stood there for some time letting his thoughts wander. In the end, he shook his head:

"I've let you down, teacher, I couldn't protect her."

Then he went back to the underground passage.