We had been bathed, clothed and lead to the large hall again. This time we were seated on large pillows directly on the floor, no benches or tables around. There were much fewer guests, all seemed to be selected carefully by the Chief’s family. Also, we sat among the regular guests now. Only the Chief, Sarita and another dignitary I did not know were seated on the podium, facing the guests.

So far, our plan had worked splendidly. While the nanny had again washed me as hoped, I handed her the thumb-sized vial of clear yellowish liquid, accompanied by the words “guards drink, guards sleep.” It had been simple enough for her to understand, hopefully. She replied with “red cloth signal”. We all breathed a little easier knowing that we would receive a signal to begin with.

As far as we understood, the ceremony would consist of various representatives of the town presenting gifts to the bride-to-be, which should represent the entirety of Uvraitam in her new residence. Potters, carpenters, bowyers, tailors, all trades were represented. The unknown dignitary was an envoy from the groom's town and would hand over gifts from his town in return.

We sat and watched as each representative would come forward to present their finest piece to Sarita, who would then accept the gift, say a few words of gratitude and put the gift aside. Between each gift, there would be a few words from Chief Avantyet and a short break to enjoy morsels. It was all in all much more timid than the large celebration the day before was.

By the side of the podium I saw also several servants of the chief’s household, among them the nanny. They took care of bringing the morsels and setting the gifts aside so that everyone among the guests could see them.

The hours went by, the gifts piles up and our group was called up on the podium. We followed the call and sat down before the chief.

He seemed to list our achievements and the honour we had brought to his humble town. We were then presented with gifts ourselves.

The Professor, as the leader of our group, received a brass disk that appeared to be a compass or astrolabe. As he looked at it, he seemed confused by exactly what it showed him.

All four of us were also given large cloaks woven from strips of colourful cloth that was akin to wool. They were large enough to fold in half once and still lay around both our shoulders. They were supposedly useful as mattes or blankets and would do us well in the wilderness, even the dark one without light, on our long and arduous journeys.

We thanked the chief with a deep bow and went back to our places.

A last gift was given by the parents to their daughter; an etui of finely crafted tools of tailoring. She accepted it with gratitude and gave her parents a bittersweet smile that melted away into regret and sadness. This is what we were going to rescue her from, this sadness for the rest of her life, no matter how long it should prove to be.

There was a last morsel to eat and a cup of prickly wine. Then the chief thanked all present and announced the end of the celebration.

The many guests got up from their pillows and chatted among each other, many leaving to their homes but quite a few also staying behind. The chief and his family retired to their house up high. I threw a last glance to the nanny, who returned it with a nod. The time was now.

We returned to the boarding house in no hurry, to not betray a single thought of our plan. We changed out of the ceremonial clothes, stuffed our new cloaks into our packs and then separated. Brad and I went one level up into the town, carefully checking every corner before continuing on, Professor Scutolith and Anne took all our packs and dropped down from the boarding house on a rope fastened to the walkway’s railing in an angle shielded from sight and light.

Brad led me up between houses and through alleys, suspended more and more feet above the ground. Brad lead me to a small alley far to the side of the chief’s personal plaza. We had a good view from less than two levels below. We could see three maybe four guards patrol the plaza at the railing but nothing any further onto the plaza itself

Then the blinds on the window next to Sarita’s opened and quickly closed again, but now, there was something clasped to the window frame. I could barely see it in the dark, but Brad ensured me that it was indeed a piece of red cloth.

We stayed waiting still in the alley, counting the frequency at which we could see guards come to railing, which decreased steadily.

I noticed Brad’s impatience but he kept quiet until finally, both of us agreed: the guards were too tired to move.

Brad wrapped two ropes around his waist, one he knew he would need but the other was just to be safe. I gave him the stuffed toy, if he showed it to Sarita, she would certainly know what was going on. Then, woven with knowledge of density, mass and acceleration forces, I cast a spell on him. He noticed the effect immediately, visibly lightened and suddenly unsure about the floor beneath his feet.

“I halved your mass, you should be able to climb all the way over there with ease now. But you only have 1000 heartbeats time, so the calmer you stay, the more time you have.”

Brad nodded, the swung himself over the railing with ease. Along the outside of the walkways, he slowly and silently made his way up the town’s levels, trusting the sharp claws on his hands and feet. At times, it appeared to me as if he was holding on by just a few fingers.

I watched him closely, hoping his heartbeat would be slower than mine. I watched him as he arrived on the railing to the plaza itself. He peeked above for a short moment, then turned to me and showed me a thumbs up. He continued his way towards the chief’s abode.

Brad finally arrived on the outside wall and dug his claws deep into the hard wood that was adorned so ornately. Clinging to the wall like a bat, he slowly got closer to the marked window. When he arrived, her opened the blinds from the outside with ease, then entered the abode.

Silence and stillness lay over all I could see and hear, disturbed by my heartbeat, trying to hammer its way out of my chest. I was glad I had not used mine to assign the spell’s duration.

Nothing happened for an awfully long time. Then the window opened again. Brad emerged, a big pack on his back and the rope now in his hand. He unfurled the rope all the way to the walkway below and I hurried to meet him there. When I had arrived, I nodded to him, then cast again that trusted spell of compacted air right at the end of the rope, to slow any fall and muffle any sound.

Without much sound, Brad rappelled down the rope and arrived with barely a shock felt in the soft wooden planks. Then Sarita appeared out of the window above. She followed Brad’s example and landed just slightly less soft. The she flung her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly while whispering “Grace. Grace. Grace.” She wore clothes similar to those we found her with: ill-fitting and for a man bigger than her, except now with a cloak as well.

When she was done with squeezing me, we were ready to leave this place behind. Brad again took the lead ahead, but it was obvious that Sarita had little patience for taking it slow, at one point even vaulting over railings to take a shortcut onto the walkway below. We arrived at the boarding house and made our way around to where the rope waited for us. And a patrol of guards.

They were three in total, still wondering about the rope as it dangled there. Then they saw us. Then they saw Sarita.

Before the first could yell, an entire constructed spell had shot through my head, all I needed to add was a vector: forward! A wall of compacted air shot forth from my staff and knocked the guards down like a rogue wave and muffling their yells as if under water. There was just a moment of respite before they got up again. Brad reacted quickly, in a dash forward, he rammed his fist across one’s face, knocking him out. I tried my quick spell again, but rather than knocking them over with a wave, I wanted to completely encase them in an entire dome of compacted air. I recited the formula again, this time increasing the density even further. I needed to be especially efficient to work with the available ambient energies.

The dome materialized as I had imagined it and all attempts by the guards to yell or get up were thwarted by the air being sticky and slow, but not suffocating.

“The spell only lasts 100 of his heartbeats, which will be over quickly in his panic.”

Brad understood and climbed the rope down to the floor. One the ground, we immediately set out towards the Vrata gardens. We had not yet reached the wall of the chamber when bells were rung behind us.

Our escape had entered its hot phase much sooner than we had hoped.