Following my instructions the letter was send and as expected the Chevalier, his wife and their only son did paid us a visit the day after. They were, understandably, ecstatic upon seeing Estelle all fine and well and somewhat angry at the doctor for not communicating all this time. Even more understandably their smiles turned into frowns when we explained the situation. A great deal of ideas on how to return Estelle to her house in secret were thrown around but ultimately that would cause more harm than good and after Estelle herself expressed her opinion on staying here with the doctor they backed off. Instead what was agreed upon was for the Chevalier to "foot the bill", both my medical, that is, and our day to day expenses.

Estelle spend the rest of the day until launch alone where upon she proceeded to feed and then massaged my hands. My recovery was nothing short of a medical miracle as only after two days I could twitch my fingers. If this improvement consisted then maybe I wouldn't have to cut the treatment short. In the others areas I also saw rapid improvement by quickly putting back the lost weight after my meals had returned to normal. If only betting on miracles was all it took...

The rumors about the "nose of the kingdom" assisting in the investigation has been confirmed, the doctor informed me that he will be arriving approximately in five days which is two days short of the week previously brought up. Well if anything this served as a good motivation to get out of bed a moment sooner and start with the squats. Squats sit-ups, any exercise I didn't needed either an instrument or my hands, Now it's obvious that even the most intense of training regimens will have no real effects in the short, short timeframe of five days, even with my faster than normal rate of physical gain, but still it's better to hammer in a nail with a small rock than your bare hands.

All of the joy of exercising was thrown out of the window when Estelle walked in on me and, after explaining, decided to join in this fun, fun pastime. It wasn't something that I wanted to admit but Estelle was more physically fit than myself, to the point of tears. And so three days passed all the same and in comes the night that lead to the day before the nose arrived as I stood in front of the doctor's door.

Dovera: You going?

"I have to."

Dovera: And how m' I to explain this to the lass you reckon?

"Tell her that I'll keep my promise."

Dovera: Normally I shouldn't have let you out of bed so soon in you condition, let alone let you lose out in the world but I can't stop you either. What do you intent to do?

"Take what was once important to Cadence, burn the rest. I'll leave no trails that the Luisent can follow."

Dovera: You'll just leave behind a new trail if you do that.

"A trail of brimstone and ash. One that will draw out my enemies."

Dovera: Do you intent to go out dressed like that. People stay under the sun and forget how cold the nights get around here.

He throw at me two pieces of clothing. Catching it on my dorsal, I saw that it was a leather coat inside a duster, an old and worn out leather coat and linen duster with a hastily job done on the stitching to size it down for me. I was left staring at the garments, unable to form any words.

Dovera: Not to your liking?

"T-thank you... But why? Isn't this important to you."

Dovera: They're just clothes, it's meant to be worn but last time I tried them on, they were too heavy for my shoulders. So I'm asking you to put them to better use.

"I see..."

I put on the brown coat, even without feeling or that ability to move adequately my fingers, the three dimensional 'vision' that realm provided proved an excellent way to compensate for it. Now tying up the belt was the real problem since the buckle was too much for the my limited movement. Dovera had to get close to me and help me wear it properly. Is this what's a parent dressing their child feels like? Although I could put the duster on top on my own I wasn't keen on stopping him when he picked up the beige duster and moved to put it on me.

Dovera: I also prepared that sack for you by the door. Don't get yourself killed out there, there's someone waiting for you back here.

"You're awfully prepared for my exit, were you expecting it?"

Dovera: You started preparing your body without sharing a plan with us. It wasn't a question of 'if you will leave' it was about 'how close to the due day'.

"Thank you. Really."

Dovera: See you around kid.

A smile creeped on my face.

"Be sure of it."

I finally crossed the door, closing it behind me, lingering at the front step when a second presence entered realm. I suppose that at the end it didn't go my way... Taking the first step forward it under the dim moonlight it marked the beginning of my life as Alex.

Due to the proximity of this city to the frontier it was surrounded by a wall. It wasn't an impressive one by no means but still a wall's a wall, no way for a single girl to just pass through it without raising attention, especially when I'm a wanted woman. Thankfully due to realm and the moonlight I didn't needed a lantern to navigate, which meant that I could sneak around more easily. It's true that I could burn my way out of Prunce but I believe that to be a tad over the top and too attention drawing...

Sure enough even with the coat and duster on I could feel the biting cold seeping deep into my marrow and it wasn't the clothing's fault either, yes they were worn out but they were made to last, really high quality stuff, it was that such cloudless night were cold as fuck. I had reached a position overlooking the gate where at each side of the door, in a little indentation protecting them from the elements, sat two guards. One of them sleeping and the other keeping watch, if they kept shifts like that then there was no way for me to pass through the smaller gate. From what Estelle and Dovera told me the smaller gate is comprised of two doors and a small room, like the entrance to a bank, a small room meant for searching anyone they deemed suspicious. Instead of the portcullis main gate that would make considerable noise and took effort I couldn't produce the side gate was my best option but even then I wasn't sure if the guards carried the keys or were stored elsewhere for the night. It was like choosing whether to die from a snake or a scorpion bite.

If I had time to complain I better spend it in action. Approaching the awake guard from his blind spot I grabbed a rock with my palms and hurled it to the sleeping guard. As I began to move away the now awaken guard asked the other if he was his turn and when they were about to break in a fight the awake one suggested they survey their surroundings. Brandishing their lanterns to pierce the darkness they marched forward, creating the maximum possible radius of illuminated ground, barely not covering the entire distance between myself and them, I was literally crawling in the edge of the light so realm would. Holding their lanterns up high and steady they scouted with their eyes the darkness trying to discern any figures running inside it. But I wasn't running, I was preparing my spell.

I did said that I wouldn't burn anything but that didn't meant that I wouldn't use my fire spell at all. Realizing the spell a fire erupted at the guard's, closer to me, lantern catching him by surprise and forcing him to drop it as the flame got snuffed. I didn't manipulated the already existing fire into intensifying, instead I lit a new one on top of it. Practically those two scenarios produced the same result but that difference was where arcansics were made prevalent. The fire tetrahedron, oxygen, heat, fuel and the reaction between them, through arcansics this outer energy substituted all four of them allowing for such a strong fire to exist.

The second guard rushed over to check his colleague, confusion painting both their faces. I couldn't repeat the same trick since the second guard waved the lantern wildly around making it impossible to target him given the stationary nature of the spell and the fact I had to retread so I wasn't found out.

Guard 1: What are you doing you idiot!

Guard 2: W-what happened?

Guard 1: Stop swinging that around like a mad man. My lantern went crazy that' all.

Excellent. By calming the second guard I managed to get a good shoot at his lantern, after approaching, blowing it off in the same fashion. They retreated back to the gate and their remaining light as I moved in the darkness, hugging once again the wall.

Guard 1: Don't just stand there. Go ask for backup.

My little stunt was by far way too suspicious. Happened once, was a mistake, happened twice, it's a coincidence, happened thrice, we have a problem.

Guard 2: But it's dark... what's if there something out there?

Realizing what was going to happen next I, again, changed position, opposite of the wall this time hugging a house.

Guard 1: There's nothing out there you big oaf. Now take that bloody candle and go.

Guard 2: YES!

He speed off passing me as we went to the right side of the gate so I, in all my brilliance moved to hug the wall on the left side. For how calm he sounded in front of the other guard his eyes sure were jumped around erratically as he literally stood underneath the light. I guess he was hoping his worlds were true. Gathering energy around the sack hanging by my shoulder I mispported it above his head, jumping into the light as it landed, blinding him to my visage. By the time he cleared his vision I was already down on the ground kicking his knee with all my strength behind my heel. While he fell to the ground I got up and without giving him a chance to recover I, gently, kicked his jaw in, rendering him out of commission for a short while.

Picking up the sack I run to the small door gluing my entire body to the thick metal door as I let my inner energy cover it. It took me seventeen seconds for it to cover the door in its entirety before mispporting it. There had to be a delay between completion and execution of the spell due to designating a location for mispporting since leaving it a random could endanger the guard... more than he's already been endangered that is. I finally decided on the grove that he was stationed so that when the reinforcements arrived from that direction they wouldn't see this massive solid metal door just hanging on the floor.

By the time I stepped inside the little room the guard had regained consciousness and was moaning on the ground, hopefully this wouldn't leave him with any lasting effects... outside of a limp on his busted leg. What's more marching could be heard from the distance, the guards had an insanely fast response time given the lack of conclusive evidence, guess Cadence's disappearance within the week must have put them on edge. As I started on the outer door the dispatch was on site. From reaching and checking upon their fellow it didn't take long for one to realize that an entire fucking door was misplaced and people rushed over at the opening, lanterns lighting the space and all. Just as the light was about to reveal me I unleashed the spell, mispporting the door between myself and them, at where the original door was supposed to be, hinges and lock both in place, perfectly. By the time they had unlocked and opened the new door I had long busted into full force running.

"So long Prunce."

I didn't let down the rush for as long as my lungs allowed and then some more for good measure. I was for good and truly away from Prunce and as I sat to the cold ground the vastness of nature opened before me. The dried ground that I sitting on expanded for kilometers and more in all directions. Mountains, flatlands an expanse of land that just goes on, space so vast it hurts one's head just thinking about it. And then take that already massive number, the volume of a planet, and double it to account for Arthur's world. Then take the original number and raise it to the nth power to account for all the other possible worlds existing out there. Infinity... a concept that doesn't sit well with me. I suppose that the only way to disprove this hypothesis is for to myself to go and search for those bounds, both of space and magic.

Raising my hand to the moon an inspiration hit me, a familiar feeling gathering at the tip of my nail-less fingertips that I failed to follow through last time. But now I had no constrictions that forced me to give up on it.