Though Damia had told Adi that they would not visit the lycans, she had zero intentions on giving up on the story. There must have been a reason for the book to have presented itself to her and she was going to discover it, with or without Adi.
That night, she could hardly sleep. Her mind kept coming up with scenarios that would allow her to escape without being detected. No matter how she looked at it, she would be discovered within a day, two at the most. So not only would she need to have a plan to leave the castle, but one to hide her tracks once she left.
Damia had to stop the constant flow of thoughts for the time being. If she looked at all tired tomorrow, Adi would grow suspicious. She forced her mind to slow down and just focused on falling asleep. She could resume her planning tomorrow.
A few days passed by and neither Damia nor Adi mentioned the book again. They kept meeting at the library and scoured the bookshelves for clues. Each time they thought they might have something, they would come to a dead end. They were starting to become discouraged, and often found themselves thinking that perhaps someone, somewhere, had wanted to erase shifters from history, and succeeded.
"Don't worry milady, there's still more than three-fourths of the library left. There's bound to be something here, even if it's only one book. We'll find it." Adi tried maintaining an optimistic spirit. He didn't want Damia to give up so soon.
Days turned to weeks and still nothing. But at this point, Damia was only going for the sake of keeping up appearances. All this time, she had been planning her escape, and tonight was the night she intended to act on it.
"I think I'm done for the day, Adi. I've grown weary of all this incessant searching. I'm going to head to bed now."
"I understand milady. Sleep well."
Damia headed to her room as quickly as she could without raising suspicion. Once there, she took out the bag she had prepared with provisions for the road. Even though they hadn't found any books on shifter magic, she managed to find a number of books for surviving in the wild. She had a few books she could reference for food, medical and first aid books, another about different creatures, an atlas containing maps of different kingdoms and countries, and she made sure to take the book with the story that set her on her journey. She had also packed a pouch containing all her earnings as a maid at the castle. As she never went out, she rarely spent any of it so she had easily saved 30 thousand rhubies.
What she didn't have was suitable clothing for her travels. She had a cloak she could take with her for warmth, but she couldn't very well go on a journey in a princess gown. Gathering her belongings, she stood next to her desk, facing the wall and pressed on a stone that had a slightly different shape than those around it. Anyone unfamiliar would miss it, but she knew exactly what the shape represented. It was a trigger to open a portal in the wall that would lead to the hidden passages that went all throughout the castle. She and Adi had discovered them when they were younger and would often play in them. Even as a maid, she would use the passageways whenever she had overslept or fallen behind on her work, so she was very familiar with the layout of the halls.
Focusing all her power to her hand, she attempted to ignite a fireball that she could use for lighting her path, but all she managed to create was a flicker of a flame that vanished as soon as it appeared.
"This is precisely why I need to see the lycans. What if another attack happens? How will I protect anyone if I can't even depend on myself for simple spells like this?"
She tried again. Same result.
Just as she was about to turn around and see if she had any candles, a wind blew through the passage and she could have sworn she heard it carrying a voice.
"a spark needs to feed..."
This got her thinking. Starting a fire in the stove required that a small fire burn, and a slow wind to make it spread to the other kindling to ignite a large enough fire for cooking.
Damia gathered her magic again and focused on the palm of her hand, this time, only wanting a small flame. It took a little time, but she managed to create it and blew on it, imagining that as she blew, it was spreading to form a larger flame, slowly flowing more magic into it so as to not choke it out. After a few more seconds, she finally had a decent sized fireball in her hand and she could see clearly.
Though it was probably just in her head, she felt grateful to the voice that had given her the idea and she whispered "Thank you."
Now that she had a source of light, she needed to resume with her plan of obtaining clothing to take with her on the journey. She closed the portal behind her and walked through in the direction that would take her to Prince Elric's room. He was significantly bigger than her, so all of his clothes would be too big, but he was the least likely to notice any clothing missing out of everyone else in the castle, and the one that could best afford to replace it. She figured she could just use a belt to hold everything together until she could buy properly fitting clothing outside the castle.
Finally reaching the Prince's wall, Damia searched for the stone that would open the portal to his room. She was just about to press it when she heard the door to the room open, then close. She had expected the Prince to go out hunting today, which would normally mean that he would not return until late the next day.
She waited to hear if the door would open again, hoping it was just a servant coming to tidy up or bring in fresh sheets. She waited for what felt like a lifetime, but finally, the person that had entered left the room. Pressing the stone, she moved quietly into the room, looking around to make sure no one still lingered. Having cleared the room, she moved to the wardrobe and retrieved a pair of pants, and a shirt. She had to let the fireball go out so as to not set the clothes on fire and she hoped desperately that she would be able to reignite it because she would be going back into the passageway to exit the castle.
Quickly, she changed into Prince Elric's clothing and took the dress with her. Just as she was about to exit the room, she thought that maybe 30 thousand rhubies might not be enough. Though she had gone to the market with Adi a few times and new that what she had would be considered a small fortune, she didn't know how long she would be away and having extra couldn't hurt. She decided to snoop through Prince Elric's room for any rhubies he might have on hand.
A small chest at the top of his bookshelf caught her eye. As she pulled it down, a leather-bound book fell from the shelf. She bent down to pick it up, but stopped when she noticed the pages. The book had fallen open and on the page was her mother's writing. She lifted it and read the first line of the passage, which confirmed this book belonged to the late Queen. Her mother had kept a journal and all this time it had been in Prince Elric's possession. Damia's heart burned with fury. Any thoughts of escape had now faded to the back of her mind and all she could think of was confronting Elric about keeping this from her.
"How dare he," she thought.
"Go"
She heard the voice again. Instantly, her mind returned to the task at hand and she was filled with a sudden urgency to leave the room, so she rushed back to the wall and ran through the portal, sealing it behind her before even attempting to light another fireball.
Just as she made it through, the door to the room opened and she could hear two voices, guards. They must have heard when the book fell and thought someone had snuck into the room. The guards were not aware of the hidden paths so she did not have to fear that they would find her. She relaxed and focused her power on starting another fireball. This time, it came easier and she was quickly back on her way.