Princess Harmony was not happy at all. An ash demon had come and ruined her life.
Instead of roaming around the castle and palace, playing about, she was now in lessons. Officially royal training, unofficially dead woodchuck under the stairwell. These weren't even good lessons like alchemy or magic practice. History, lame terrible history. It wasn't even interesting history it was about which stuffy guy found out you can hit something with a rock, and it made fire.
It was tough to pretend to be listening as the old guy blathered on about Grok and Margret.
It was fortune that I had prepared for such an instance.
"What if there were another person in the start?" I asked suddenly, interrupting the wrinkled prune that was my instructor.
"Other people?" He paused gently running his hand over his chin. "First rat, first cat, first nightmare was all supposedly around this time-period. Oh, let me see there's a book here that would have more information…" He turned in rummaged through the stacks of books he had. This is when I made my move.
Swapping myself to the side, I placed a large stuffed doll in my chair. Its wearing one of my dresses and has button eyes with a blue string mop head but it should be good enough.
I darted out to the open window climbing out. Using wind magic to gently buffer myself I crawled around the ledge three rooms down and let myself in. Now in the turret of the castle I used the old shaft built in to descend two floors.
Getting out of the castle was a much more difficult process. This wing didn't have one, but the old office quarter had a passage directly out. It was even unguarded.
Giggling a bit, I checked if the coast was clear before ducking behind some statue of a noble who did something. It was behind this wall and the lever was-
"Its on the underside of the base of the statue."
"Oh thanks! I…" Turning around it occurred to me that no one was supposed to be there.
"No trouble, royal brat." Siting on the statue itself was the demon who hounded me for the last several months. I don't quite know what they looked like yet, as I've never seen him without his helmet. I had gotten sick of pink though; every ounce of princess pink was removed from my room.
"Want to find out who's faster?" How dare he smirk at me!
"When my brothers…" I forgot, they lost twice now.
"Ill go back." He just nodded, watching me trudge along the hallway.
"If you take to long your mother said I get your sweets at snack time." That got me moving. There were few bright spots left in my life and wheedling sweets out of the servants and knights was one of them.
"She can move when she wants to." I heard his high-pitched voice as I raced back to the study.
That hadn't been the end of it.
"Please Miss Mage won't you demonstrate runic sphere magic." Rather than sit through another theory-based lesson I attempted to make things more interesting.
"There still so many things we need to know before we actually try it out." Drat, time for plan b.
"But Miss Mage, I'm having trouble understanding things, I think it would help if I could see it…" I had perfected the sad pitiful look over time with my brothers. I could tell I put an arrow thorough Mage's heart.
"Well, I suppose we could, something small than…"
"What about teleportation?" I could see her face hem and haw about it for a moment.
"Please? I heard that you're the best mage at teleporting in the whole country." I acted as cute as I could, and the result was obvious. Sucker.
Even I was impressed with how fast she built a magic circle and attached the grounding poles to the side. As she begun to encode the spherical part, I 'accidently' fell into it and wrote new coordinates for it at the same time.
I wasn't sure what the act of teleportation was supposed to feel like, all's I remembered was a blank moment of disconnect than I was in the garden. I knew it wouldn't take long for my guards to notice the magic activation, so I moved me through the rows of plants and flowers with speed.
There was a small broken segment of wall that had held a service door at one point. Shoddy construction in an out of the way place made it the perfect escape route. There was one last path, she could see the stone walls that made the outer grounds converging.
Freedom!
I was so focused that I missed the ash and black blur that moved over me. Not that I cared, I was going to be out of here in just a moment. I did think I heard some sort of rattling but that was for others to worry about.
A grown adult wouldn't be able to squeeze through, but a younger child could, it even only dirties my dress a little bit. Struggling with the hard stone I manage to get clear.
Demon was standing there once again his eyes smug through his helmet. How on earth did he do that? I teleport, I went a thousand or so feet in less than a second.
"Mage read the coordinates, once I knew where you were it was easy to catch up."
This is not fair.
"If you believe I'll go quietly you have another thing coming." I snarled ready to defend my freedom. It ended predictably.
Nursing a huge bump on my head I cursed the ash knight…I'm hating you; this princess hates you! Not only did he hurt me again. He made me walk back and apologize to miss mage for being so careless.
All lessons will be done with at least two knights present to prevent any mishaps.
I was quickly running out of escape plans. Even when the lessons cycled and I got the old man who couldn't tell the difference between me and a strawman, I didn't have any way to slip out from the knights. My last hope was during alchemy class, as it was practical. My babysitters followed me to the lab, and we had a grand old time making little beakers and flask change colors.
That was until a beaker fell and shattered, spilling light smoke, and sizzling a little. The knights moved in and set me back, while the professor took some powder from a self and threw it on the mix. I on the other hand after being thrown roughly aside tossed two volatile compounds together with a small smoke bomb.
Smoke flooded into the room, and the desks and worktables exploded. I yelped as I moved to get out of the room. Even if this failed it wasn't my fault a spill got out of hand. The knights even through me into the bale of a volatile compound. I was just trying to get out and be safe.
Fire licked my dress in a few places, and I blasted it with wind to snuff it out. Felling the air flow, I knew the general location of the window and hopped down. The smoke had moved with me obscuring me and most of the ground floor and grounds.
Scott free would be the correct term. I tossed the lab coat I had swiped on my way out and happily marched in the direction of market square. I did get some strange looks, with lightly singed hair and mishmashes clothes but no one stopped me or called me out.
I stopped at a grand fountain to watch the water gurgle. It was a calm relief, so pretty in fact, that I didn't notice my surroundings for the third time. I should investigate being more aware.
The water of the fountain suddenly rushed at me, no I rushed at it. Then I was in it, how did this happen?
I couldn't feel the oversized lab coat, and the water was far colder than I imagined. I was struggling to orient myself when I was yanked up by my ankle.
Powder covered me, dumped from a large sack. The dumper was none other than the evil demon Xavier.
"The alchemist said that to soak you in water and then dump the powder on you. Are you ok princess?"
That flippant treacherous poop head! This wasn't fair! How was I supposed to live if someone is always behind me?
"I'm fine!" I couldn't help but snap. Soaking my dress and sans an overcoat, the tears and burns stood out clear. It also wasn't a dress meant to be washed in water. Here I was in the middle of the street in burned clothes that were falling off me, covered in some strange white, brown powder. What a terrible state.
"Don't cry kid its bad for your image." My mother even forced a bodyguard that liked to kick me while I was down.
"Here throw this on." I won't be moved with a returned lab coat, I just won't, but maybe this demon isn't all bad.
My head fells so heavy and it stinks like sweat. What is this nonsense? His helmet had been placed on my head; my eyesight narrowed.
"There, this way no one can see you face." I got a good look at his face for the first time. He had a total pretty boy face. Short punk hair, soft features, supper girlish looking. He eyes were a soft rose color, no wonder he was so strong, being so mana drenched.
"I'm feeling nice so ill carry you back." Could this be the legendary princess carry? Sure, I hated his guts, but this kind of experience is tough to find out of books.
Why am I being slung over his shoulder. This is not romantic at all!
I take it all back, this person is a demon!!!!!