Food turned out to be quite heavy, and Tiffaney was grateful that behind her the lady who reprimanded her initially steered her along. It took time but as they approached her shard domicile the lady spoke up.
"There's a lot of problems that might be weighing you down but don't worry and rely on those around you." It was an offhanded remark, but the noble felt that this person also went through something similar to herself. Relief and worry flooded her; however she said nothing in response. The noble lady didn't want to feel about them since she intended to leave.
"Let me take the door." Opening the door at her shared room, the noble waddled in, her arms burning and stinging. Heat radiated as deep-seated tiredness set in, relived when she could finally place the mountain on her desk.
"What did you to get the old biddies behind the counter to give you all that?" Maid Jac looked up from her desk when the noble walked in. Showing respect and thanking her escort first, the noble turned to address her senior.
"I asked and they gave me all this." It was one of the first times the two had been in the same room, whatever maid Jac did for the castle she normally returned, slept, and left before the noble awoke. While curious about what the maid was working on her eyes were drawn to the normally closed cabinet. There on one of the selves next to several messy articles of clothing, was a small pouch and several coins.
It would be wrong, but the noble was sure she could repay it somehow. Most important, all she needed now was a path out.
Waiting longer seemed like a good idea, but it would get suspicious to ask for more supplies later, so the noble decide that this night was the night. She was worried about how to make her plan work in most aspects, sleep was going to be needed if she intended to disappear successfully. If she slept to long, everyone would be awake, and she would be caught effortlessly. If she didn't sleep, it would be harder to escape.
It seemed annoying but she drank lots of water, that way she would wake up in the night. Maid Jac would still be here, but she could work around that, still theft was bad, even crumbs didn't belong to her. With that in mind she changed out of her work cloths and into her pajamas, leaving them neatly folded in her own cabinet.
Under the guise of organizing, she stealthily put her bag together. Her roommate kept glancing at her and the desk in which she dumped her spoils. For a distraction she parted with some of her ill-gotten extras.
"Wow your even organizing your extras and cloths, why are you so good at this kind of thing?" Munching on one of the sandwich tringles, maid Jac felt something was even more wrong. Such a delicate tiny lady was…wait.
In a strange moment of realization, maid Jac concluded something that must have occurred in the nobles past. Whoever oppressed her had to have forced the child to clean and do chores, then complain when they were not accomplished perfectly. Not only that, but what about maid Jac herself? She, who didn't tell the small child not to make her bed, who allowed the child to clean up no less the three of her messes, who blindly believed that a magical cleaning fairy had done those things, was scum.
It was a harsh fact to swallow but she had no problem completely consuming the rye before she told herself, 'I will do better'. Resisting the desire to ask for more sandwiches, she thought about how to go about fixing herself.
"First thing is to sleep early!" Taken aback at the outburst, the noble was uncertain what she meant. Setting all her work aside, there was a flurry of movement a few flying clothes, and one wrapped up lady Jac in bed. Her teeth brushed, pajamas on and she put the cover on her side of the lamp to dim the room she was ready for bed.
'I forgot to clean the sink!' Wailing to herself the maid could only ignore it now, and hope for a better tomorrow.
Watching the entire scene, the noble wanted to say something, wondering if she knew about the terrible things the cafeteria workers said about her. There wasn't anything for her to say or do about the sudden strange activity, in fact it was good advice to sleep early. Rather than waste time, she stored her goods for her trip, cleaned herself and then the sink, before she climbed into the soft covers to rest.
She slept better than she ever had If the noble had the habit of lying to herself.
All the water made her feel sloshy…sloshed or sloshes? Tiffaney couldn't remember what was right, as her thoughts chased themselves anxiously. Bloated and uncomfortable, she tried to find a spot to sleep on, several turns later however, she sung alto with her roommate's snores.
It wasn't a peaceful rest, but her youth carried the day, in short order a few hours slipped by, and she was woken to make a mad sprint to the attached bathroom. In the future she would edit that part out when she told the tale of this daring escape.
Stumbling back, she did her best not to make to much noise before raising the blinder on the lamp just enough to see by.
"That's why her bed is so messy." In the dim, the covers, sheets, and most of her cloths had been tossed aside. Her pillow was somehow wedge between the wall and her foot near the base of the mattress. She was quite attractive, commoner features had more roundness in them less jagged edge. Her chest was bound loosely with cloth, which the noble had no idea if that was right, given her general growth impermeant.
"For how much she eats, she doesn't have any plumpness" With that thought she slowly started the hardest part of escape. Stealing was a simple path to a harsh beating if she couldn't than her escape and resignment to her fate her last resort.
Had the noble asked, the maid would have simply handed her some coins for and advance and for the work she did in the room. Instead, the noble had to sneak slowly, grateful that the maid had been in such a hurry that she never closed the cabinet. Stalking softly, she managed to reach the cabinet without any noise. When her hand reached for the coins however…
"I must, I have to live, I must…"
Her heart was overclocked, her hands shook on their own accord. Her breaths were sharp, gasping softly in hopes that air might enter her lungs.
"I am just borrowing…" That seemed to be the thought she needed, enough that she could scrape a few coins along wood. Grimacing, her neck scrunched as she hoped that her roommate would stay asleep. Two became three, four became a pouch and the noble was able to sneak back to her own bed. She ought to have left right than, but since her heart was still a jackhammer, and her nerves rattled every joint in her body, there wasn't any thing to do but sneakily arrange the coins and get an idea for what she had.
It hadn't been long in real time but there was only so much sitting around she could do. Her last escape had been successful she was simply ignored for a week. Her decision to run hadn't been a thought-out affair, rather they didn't chain her that day and the door unlatched by mistake. The lengthy debate had been fought but there was never any other conclusion. She needed to know why she was the one treated this way, so for her sake it there wasn't a choice but to flee.
Dressing in her uniform, her actions made more noise than she realized. Dead sleep was an accurate description of the elder maid. Dressed in her uniform to make her stand out less, she once again promised to repay everything one day, before she opened the door quietly and stepped into the corridor.