A Fairytale for Wizards

‘Was it that person again? How many times have I met him in just two days? No, before that, the backyard is understandable, but he just popped into the guest room. How? Is it really teleportation magic? By the way, is he the one who made me fall asleep? Why? What on earth happened? Come to think of it, I need to return the shoes. Oh, what about the wizard from the capital? What did he mean by knowing what I am?’

Random thoughts and questions filled Azriel’s mind. She took a deep breath, rubbed her face, and narrowly managed to arrange her thoughts.

‘Anywho, despite whatever happened, there’s only one thing that’s important and for certain.’

The fact of the matter is she could not stay in Colte Castle anymore. She needed to escape. After all the mysterious questions and thoughts were cleared from her mind, that was the only truth left. As she recalled what happened in the banquet hall, she felt a chill. Though slavery had been abolished and she was no longer a slave on paper, she was still a slave in reality. She could stand being whipped, made to do odd jobs, and starved, but she was growing and had no power to protect herself. If this kind of incident were to happen again, there was no guarantee she would be as lucky a second time. Even with the insufficient amount of funds she had, she still needed to get away somehow.

‘I need to go as far as I can with the money I have. I have no choice but to run away and think about the future later.’

Azriel paused as she headed for the door. Something was sparkling under the moonlight on the expensive carpet. She took a closer look and realized that they were grains of sand.

“What’s with the sand…?”

‘Sand in the guest room that the servants swept and mopped all day long yesterday? It’s not like there is a sandy field nearby.’

She tilted her head for a while but soon took her attention away from it. Whatever happened in this room was not important now. The castle was very quiet during the middle of the night. Azriel snuck out of the guest room and stealthily slipped down the stairs. Fortunately, she did not run into anyone until she entered her room next to the liquor storage in the basement. She packed her belongings in a flash. Since she had been planning on running away for some time now, it did not take her long to pack: two sets of clothes, the money she had saved thus far, a few candles, matches, a map… and the book that she had not yet finished translating. She would return it to the bookstore on her way out. After gathering everything, she stood and held her belongings in her arms.

‘’I won’t be able to say goodbye to Maylie before I leave.’

Her meeting Maylie one last time was the only thing she was sorry about. Azriel glanced at a scrap of paper that had been left to one side of the room. It was part of the wrapper for the pie Maylie brought. She might feel heartbroken, but Maylie would understand why Azriel needed to leave without taking a moment to say goodbye. As soon as she made up her mind and was about to leave the room, she stopped and sensed something was missing. She belatedly realized what she had forgotten after looking around the narrow and dim room.

“That shoebox is gone.”

She had buried it underneath the pile of straw she used as her bed, but now it had vanished without a trace. Startled, Azriel searched the straw again, deeper this time. The box was nowhere to be seen. Only Maylie knew of Azriel’s recent acquisition of the expensive dress shoes and that she had stashed them in her room.

‘…That can’t be.’

Azriel had some doubt, but she threw it out at once. She trusted Maylie. She continued to search for a little longer, but the shoebox was nowhere to be found. Since she was running out of time, Azriel left her room and headed for the kitchen. There was plenty of food leftover from the banquet; however, she only packed some of the biscuits and a bottle of water. This was how much she usually had for a meal, anyway.

‘I don’t want to be a thief, so I’ll only take my portion.’

Passing through the kitchen, she quietly opened the door to the rear yard. The moonlight was shining and the wall surrounding the entire castle cast its shadow over it like a monster. Above the wall, torchlights carried by the guards glimmered. During the daytime, the rear entrance was left open for servants to come in and out of, but it would be closed by now. There were also no alternative entrances such as ones for dogs on the castle wall. Azriel was not swift enough to climb over the wall without being caught by the guards on patrol, which is why she had originally planned to run away in the daytime.

‘It’s a gamble, but let’s go to the well.’ 

In the rear yard was a well that had dried up a long time ago. The well had not been removed even though it had been dry for several decades. Deborah once threw her ring out of the window out of ill-nature, wishing for Azriel to suffer outside in the cold as she searched for the ring. Azriel had reached the bottom of the well back then because she thought she saw something twinkling between the piles of decomposing leaves and dirt down there. While searching for the ring, Azriel found a mysterious passage that perhaps seemed to lead outside the castle. She then also realized why Count Colte had been neglecting the well that had long since dried.

‘That was the escape route that every castle or noble mansion has.’

She was guessing since she had never actually entered the passage to check. It was worth a try, though. Even if the passage had been blocked in the middle, she could still hide there for the night and find a chance to run away as soon as the sun rises again.

Quietly, she crossed the yard. Upon arriving at the well, she pulled the old rope to check if it was still strong. She then let her belongings down first and carefully rappelled down to the bottom. After getting rid of the drooping vines at the entrance of the passage, she saw the entrance was wide open and pitch-black—like the mouth of a beast. A cool wind blew from the inside where nothing was visible. Her skin crawled slightly.

‘The passage must not be blocked since I can feel the wind blowing. It’ll be fine.’

Azriel barely managed to comfort herself and suppress her fear. The passage was low, so she needed to bend her waist to fit through it despite her small figure. A healthy, adult male would have had to crawl. While gripping the wall with her hands, she stepped inside. As she made her way through, there was a slight incline, and soon the ground became flat.

Once she was a bit of a way away from the entrance, she took out a candle and lit it. The small candlelight fluttered like a firefly pushing away the darkness. She saw a spider hanging from a web in the corner of the ceiling busily scurrying away. As she walked further into the passage with her candle, the passage began to widen enough for her to walk without needing to lower her head. She continued walking but did not encounter any forks. The passage was dark and narrow, and it was hard to tell how long she had been walking for. Azriel could not even tell whether the passage was straight or winding.

‘I see the light!’

She saw some light up ahead, which happened much faster than she anticipated. The light was not natural light, but rather it was the kind of light that came from lamps or candles.

‘This doesn’t look like an exit… What is it?”