Freedom

Nobody came to check on Amie the next day. Although she was excited to explore, she woke up in the afternoon a little hurt by the lack of visitors. While she understood Julia's avoidance, she wondered at the same time why her dear sister was not concerned about Amie's head injury. Maybe Julia dared not to visit because of Jacques? She decided not to dwell on it too much.

Amie's reaction to Jacques' lack of presence could be described as the polar opposite of Julia's. Julia not visiting caused Amie a feeling of immense distress whereas Jacques' sudden disappearance solicited no reaction. She wasn't concerned with Jacques' lack of presence at all. He was unpredictable at best and conniving at worst, both things of which Amie felt no desire to deal with at the moment. She only hoped he was doing well emotionally.

With night having fallen, Amie got ready for her adventure. This time, before leaving for the secret palace again, Amie rummaged through her clothes until she found the oldest garment with the most muted colors. After dressing into it, she made her way down the secret staircase and then turned right instead of left.

Amie had a feeling the right path led outside of the palace, but she wasn't completely sure. Left had been what she had taken both times before and made sense if the corridors were meant to stay within the confines of the palace. Right, on the other hand, only made sense if the passageway was designed to lead those who followed it away from the palace.

Once she turned right, Amie was heading off of palace grounds almost immediately. She followed the winding corridor down a slope and then through multiple twists and turns. Unlike inside the palace where there was an assortment of side tunnels and different directions to choose from, this passage only went in one direction. She could either keep following it until the end, or turn around and go back to the bottom of the staircase. The path continued for quite a while. Before she knew it, Amie had been walking for over an hour.

Amie continued until the path in front of her stopped abruptly. She looked left and right to see if she missed something. There was nothing. A creaking noise from above was followed with a clump of dirt falling on her head. She looked up to investigate and noticed there appeared to be an exit above where she was standing. She felt around the walls to see if there was something she missed. It felt like dirt for the most part until her hand grazed something much colder and smoother than the surrounding dirt walls.

Amie started pulling dirt away from the object she skimmed to get a closer look. Amie squeaked in excitement when she realized what it was. Buried into the side of the wall was a ladder rung. If there was one, then she reasoned there must be more to climb up to the exit above.

Amie felt around carefully, trying to differentiate the rungs from the dirt they were trying to blend into. After some time had passed and she finished digging out each rung, Amie was able to climb up to the trapdoor exit. Pushing on it caused a tremendous amount of dirt to fall on her and land on the floor below. The first attempt at opening the door failed, so she tried again. More dirt fell, but Amie noticed it felt like the door moved a little bit more than last time. After multiple attempts and being covered in quite a bit of dirt, she was finally able to get the door to swing open.

Amie felt a rush of adrenaline overtake her. The last time she felt free was when her parents were still alive. She climbed out of the hole in the ground and looked around.

The top of the towers were visible in the distance while the rest of the palace was obscured by buildings and trees. A city laid in front of her, a forest behind. To her right was the Sequana river, the lifeline of Lutetia.

Amie was surprised to see how far away she was from the palace, but a sense of excitement and adventure quickly overtook her thoughts. She finally had access to the outside world with nobody to keep an ever watchful eye on her. She wanted to explore her new-found freedom, but didn't know where to start.

The night was already growing old. With all of the bustling shops and stands closed until morning, the only businesses still open were mostly of the unscrupulous kind. The tunnel came out close to the edge of a slum, where brothels and pubs littered the streets. Amie stayed hidden in the safety of the trees and observed a fight break out in front of a pub. She saw a woman disappear into an alley guiding a man behind her. Perhaps this was not the best time to explore a city.

Amie decided to sneak away from the city for now and head towards the river. She followed it until the noise from the city behind her faded into the chirps of crickets. The full moon reflected off the surface of the Sequana, lighting a path along the river that ended at the start of an oak tree grove. Amie entered the grove, keeping an eye on the river that slowly became more difficult to stay close to.

Instead of being worried about drifting from the river that was her only guide back, a strange feeling of tranquility overtook Amie. She knew it was dangerous to become separated from the river, but it felt as though something else was compelling her to keep walking. It was as if an unknown force was guiding her to where she was meant to be. The further into the trees she walked, the more relaxed she felt. Amie started to enter a trance.

Before she knew it, the river was no longer in sight. Amie tried to snap herself out of her dream state, but she couldn't make her body or mind cooperate. After quite a bit of time elapsed, she noticed through drooping eyes that she was now deep inside the forest. Just as she realized this, the thick grove of trees had given way to a meadow.

There was a young woman with long white flowing hair in front of her. She was dressed in all white and appeared to be standing on top of a water fountain. Amie thought her eyes were deceiving her, that she couldn't possibly be seeing what was in front of her. She wished to open her eyes to see what was really there, but they were being forced shut. Amie thought she could hear singing and before she knew it, she could feel herself laying down in the meadow.

Just before Amie could fall asleep, she heard a voice tell her, "Don't worry young acolyte. Take rest and when you awake, I will guide you back home."

Amie felt comforted by her soothing voice and allowed herself to drift into a deep slumber.