Lea had to admit, she was rather amused that her old, stolen lantern had been kept, and was now perched just above where she and Eustace sat. Between the lantern light, the full moon, and the tower's light itself, he had expressed complete confidence in actually being able to see what he was doing, though he had warned her of the possibility of a jab or two if his hand slipped.
"Why do you have lockpicks, anyway?" Lea asked, resisting the urge to look back at Eustace. He had stressed the importance of remaining still- not only could it risk harming one of them, but it could cause the pick to break, which would both inconvenience him and nearly completely ruin all future chance of Lea getting the collar off.
"Just in case," he replied, shifting his hands sightly as he worked. "If a door gets stuck, if I ever come across some locked chest or journal or something." Eustace paused for a moment, and added in a voice barely above a whisper. "And... well, for whatever reason, I just lose keys. A lot."
Lea giggled slightly, though she immediately silenced herself when she felt her shoulders shake. "You lose keys... yet you're able to keep track of an entire set of lockpicks?"
"Hey, keys are plenty easy to replace. Replacing a pick is difficult, and it gets you a bunch of funny looks," he said with a slight laugh. "I mean, there's plenty of legitimate uses, but no, everyone thinks you're going to try and break into their house."
"It's wartime," Lea said. "People will be suspicious, you can't really blame them for that, can you?"
"I guess not," Eustace replied, his voice soft. "Especially around here, I guess... everyone's paranoid."
"How come?" she asked.
Eustace was silent for some moments following that, all that could be heard was the quiet sound of the picks moving within the lock.
"The Empire's bent on conquering everything," he finally said. "They've taken just about all of the north, they took that... canyon place, and it sounds like they're taking the islands now. And they've had it out for Utopia since it was first formed."
"Utopia?"
"Really old word... it means 'no place'. It was founded by people who resisted the Empire, those who managed to escape. It was back before the Empire was even a proper empire, I've heard, they didn't have much land. The people who found this place... they called it a sign from god. Somewhere perfect and beautiful and safe. So they dug themselves in, and... well, I guess it was inevitable," he sighed, pausing his work.
"You want to remain free," Lea said, turning to look at him. "A perfectly noble cause."
Eustace nodded, smiling slightly. "If it means anything, Utopia's never... engaged in slave practice or anything," he said. "We were the cast-offs of the Empire, their old slaves and servants, it'd just be a thousand levels of wrong to do anything like that."
Lea gave a slight nod and turned away as Eustace took up the picks, and once again tried to undo the collar's lock.
"How do you think the fighting will go?" she asked after a few moments, staring out the great glass windows of the tower room to the starry sky outside. Her voice was soft and despite her stillness and the relative warmth of the mid-spring night, Lea felt a slight chill creep up her body. She'd done so well avoiding the thought, just trying to pretend the war was somewhere else, that she was completely removed from it and would never see it again, but... she had to ask, to voice those fears that still lingered in her mind.
"Badly," Eustace whispered. "We've got the strongest mages on the continent, but they've got numbers. The best we can do is just... hold them back until everything's so ruined it's not worth taking any more, or the last Utopian dies. And I'd put my money on it being the latter, the Empire would still try to claim this land even if was a wasteland, and there's no way in hell we'll ever agree to any sort of surrender or treaty with them."
"I see," Lea said, casting her gaze to the gray floor below her.
"Well. That's just what I'm trying to prepare for," Eustace said after a few moments, gently touching Lea's shoulder in a comforting manner. "I told you, we do have the strongest mages on the entire continent, and everyone who fights does so because they love their land and want to see it free. I'm pretty sure a fair portion of the Empire's army can't say that. And there's always turncoats... I just keep the lights running, I don't know much about war," he said with a weak laugh. It turned into a jubilant one a moment later though, after a rather loud click sound.
"What was that?" Lea asked, barely daring to hope that it might really be...
"Got it!" Eustace cried out, gently prying the metal tongue of the collar out of the lock. The steel band crashed to the floor moments later, and Lea could barely believe it. She took it into her hands, examined it, the traces of blood and wear and tear that had come to it over the past ten years, and felt the coolness of the air on the scarred flesh where it had been for so long.
"You... you got it," she finally whispered. No more tightness whenever she moved her head, no bite of cold metal in the dead of winter, no lingering trace of that horrible, heavy feeling that had prevented her from shifting since the day she had been caught. "Thank you!" Lea cried out, whirling around, the grin on Eustace's face matching the one on her own. The two embraced, but it lasted only a moment, for Lea pulled away and took several steps back, just to see if she really could change, even after so long being confined to her human form.
She closed her eyes and began the process of relaxing, of feeling her body shift and twist into a smaller shape, the covering of soft feathers and long wings. If she had lips, Lea would have smiled when she opened her eyes. She cocked her head to the side and looked up at Eustace, who shouted and stumbled backwards in shock.
"Holy... you- you really did that?!" he exclaimed.
Lea nodded, shaking her head and stretching her wings. It had to have been a shock for her dear friend, watching her change from woman to albatross in a matter of seconds, but she was sure he'd get over it. Rather awkwardly (she had never been good at walking as a bird, and her years out of this form only made it worse), she moved down the stairs, her wings half-spread for balance. She could hear Eustace following behind, and about halfway down, she felt him carefully pick her up into his arms.
"Look, I'm sure you're excited, but you're not running down the stairs like that," he said, giving her an unamused look. Lea gave a soft warble of gratitude as Eustace carried her the rest of the way, until they were outside. She was only dimly aware of him saying something as he set her down, but she didn't catch the actual words. She took off towards the beach, and after several clumsy failed attempts, finally managed to get herself airborne.
The rush of damp air, the warmth of the ground billowing up under her wings, the thrill of those dead falls of cold air- the islands weren't her home, this was, the very sky itself! Lea trilled and whistled loudly, spiraling higher and higher into the night sky, farther out to sea, until the lighthouse was a distant shape on the horizon.
She was free, that thought rang through her mind like nothing had before. She was free, she could go wherever she wanted. She could stay a bird, hide in remote locations, safe and far away from any who might want to reclaim her... but could she? For the first time, she had something on the mainland. She had Eustace- she couldn't even call him a friend any more, he had become something far more important, and she would bet her very freedom that he was feeling the same.
The sound of a ship bell below her broke Lea out of her thoughts, and it only took a moment for her to make up her mind. She dove and turned, heading back to the shore. Her landing upon arrival was almost as clumsy as her takeoff, and she shifted the second her feet were on the sand. Eustace was nearby, though his back was to her, and he seemed to be staring out towards the forest. Lea ran towards him and threw her arms around him, still breathless with the exhilaration of her flight.
Eustace cried out in surprise, turning to face her, and Lea felt a brief pang of sorrow when she saw his face, it was clear that he had shed a few tears.
"I..."
"I was just stretching my wings," Lea whispered.
"But you can fly, you... you can go, you can be safe," Eustace said, though he held her just as tightly as she held him.
"Not if it means leaving you behind," Lea said firmly, pulling away just enough so she could touch his cheek, wet with fresh tears.
They stood in silence for several long moments, until Eustace finally seemed to regain his composure.
"I... I thought I had seen something out there," he added, gesturing towards the trees. "It just looked like an animal though, probably a deer, they're usually around this time of year. A... anyway," he said, clearing his throat. "We should..."
"Yeah," Lea said with a slight laugh, glancing back to the lighthouse. She took his hand as they made their way back inside and up the tower. At the top of the stairs she paused, a small smile on her lips as she turned to Eustace.
"I just wanted to thank you again," she said softly. With that, she leaned close and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
"You're welcome," Eustace said, and Lea was amused to note that his voice seemed to have risen to something resembling a squeak, and his face seemed quite red.
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"Lea. Lea, get up. Now!"
Lea groaned as she felt a strong pull on her arm and heard Eustace's voice, which seemed... off, low and rough. She had gone to bed early, the previous night's events having completely worn her out, had she slept into the next evening? No, the sun was shining brightly through the windows, it seemed it wasn't even midday yet.
She looked at Eustace, and became immediately awake when she saw his expression- he was terrified. A sharp knock at the door made her jump, and she quickly got to her feet, standing close beside Eustace.
"It can't-"
"The tower. Break the window if you have to, just fly. Get to the city, or... or anywhere, you just have to fly. Now!" Eustace hissed, pushing her towards the stairs. "I'll hold them off."
Lea took only one final look at Eustace before doing as he said, only just disappearing from sight when she heard the door open.
"Is there something you need?" That was Eustace's voice. The reply, however, sent such a wave of fear through Lea, she thought she might simply freeze up right there on the stairs.
"You were seen in the company of a sylph woman, identified as a soldier who went missing six months ago. Harboring a runaway is a criminal offense, boy, I hope you were aware of that!" The voice of her old commander, the man who had bought her and made her into a messenger. The man who would take any reason to execute a 'difficult' slave.
Lea hear nothing after that, she was too high up. She did not go to the light room, though, instead she ducked into the floor just below, a room that housed the often-cursed bell and an opening that led up to the outer walkway around the light room, usually used just to clean the windows.
Lea froze when she heard clattering and shouting below her, and the sounds of people racing up the stairs. One shout, one incredibly pained shout, she could swear belonged to Eustace, but there was no time to be sure. She sprinted to the doorway, just as a soldier burst through into the bell room. The soldier chased her up the outer stairs, and the moment Lea reached the outer rim, she ran towards the rail and threw herself over it.
The soldier cried out, first in shock, then to bark out orders to shoot when Lea shifted, raising her wings and rising into the sky, only just having manged to save herself from completely crashing onto the ground. She wasn't even sure what direction she was traveling in, where she would go. She just needed to fly, fly and not look back. Fly and pray that no harm would come to Eustace.
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How long had she been flying, a day? More than that, she had flown into a night and into a day, and now the sun was setting once again. She had frequently changed direction, in case she was being followed, but she knew she had to land and find rest soon, or she would simply drop out of the sky and die from the impact, and if not impact, she was facing severe starvation.
She banked and glided on a draft of warm air, taking a moment to really look at where she was. The coast was once again visible, along with something else... something new. A city? Yes, a city rose up ahead of her, and for the first time in two days, she felt a spark of hope. He'd told her to get to the city... this had to be it, just had to be.
The moon had risen by the time Lea reached the city. She slowly spiraled down towards a large, open area- a marketplace? There were several stalls that held various goods, and better still- people! A few of those people stopped and stared at her, immediately clearing away when she landed and promptly collapsed onto the stone road, using her last reserve of strength to shift back into human form.
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'Another sylph, can you believe it?'
'The collar's gone, too, that's a first.'
'Think she'll make it?'
'Pro- hey, she's waking up!'
Lea groaned softly, struggling to open her eyes. As her vision cleared, she saw that she was in a small, pale green room decorated with rather pretty but bland pictures. A window was nearby, flooding the room with bright sunlight. And she seemed to be in a bed, with two women standing beside it- one of whom had scars on her neck.
"You're safe here," the scarred one said in a soothing tone, and despite all her fear and pain, Lea smiled at the familiar accent.
"Utopia welcomes all sylphs. We'll keep them from taking you back."
(Lyrics are, again, from 'Turn Loose the Mermaids.')
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