The Morrows are trying to take the building down around the workers’ ears. My people called for one of the emergency response teams, but the Morrows were prepared for that,” he said, pushing the poor horse hard. “The Morrows attacked a building of mine, downhill. It was saddled for one, which made it less than comfortable. “What’s going on?” she asked, panting as she climbed up behind him on the horse. She took off her student token, too, just to be safe, leaving only her school satchel and her clothes on her body. She ran back, picked up the bag she had dropped, and then found a half-broken wooden crate in a nearby alley to stash her things underneath. His urgent, low voice cut through the fog of panic in her mind. There’s no time to wait, lives are at stake.” Stash your bags somewhere no one will find them and climb up behind me. “They haven’t discovered you, but I had no other way to get your attention. His eyes flicked between the bag in her arms and the one she had dropped. She stopped running and turned as he drew the panting beast up beside her. She dropped the larger bag, the one with her clothes and more unimportant belongings, and turned to sprint away, when Dryden’s familiar voice called, “It’s me! Get on the horse, it’s an emergency.” She grabbed both bags and was struggling off the absorbent landing pad toward the street when the sound of a horse’s hooves clopping to intercept her cut through the wind. To her great relief, the tubes worked as normal, simply setting her and her luggage down on the bouncy surface below. Only then did she have the horrible thought that her student token may have been compromised, and the tubes would trap her within till the authorities reached her-though she didn’t know if such a thing was actually possible. Her bags went in first, and then her legs, and she was off.
She was panting by the time she reached the glass tubes, but Fekten’s training in Defensive Magics had deepened the well of physical energy she had to draw on, and she didn’t slow. It would be fastest to go down through the tubes, but she didn’t want to do so without anything to slow her descent, not again, and she needed the student token for the tube system’s magic to recognize her. ‘ Should I get rid of the token? They might be able to track it.’ She decided to ditch it after she had escaped the grounds. Her student token bounced against her chest beside her warded medallion and the transmutation amulet. Outside, the wind had picked up, clearing away the night fog and whipping hair into her face. She put her boots on when she reached the hall, then picked up one bag in either arm and hurried out of the dorm building. She dressed as quickly as possible, slung her school satchel over her shoulder, and slipped from the room, carrying both her boots and her luggage. She moved to the chest at the foot of her bed and pulled out her things, most of which she kept organized within her luggage bags, and so required very little preparation to simply pick up and leave. Still, that answer wasn’t the most important thing at the moment. ‘ How did they find me?’ she wondered frantically. Now would be the worst possible time to neglect that safety measure. Turning to the bed, she cast the spell to disintegrate fallen hairs or other remnants from her body. She slid off her bed, pressing her feet to the cold stone floor with careful, deliberate movements. Sebastien bolted upright before she could stop herself, but then froze, opening her mouth to breathe so that her panicked gasps would be less audible.