Chapter Text
The evening of the day that Aelwyn Abernant took her entrance exam for the upper classes into Hudol wasn't the first time that she fantasized about running away. Not even close, really; she'd started imagining it years ago, when she first realized just how conditional her parents' care could be, the one and only time she had tried defending Adaine to them.
That had been five years ago, when she was nine. At least the lessons on illusions to conceal the bruises after her father had squeezed her wrist just a bit too tightly had been helpful.
It was, however, the first time she starting moving those from being a fantasy to being an actual plan of sorts. She was a full wizard now, after all, well ahead of the entrance requirements for Hudol, almost certainly more practiced than anyone else who would have sat the exam. She shouldn't have to be so worried that she might have misinterpreted one question or another, that she had made a mistake on the divination portion about the meanings of certain omens, about any of it... but she was, because even if her grades wound up being the best, nothing short of perfection would do, and when the final scores came in a week's time there would be no hiding if there had been any errors from her mother, a professor at the school.
She'd been sneaking out from time to time over the last year, any chance to get loose from the oppressive atmosphere of her house a welcome one, and she was pretty certain she could survive out there if she needed to. But it would help if she had some money, and so that night was when she started building a kit of things she could take with her. Ink for more spells, and paper - she'd have to grow without going to Hudol, after all, if she ran. But more importantly, things she could sell, and a way to avoid being found through divination. She did not think her parents would let her leave so easily.
Luckily, there were plenty of knick-knacks and things that had been gifted to Angwyn Abernant as the Elvish Ambassador that were deemed by her parents as too tacky to use or display. A lot of those were made of gold or silver, or even some platinum. They wouldn't be missed anytime soon. She could have some of them ready to take and sell, just in case...
She didn't break the kit up when her scores came back perfect after all, but it was a big relief, and she was able to breath without worry for the first time in months. It'd be the end of the summer before any other tasks came up that she absolutely couldn't get wrong, with luck. An eternity.
Still, with that level of preparation, she couldn't call it an impulse when she finally did leave home a month later. Not really, not when she'd been dreaming about it for years and made plans and made preparations and everything.
No, the impulse, the spur of the moment madness, was that she'd brought Adaine with her.
Aelwyn had been riding the high of her scores ever since getting the exam results back, but Adaine's exam scores in the lower grade (which had taken a few weeks longer to get back) hadn't been nearly so good. She'd only been third in her class overall, and her only perfect score was on divination as usual.
She'd done particularly dismally in Aelwyn's own area of specialization, abjuration, tenth out of the fifteen students in her class there. To call mother and father displeased wouldn't be doing it justice.
"Even a researcher must be able to perform the very basics, Adaine, and nothing in your grades shows that you have much of a mind for that. If you can't manage to be a researcher and you can't manage to be a practical caster, just what is it you expect to become?" Father had said, sternly, at the dinner table while Adaine seemed to simultaneously have one of her anxiety episodes and fume with rage. "I will take the time to make certain you have a working Shield by the end of the summer. You should be grateful."
After dinner, while Aelwyn pretended to keep reading her own abjuration theory text at the table, Father had set up a space to 'practice' in one of the spare rooms nearby. She could just see Adaine through the doorway, standing and facing where he must be, her entire body trembling.
By the time the session was done, a half hour later, Adaine was unconscious from Magic Missile bolts striking her even through the three healing potions Father had given her, no Shield ever having been successfully cast against it.
A disappointment, but Adaine's breathing was steady if nothing else as Unseen Servants carried her to bed.
Aelwyn's own session with Mother later that night was more successful, thankfully, practicing both spell recognition and countermagic. Their father had never been very patient; hopefully he would give up on Adaine and leave her alone after this.
He did not. It took a full week of sessions before Adaine finally got a Shield up, and Aelwyn felt something loosen in her chest. Now, now Father would surely let it go, and Adaine could go back to being an annoyance and a distraction and stop looking quite so pathetic as she was battered nightly into the ground.
"Finally. Now, we will move up to two Missiles at a time." Father said, instead.
That night, Adaine having looked worse than ever as she'd been carried off to bed, Aelwyn climbed out of her own window and over the roof to Adaine's, using a mage hand to pull it open - their parents had Adaine's door Alarmed, but never thought about the windows. Adaine was still passed out, not even in a proper trance, wearing the clothing she had been that evening's practice.
Aelwyn sat, and watched her sister's breathing, and waited. Eventually, quite late into the night, Adaine started to stir with a groan of pain. It was well after their parents would hopefully be in their own trances, but they would still need to keep it quiet.
"Adaine, don't scream." Aelwyn said, and her sister's head jerked around to stare at her. Thankfully, she did not in fact scream, though her eyes squinted to peer through the dim light of darkness at Aelwyn.
"...What do you want? Here to mock my performance more? I get it enough from Father." Adaine said, sulkily putting a hand to where the last missile had struck her in the stomach, tugging her shirt up enough to peer down at the welt underneath.
Aelwyn frowned down at her sister. More than one bruise was still visible. Had she not been fully healing at night? "...I thought you might want some help with the spell. I don't..." She trailed off, glancing at the door. No sign that her parents were waiting there and listening for signs of disloyalty. She could maybe risk it. "I don't enjoy watching you get hurt like that, Adaine." She finally said, in a whisper. Just in case she'd missed their presence, after all.
Adaine snorted. "Could have fooled me. I've heard about how young you were when your shield was perfected often enough. ...I can do the spell. It's just, when he's staring at me, and when it's going to hurt if I mess up, and.." She shook her head. "It just leaves my head, most of the time. I don't know if you can help, not with that." That last was bitter, as though still uncertain that Aelwyn truly wished to.
Aelwyn opened her mouth, planning on giving her little sister some vague reassurances, trying to encourage her to just keep trying to focus, that surely the next success would get Father to leave her alone, that he wouldn't want to sully his hands with 'practical casting' forever. Instead, what came out of her mouth was... "I've been thinking about leaving."
Adaine blinked, and looked up at her. "..Leaving? What do you mean, leaving?" And that was actual sincere interest, not the sarcasm and fear that Adaine had been giving in equal measures for years.
Well. It wasn't like their parents would believe Adaine anyway. A little bit of sisterly sharing was fine.
"I just.. have been thinking about climbing out my window one night and going somewhere else. And not coming back here. I don't think... I don't think everywhere in Solace, or in Elmville, is like it is here, Adaine. I've been going out at night for the last few months." Aelwyn rubbed her hands together, looking away from Adaine's gaze.
"..Why would you want to leave? They treat you like a queen, Aelwyn. I don't think I could get away with sneaking out at night for even one night, much less for months." Adaine said, and even looking away Aelwyn could feel the angry frown.
Aelwyn hummed, trying to think of how to explain. "...They treat me like a queen as long as I don't slip at all in front of them. And as long as you keep messing up, to distract them. But I.. don't think I can keep that going forever." She couldn't believe she'd kept it up this long, and school was only going to get harder; Aelwyn was talented, but perfection was impossible to maintain for every test for four more years.
"Is this you trying to say goodbye, then?" Adaine said, her ears flat. Not willing to ask her not to leave, still not sure why she'd come, and Aelwyn wasn't completely certain of it herself. Her eyes drifted down to where Adaine's bruising had been, thought about how many more of those she must have taken in the last week, how many more might be in her future.
Well. Why not try, for once. If she was leaving anyway, if she was going to hopefully avoid her parents' justice forever... "...Do you want to come with me?" She finally asked, realizing that that was why she had come here to begin with, no matter how much she wouldn't have admitted that to herself.
Adaine stared. "What? Are you serious? Where would we go?"
"Anywhere but here, Adaine. I can't promise it'll be easy, but.. we can be somewhere else. Without them. Get your spellbook and anything else you can't replace, I have a bag of valuables we can sell I'll need to retrieve from my room, and we'll just go. Tonight. Now. While they're still trancing." Aelwyn suggested, and Adaine stared at her, clearly trying to measure if this was sincere, if this was going to be a trick ending with Adaine on the lawn and locked out of the house somehow.
Whatever Adaine saw in her, she was satisfied, nodding and climbing out of bed.
"As quietly as you can, Adaine. If we wake them, we're both going to suffer. I will be back in five minutes, just let me retrieve my own things." She offered.
Fifteen minutes later, she was helping her sister climb down to the ground without hurting herself. She placed an Invisibility spell on the both of them, and hand in hand the Abernant sisters left home for the last time, making their way quietly down Spelljammer Lane.