Over the following few days Song Jie had made up her mind, she had to try and leave the Concubine Houses. She felt inside her the need to leave, to go somewhere else, she just wasn't sure where, or even how. The news of Father's visit made her start to wonder, that with all the commotion of one coming in, maybe one could slip out?

The evening after his coming was announced; Song Jie and Yang Min sat playing a board game by the corner window in the Main Hall.

"Are you ever going to include me?" exclaimed Yang Min suddenly, a petulant glare taking up residence across her features.

"What?" asked Song Jie, shaken from her reverie and knocking a piece from the table.

"I have waited and waited," Yang Min sighed, "I've even dropped hints, but you never told me about the notes, or what you saw that night you were 'sleepwalking' or what you are constantly thinking about when you stare out the window. Look - I know you are tired from not sleeping, things must slip your mind, but I never thought I'd slip clean out!"

By the time Yang Min had finished talking she didn't look angry any more, simply weary as if she had been holding the words in for a while, perhaps too long.

Song Jie leant down to pick up the fallen game piece and placed it carefully on the board. With her eyes fixed downwards she swallowed hard, composing herself, "How do you know about the notes?"

Yang Min snorted and threw up her hands; at least now she looked irritated again, it was reassuringly more characteristic. "I saw you hiding a piece of parchment in your hand that night in the garden, and then I saw you picking up that strange paper from beside the pool and reading it. You are always wandering off by yourself nowadays when you think no one's looking."

"But you, apparently have been. I presume you've been following me?" Song Jie asked, feeling more annoyed than worried that Yang Min had found her out. After all, she had been planning on telling her eventually. Leaving without telling Yang Min just wouldn't be an option.

"Of course I've been following you!" Yang Min snapped. "You are my friend who’s been having nightmares and was quite possibly attacked, I wanted to make sure you were safe."

"I wasn't attacked! No such things happen here," Song Jie muttered as an afterthought.

"Then why did you look even paler than usual?” Yang Min pressed, “And don't tell me you were sleepwalking, I've known you all your life and you are always scarily still when sleeping, you don't move at all, you look as if you're dead -"

"I saw eyes in the bushes," Song Jie interrupted quickly.

"Eyes?" Yang Min gasped and leant forwards, her eyebrows climbing up her forehead in surprise.

"At first I thought it was Hua Ling eating honey-sweets again. But it was something else, a creature of sorts," Song Jie admitted.

"An animal? In the garden? That's not that strange," Yang Min shrugged, looking slightly bemused.

"Not one of the garden-dwellers, a creature..." Song Jie trailed off.

"An Outsider?" Yang Min's own eyes widened to reflect her friend's insisting ones.

"I think so," Song Jie nodded slowly, "perhaps, I am unsure."

"What did the notes say?" Yang Min questioned impatiently.

"Just short phrases here and there, saying I'm trapped here, we all are," Song Jie paused, "and that someone is waiting for me."

Yang Min chewed on her lip, "So what were you intending to do? Have you told Auntie?"

"No!" replied Song Jie quickly, looking anxious. However Yang Min sighed and nodded, "That's probably for the best. But what now? Are you waiting for more notes?"

"No, they stopped a while ago. I was planning, well not exactly planning..."

"Speak to Father about it," Yang Min cut Song Jie off mid-sentence.

"But no one speaks to Father!" Song Jie uttered in surprise, the thought hadn't even crossed her mind.

"Request permission, you must, it's such an important matter, he's bound to understand, to know something," Yang Min declared with certainty.

"Yang Min we don't know that for sure, we've never spoken to him, he is not even our ..."

"What?" Yang Min snapped, as if daring Song Jie to continue her sentence.

"...he doesn't know us," replied Song Jie sitting back in her chair. "He can't help, but I need to ask someone, someone not from here."

"Father's not from here," Yang Min pouted.

"But he brought us here. Please Yang Min, speaking to Father would also mean going through Auntie first."

"So what will you do?" demanded Yang Min, still sounding frustrated at Song Jie's stubbornness. The moon was now out in full now and it illuminated Yang Min's dark eyes. Her black hair was curled up in an intricate bun with a few strands falling over her face. She was very pretty and always looked even more so when she was angry. "Yang Min..."

"Say it Song Jie, say you are leaving."

"I have...been thinking about it, but how could I even leave? It seems impossible,” Song Jie murmured thoughtfully.

"You cannot go without me," Yang Min declared sternly.

"Yang Min, this is your home," Song Jie frowned, she had never thought that Yang Min would actually offer to join her in escaping the Houses.

"It's your home too," Yang Min shrugged. "That nest in the jasmine outside my window was somebody's home once, but now they are off flying somewhere. Isn't that what your poem was about? How wingless we all are?" Yang Min hissed the last few words as if imbuing them with bitterness.

"I am sorry Yang Min," murmured Song Jie, and she meant it. Not burdening her friend with her own bizarre dreams and anxieties had been her intended parting gift, but now she realised why she hadn't been scared alone in the garden, or after her nightmares. It wasn't the effect of growing up in the Concubine Houses, it was because all the time, she'd had a friend there.

"So when are you going?" Yang Min sighed, indicating that the matter was temporarily forgotten, if not forgiven.

"When Father comes," Song Jie replied firmly.

"How will you do it?" Yang Min frowned.

"I haven't thought that far."

"Two heads are better than one," replied Yang Min, moving her piece across the board to take Song Jie's.