Aven did a quick check down the hall, adjusted her bag, then slipped out the door. Quiet, she had to be quiet. Doing her best to not make audible footsteps, she crept down the hall, careful to avoid the attention of one of the watch, and entered the library.

She didn't breathe as she moved carefully to the window and unlatched the creaky hinge. The window would have swung wide but she held onto it, opening it just enough to slip through.

"Aven, leaving so soon?"

She froze at the sound of a voice, but her shoulders relaxed somewhat when she realized it was only Zyuer. She'd left a letter for him, now she'd have the chance to tell him face to face. "The council rejected my plan; I'm going anyway."

He crossed his arms. "You realize without the consent of the council, we can't do what you proposed."

"You'll do something when they gather all of us together to perform the sacrifice."

He sighed. "Aven... this is dangerous and reckless."

"I can't just sit in bed and wait while Drae is in a cage."

"So you'd risk him and you, and all the others actually being sacrificed?"

Her fingers tightened to white on the window frame. "When the council realizes I've gone, they'll have no choice but to do as I planned out, or they'll lose everything."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Which is why I shouldn't let you go."

Aven finally turned away from the window. "You're not going to stop me."

Their eyes locked, and he held her gaze hard for several seconds. "No, I'm not."

Tight heart unclenching, she beckoned him closer. When he neared she wrapped her free arm around him. "Thank you..."

"Thank me when this is all over, if you still feel grateful..." he said into her hair.

Aven went to pull away, but he didn't let her go.

"Wait," he said, then dropped his hand and pulled something out of his sleeve.

"... a feather?" she asked.

"It's from your grandfather," he replied.

Her eyes widened. "Your father?"

He nodded and held it out to her. "It's a sign of good luck, and good faith."

She reached out to take it, but he took her wrist and pricked her skin with the end of the quill. Pain shot up her arm as the feather slowly disappeared into her skin, the same pain that she'd felt only a month before when her own wings had formed to her body for the first time. Aven let out a breath and shook her arm to diffuse the pain. Then she stared at the pattern of the feather. "Did you just tattoo me?"

"No one but a Calcine can see that. It is our way of marking personal honor."

Aven bit her lip. "Thank you..." she said, and then released her hold on the window and threw her arms around him.

"Good luck, Aven... and goodbye."

"See you later, uncle," she said, as though voicing her return would help to make it happen, then let go and turned back to the window. "Just like you taught me," she said in an exhale, then pulled herself up into the frame. The wind brushed against her. There was nothing beneath the window but clouds.

"I taught you to wear goggles..."

Ignoring the suggestion, Aven took the pack off and shifted it to cover her chest. "Oh hey, take care of Fennix for me if I do get sacrificed?" Before waiting for an answer she smiled, waved a hand, and jumped.

The air attacked her face and ripped at her hair, funneling through her clothing as she fell. Despite the situation, she whooped with delight. She still had yet to get used to this... but now she was on a mission, and it was time to get started. Wings bright like the sun unfurled from within her body, manifesting with a burst of flame that flickered out in an instant. She was supposed to form them before she was in the air, but if she was off to be potentially sacrificed she was going to do whatever reckless thing she wanted with the time she had left.

She pulled her arm up against the wind and looked down at the compass on her wrist. From the maps she'd studied, the Order of Life had their closest base to the southwest. The base that she was looking for, the one with Drae in it, was further away to the north. She adjusted her course.

To rescue or to ruin, she was on her way.