She wrenched the book out of Caedes’s grasp. She watched her fall to the carpet, a foot off the ground. The thoughts crushed any stray feelings she had towards her. "Cry. I dare you."
She slammed the door on the way out, pausing to listen or a moment. Sniffles were heard, but no crying. Acceptable.
***
Three Again, it was Sunday.
Three Thirty, again, half an hour later it was still Sunday.
There was no Tracker.
The conflict left her confused and beaten. Tossed away like garbage, she was left to decay in her own troubles.
No, the worst was the thieving – mugging. The demands had been expected but only because she had an illicit item was she tossed. It was as if Empathy blamed her for her own failure to find the book.
All of it is why she sulked. It was common to cry, but it became shorter every time. Every time she lost more of her sensitivity.
Perhaps by her hidden personality, or by growing a spine in the new one, Caedes created a plan.
If only she could escape. But where? The front door was always locked, and the handle was far too high for her, or her magic to grab. A window? Any in the house would be easy to spot. However.. her own was a better choice. It was out of the way, and she could tamper with it as she liked. It had a padlock on it though.
"If I could just—" A hoof pressed on the door. Caedes’s legs clenched. Her heartbeat rose, and her breathing became shallow.
A minute ticked by until the hooves left again, deeper into the house.
Slowly releasing the stress, she contemplated on how to remove the padlock, imprisoning her.
"I don’t know the numbers to open it. And you can’t cut metal." Exasperation flowed out of her mouth as a raspberry.
It came again. The foreboding hooves outside the door came again. Perhaps they were just standing. Perhaps they were listening. Perhaps it was out of malice. Perhaps it didn’t matter. The second time, same as the first time, every fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes to prepare. Fifteen to act.
They left, a minute later. A thought occurred to Caedes: a new routine.
She rolled around on the floor, amusing herself again as she looked for something to use. Any tool for escape.
A normal room with normal supplies, not tools, supplies.
"Nothing to do..."
***
The Introduction to Magic Lines: a tool in the wrong hooves. Caedes shouldn’t have hidden this. She’s lucky she got away so easily.
But now, now I have changed it again. The clockwork needed to be changed. I have no way of knowing what she knows, and she will never tell me. Every fifteen minutes, I shall listen for magic.
And should any be casted...
—Thirty minutes to dinner.
There will be a problem for us all.
***
Other books on her small shelf, sat forlorn, never to be read again. Caedes stared at them, whiching they were actually useful. They sat, refusing to change into any useful books, mocking her.
"Ugh!" She exclaimed softly to prevent any extra ire. "You’re all useless fairy tales and junk!" She nodded at her wisdom. "And.. it’s close to six. Dinner is probably going to be here soon."
Dinner came preceded by two checks at fifteen minute intervals. Her fur stood up every time Empathy came and stood silent for a moment. This time was with a bowl of food.
"You’ve probably noticed me every now and then, is that correct?"
Caedes nodded and half drank, half ate the grey mush.
"I don’t even know if you can understand what’s even written here, but I don’t take chances." She cleaned up and made to leave. "That is your only warning."
Even though her mother left, she nodded in affirmation. Between her rolling and eating food, her eyes drooped. Lying on the ground, she dozed off.
Waking up, it was dark outside. Looking upward, the clock hands were shadowed, reading some time after eleven.
Carefully affirming to herself to stay awake, she nodded. Thinking was a good tool to stay awake. Her room led her to believe it held no help to escape. Working backwards, her memories swam toward the book; even though it was gone, it still had proven that she could cast magic.
The rune was like train tracks:
-|-|-
-|-|-
-|-|-
And it was dangerous to let the magic go. It would go boom – explode.
All she had to do was press her magic to it and not forget about it.
"Yes!" She had managed to memorize the important stuff. She hoped she wasn’t forgetting anything crucial.
A little jig later had managed to eat enough time to the point that the hooves were heard again in the house. Thinking that it was one of those intervals, she stopped moving until she noticed that the steps were moving down the main hall to a door that she had never heard open before.
Once the sound creaked shut and the hooves had faded again, she set out to enact the plan.
A pencil, a sheet of paper, and a thin book were nearly silently moved to the wall, under the window where the lock was fastened. She had held her breathing to be even more silent but regretted the action.
Small labored breaths became slightly visible in the chilled air under the window in the starlight.
Enjoying herself in the rare feeling of accomplishment, the peace was shattered once more. The fury of hooves sounded like a demon from Tartarus, skidding to a halt in front of the barrier to Caedes’s sanctuary.
Pregnant silence filled a void, the rush begging to be answered. Thankfully, Empathy had moved away nearly as fast as she had came. Only a few seconds had passed until she rushed away, back to the mysterious door.
Caedes flopped onto her flanks, sitting down relieved. She had worried that Empathy might have caught her, but as long as magic wasn’t involved, she was safe.
It was only a matter of time until that came to pass.
The thin book, something about a princess and a prince getting married, was flipped to its blank back where it was rough and easy to draw on. The paper was a test sheet for drawing in the dark. Besides a minor squiggle in the middle, Caedes found it easy to draw except for in the shadowed parts of the room.
She etched thick lines into the book’s back. Halfway though, that time had come again. Midnight came, and so did Empathy. It had seemed that she had finished, as after her stalking time was up, she went to the bedroom door, the one without the metal clinking sounds.
It had to happen after she had fallen asleep.
It was the waiting game.