Birthright

Saoirse Starshot waits until Seren rounds the corner towards the duke’s chambers, before bolting as quickly and quietly as she can for the outer wall of the palace. This was the best opportunity she would get; Several guards were off duty, having worked double shifts during the promenade and now getting their much earned rest, and two of the local aristocrats were having a meeting. If she was going to escape, now would be the time.

The servants first stop is Ceridwen’s observatory. She wouldn’t have much time; the pegasus would be returning from dinner shortly. But she knew exactly where to find what she was looking for, having served as the aristocratic inventor's servant for so long. Swiping a hooffull of supplies, Saoirse vanishes back into the palace corridors even as she hears the hoofsteps of Ceridwen down the hallway.

“Woah, and where are you going in such a hurry?” One of the guards asks as Saoirse almost stumbles into them.
“S-sorry, sir!” She blusters quickly. It felt wrong to be this compliant and lenient, but anything that made her less suspicious right now was worthwhile. “I was asked by the lord duke to take these and wash them post haste!” Saoirse reports, trusting the guard would be unable to verify the truth of the statement with the duke preoccupied with Seren.
The guard shrugs. “Very well, off you go.”

Saoirse waits until her back is facing the guard before allowing herself a sly grin on her wolflike face. The laundry was on the edge of the palace in a sector less often visited by guardsponies, it was the perfect excuse.

Exiting the palace quickly and quietly, she makes her way towards the upper terrace. This section was less guarded, as a sheer cliff face was seen as providing protection enough. Oh, there are still a couple of watchtowers, their nocturnal Deep Pony guards quite capable of seeing in the dark and unafflicted by the tiredness that a diurnal pony race would suffer from, but those are largely facing the cliff walls in case somepony were to try to scale them. From the inside, it's smooth sailing.

Looks like the coast is clear. Clenching her jaw with determination, the ivory blur of a pony darts across the open of the courtyard, diving into the bush there before peaking out again. Sneaking right by the guards is out of the question, and scaling the cliffs would be dangerous in the extreme… But there are likely better methods.

Flicking one of the pieces of arcane chalk from her bag, the servant hastily draws an outline of a circle on the ground. A lowborn blank like herself might not have a horn or wings to perform magic with, but she still has her ways; she has to hurry, draw in the relevant symbols, before somepony catches her. Somepony like…

The door from behind her, the entrance to the courtyard, swings open, and Starshot’s hairs stand up on her withers. Uh-oh. A glance backwards is all it takes to know the jig is up, the quite familiar raptorial eyes of one Ceridwen Starhawk Cadenza fixed directly upon her as the gryph pegasus trots silently across the courtyard, talons and soft feathers making no sound as he moves.

Glancing back, Starshot quickly makes up her mind that resisting is a bad idea; the guards are just beyond, and if she makes a commotion she would have to deal with them instead of Ceridwen. So instead, with a severely disgruntled expression on her face, she allows the gryph pegasus to drag her all the way back to his room.

Now, finally, he rounds on the unfortunate servant, sighing heavily. “Saoirse Starshot. Care to explain yourself?”

Starshot grumbles, rubbing her sore hoof, glaring up at the aristocratic pony indignantly. “You already know what I was doing, why bother asking?”

Ceridwen just sighs heavily, raising one claw to his head in irritation. “I know you were trying to make a run for it again, I’m more interested in knowing why you needed half our alchemical supplies for it.”

Starshot’s gaze darts for the window, as if pondering her chances of spontaneously developing wings to fly out of there, despite knowing it's a three story drop that wouldn’t even take her past the courtyard. Reluctantly, she paws at the ground. “I was going to attempt the translocation spell and swap places with one of the trees further in the forest… Then I’d have a lead and nopony would be able to catch me.” She eventually admits.

Ceridwen just stares at her aghast. “Starshot, you’ve never tested that spell on a live subject before, you could have killed yourself! Do you ever think about the consequences before trying out one of your harebrained schemes?” That wasn’t even to mention that a blank so much as trying to cast spells in the first place is a capital offense. Such things are the province of the aristocracy, after all.

Starshot glares over at him indignantly. “You could just let me go, then you wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore!”

Ceridwen breathes out a huff of hot air. “And you think I wouldn’t worry about you out there in the world? Do you know what they’d do if they caught you? I’m just trying to keep your neck out of a noose!” The angry look in the aristocrats' eyes fades, replaced with a somber look of worry. “Please. I’m just trying to make sure nothing bad happens to you.”

Starshot grits her teeth. She hated that look; that look of pity that she got from him so often, for as long as she could remember. Every other aristocrat just looks down on her, pretends like she isn't there. But the twins, they always had to act like they care. Preposterous. Looking away, Starshot shakes her head. “What would you know? You’re free to come and go whenever you please. How did you find me, anyways?”

Ceridwen gives Starshot a blank look as though the answer is painfully obvious, before pointing with one talon at the saddlebags still with her. “It's pretty obvious when two saddlebags worth of food are missing from the kitchens that you’re going to try and make a run for it again.”

Starshot sulks in place. Note to self; take the pigs feed next time, instead. It's less than palatable, but she could live off of it; she knew that she could, because she’d had to several times, when her food privileges were taken away for a week or two from her antics. And that was after Seren had talked her father into being merciful; In all likelihood, she’d have been outright imprisoned, or even banished, by now, otherwise.

The lattermost did sound like an ok change of pace, to be fair. Sometimes, Starshot is tempted to try and incite that penalty purposefully. But when it comes down to it, Ceridwen is right; she didn’t have the skills needed to survive on her own in the wilderness, so for any attempt at escape she would certainly need something to barter for enough supplies to get her footing. Once she did that, she could… Find work as a scribe, maybe? She didn’t know, just something away from here.

Ceridwen just stares for a moment, eventually shaking his head. “You’ll have to stay here for the night. If anypony saw me escorting you back to your quarters, they’ll know you tried to make a run for it again, and I doubt I could keep you in Father’s good graces this time. Certainly not now.” The gryph scowls, and Saoirse finds herself tilting her head, wondering what he meant by that. “Come on, there's plenty of room for you. I’ll take you back to your chamber in the morning before I go to my classes, as long as it's daylight I can just tell them I need your help unclogging a toilet or something.”

Starshot can’t help but blush at the casual request. The luxurious bed here with its deep purple silk sheets and velvet blankets are a thousand times more comfortable than the straw mattress she settled for in her own chambers. And yet, accepting that luxury felt too much like surrendering, so she simply shakes her head. “I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Ceridwen sighs and groans like he has a headache. “Fine. Whatever. There’s room for three ponies here, I’m pretty sure you and I would fit just fine, but if you want to be like that, just…” There is an aggrieved tone in his voice as he cuts himself off suddenly, throwing himself into the bed with a surprising degree of force.

Starshot blinks up at him, surprised. It wasn’t the first time she’d been caught like this, but she didn’t remember Ceridwen acting like this before. She would have asked what was the matter, but… Given the circumstances, it didn't seem appropriate. Surveying Ceridwen’s aggravated demeanor, she shy’s away.

You’re being ungrateful. A voice in the back of her head tells her. She knew that; really, she did. If anypony else had found her she’d be locked up overnight at best, dead at worst. But Ceridwen is still one of them, the nobles who dictated everything in her life. She can’t just forgive that.

Even so, she can feel the eyes of the gryph boring into the back of her skull as she tries to shut it out and ignore it. Eventually, the intensity gives in, and she hears the all-too-familiar sound of Ceridwen sighing heavily.

“First Seren, now you. Why do you keep pulling away from me?” There’s an undercurrent of pain in his voice that makes Starshot cringe, shoving her face down into the pillows as if she could ignore the world around. “You used to trust me with these things. Don’t you remember sneaking cookies from the kitchen together, or our secret reading lessons at night? What changed?”

Although she wants to just shut it out, ignore the question, Starshot finds the answer drawn forth despite her intentions. “You became a pegasus, and I didn’t. It’s as simple as that.” She can’t keep the note of bitterness out of her voice.

Ceridwen just stares for a long moment, before sighing and turning back over. “I can’t change the way the world works, Saoirse. But I promise once I’m no longer under father’s thumb, I’ll take you with me and set you free. Please, just try to hold on until then.” Even making that promise is hard, knowing it would mean he’d never see the filly he’d grown up alongside again. But if that is what Starshot wants…

There is no response. After a long moment of waiting, Starhawk sighs, shaking his head, and pulls the blankets up over his shoulder. “Sleep well, Starshot.”

…You too. Despite herself, Starshot’s comment remains restrained deep inside her mind, as she tightens the covers over her body and shuts her eyes tightly. One day she would be free. One day…