One step at a time, Jade steadily walked out onto the hundred meters of lawn that stretched between the lab and the gardens beyond.

“It’ll be fine, right?” she asked the lifeless Nina who hung over her shoulder with a wry smile. “If I could make it in, we can make it out.”

Her nerves told her to look back, but doing so would have been a waste of time. Her cargo made it very difficult to do so anyway, which was fortunate. With little choice left, Jade simply focused on placing each foot down after the previous as she began to make her way across the open expanse. Anyone looking in her direction right now would realise that she was completely out of place on the exposed lawns, but she didn’t have time to care about it. Reina had trusted her to bring Nina back, and unlike Saela, she would do everything she could to ensure that it happened.

“See? We’re going to make it,” she said after she had crossed the first twenty or so meters. She smiled inwardly at her own comment, although she didn’t really know if she was talking to Nina or simply trying to console herself. Anything that could take her mind away from the absurdity of what she was doing right now was a welcome distraction, so she occupied her mind with whatever fleeting thought passed through it while waiting for the seemingly inevitable cry of alarm.

By the time she had made it halfway across the lawn, the cry she had been expecting still hadn’t come. Already, however, her shoulder was beginning to feel the strain as she readjusted Nina’s position while staggering sideways to maintain her balance. Alarmingly, her breathing had already become ragged. The path that she was cutting across the grass had even started to weave noticeably like a drunkard’s would, and while she wanted to increase her pace, doing so would have probably resulted in her falling over.

Nina moaned. It had been the first sound to escape from her lips since Jade and Saela had found her, but instead of taking it as a positive sign it was the last thing that she wanted to hear. The night was still after all, and any sound would surely travel across the open space and attract the attention of anyone in the vicinity. Her task had already been hard enough before they had found Nina in her current state, and Saela walking out hadn’t made it any easier. The handicaps she had already were enough, so Nina moaning through the night was not something that she wanted to deal with.

“It’s okay,” Jade quietly consoled her, absentmindedly stroking her back as she continued to cross the grass. “We’re almost there, so hang tight.”

Her vision focused on her target which was the darkness at the end of the lawn. If she could make it to the safety of the gardens, at least she would then be able to set Nina down and have a quick rest while she planned out the rest of her escape. Saela would have been a rather welcome hand right now, but Jade knew that she didn’t have the time to rue her unfortunate situation. Using what few cards she had, she would have to engineer their escape single-handedly.

Three quarters of the way.

She wondered what the time was as she quickly glanced up to the dark sky above her. Their operation had started late in the night and it had taken a reasonable amount of time to get through the Royal District, but they had still planned for enough time to make their escape by daybreak. Rucille was sure to notice that Nina had gone missing sooner or later, and crossing the district once day broke was also out of the question. The problem that Jade had, however, was that while their plan hadn’t accounted for Saela disappearing, it certainly didn’t plan for the fact that Nina was incapable of moving about on her own.

Carrying her was a slow and tiring process, and without anyone to help share the load, Jade didn’t know if her escape was a realistic possibility at all. Saela certainly wouldn’t ever hear her voice the thought, but Jade was seriously struggling with ideas to get both herself and Nina out of the mess that they had found themselves in.

What she needed was a Reina-style plan. If she couldn’t think of one, then she’d have to just resort to something desperate.

Reaching the edge of the lawn without hearing anyone raise the alarm, she breathed a sigh of relief as she dropped down behind a tree and unslung Nina from her shoulder. She had somehow made it without a single person looking in her direction, but she knew that this was just the beginning. If anything, what she had just accomplished was the easiest part of their escape where all she had to do was walk straight across flat terrain with a full reserve of stamina.

Panting, she flopped back onto the dirt while quickly thinking through her next move. She didn’t want to admit it, but Saela was right in that Nina’s shirt would probably end up being a massive problem unless she could find something to hide Nina inside. She needed something dark, and she needed it before she ventured out into the district.

Luckily, their old safehouse was only a stone’s throw away. If Rucille was still there or not was another question, but that was something that she was going to have simply cross her fingers on before finding out. Covering Nina’s shirt with mud was an option, although it was something that she’d rather not have to do.

Leaving Nina slumped against the tree, she crouched low before scuttling through to the other side of the garden and appearing at the top of the hill which looked down to their safehouse. Seeing that the lights were off, she breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Rucille wasn’t there anymore after all.

That however, raised its own questions as Rucille not being there could turn out to be a massive headache. If she wasn’t in their safehouse anymore, there was a frighteningly high chance that she would either be in or be heading to the lab where she would surely find that Nina was missing and raise the alarm.

There was no time to rest.

Not bothering to crouch anymore, she dashed back through the foliage, her indiscriminate steps crushing a path through the plants as she ran. Reaching Nina to find that she had somehow slumped over onto her side, she put an arm under her shoulder before hauling her up with difficulty. Taking a deep breath, she set off as quickly as she could while retracing the route that she had just carved out. Stumbling over a root but managing to somehow not fall over, she reached the top of the hill before easing her way down the slope to safehouse.

There was no time for caution now, and if Rucille was still in the cottage then she would realize what was going on very quickly. Unfortunately, Jade was just going to have to find out the hard way. Dumping Nina’s lifeless figure onto the outdoor table, she reached for the door handle before twisting it open and stepping inside.

Even in the darkness she could tell that the living area was a mess, where clothing was indiscriminately strewn around on the floor and furniture. Rucille for once had even done her a favour as Jade found a pile of Svanda’s clothing piled up close by which included a long black sweater. Tearing it out from the pile, she flew back out the door before sitting Nina up and pulling the sweater over her head.

It was on backwards, but she didn’t care. Lifting Nina up, she winced as she lifted her over her shoulder before making her way past the cottage towards the gate as quickly as she could manage. Jade didn’t have the time or the stamina available to scale the wall, and while she knew that using the gate would be awfully conspicuous, she didn’t have a choice. If Rucille found that Nina was missing, this was the exact spot that the Royal Guard would search first.

Once she reached the black iron gate, she wrapped one arm around Nina’s waist while she opened the latch with the other. Squeezing the pair of them through, she stepped out onto the street before stopping in her tracks when she saw what sat before her.

She had hoped that nobody would have seen her exit out onto the empty street, but it seems that she hadn’t even taken a single step before she had run into somebody.

She could make out the glossy burgundy paint that covered the ornate carriage, while large black wheels sat as high as her waist. A silver emblem that she was unfamiliar with reflected the street lighting, although she couldn’t see inside as the black curtains were drawn.

“Are you getting in or what?” Saela asked as her head appeared from the driver’s seat. Wearing the dress that they had seen Rucille discarding earlier, Jade was momentarily shocked. Her short bob of hair matched the open shoulders on the deep blue dress, while the thin silk strap that ran up around her neck clung to her collarbone as though it was her own clothing. Jade was almost jealous that she pulled it off so well, although at the same time she knew that this was be a sight that she would probably never see again.

“Hurry up!” she spat, snapping Jade out of her stupor as she opened the carriage door before tossing Nina inside. Grabbing the rail and stepping up onto the footboard, she fought back a cry of surprise as Saela set the carriage off before she had even closed the door behind her.

“What are you doing?” she asked Saela as she opened the small sliding window which was used to communicate with the driver. “You know a noble would never drive a carriage themselves, right?”

She thought back to when she had jokingly suggested that they dress up like they belonged before simply walking to the Inin Estate. Saela had shot the idea down instantly, yet here she was dressed up as she drove the carriage down one of the smaller back roads in the direction of the Royal District wall.

“It just needs to buy us some time to react,” Saela replied as she steered the carriage around a corner. “Did you have a better idea?”

Jade’s silence was an admittance that she didn’t, as Saela’s solution had fixed the two issues that she had been the most concerned about. Not only would there be no need to carry Nina while using a carriage, the carriage’s speed would also help them get as far away as possible from the Inin Estate in the shortest amount of time. The disadvantage, however, would be that they were quite conspicuous as they traveled through the district. Saela’s dress might buy them a moment of hesitation from the Royal Guard, but any proper scrutiny would blow their cover as a noblewoman driving a carriage was completely out of place.

“Didn’t think so,” Saela continued with a scowl as the carriage picked up speed. “We’ll ditch this somewhere close to the wall and then go from there.”

Jade smiled in response and was about to thank her when she heard the clanging of a bell which pierced through the night. Originating from somewhere within the Inin Estate, it wasn’t long until the ringing was joined by a second bell, and soon the clanging of bells was ringing out across the district.

“Be ready for anything,” Saela sighed as she placed her pistol on a small tray beside the steering wheel. “That’s the alarm.”