Tanya's Freedom
Ironhand 8865
Tanya quickly transformed from a raven into a falcon as she fled, her desire to live and escape overriding all rational thought. It was nearly an hour before a thought occured to her. She couldn't hear the commands of mother, ordering her to do anything. Glancing around, she decided on a dangerous thought, one she hadn't had in years, not since she became mother's servant. She focused on how much she hated the Baroness, how she wanted to be free.
To her utter amazement, she didn't immediately dismiss the thought as irrelevant, stupid, or unnecessary. She was nearly overcome with emotion, and hurriedly landed on a tree in the forest she was flying over. After making sure she was hidden from above she undid wildshape, and simply sat in the tree with tears flowing down her cheeks.
"I'm free." Tanya whispered, and even those words choked, as she tried to contain her sobs. "How?"
Before she continued these thoughts, she knew she had to keep fleeing. Mothe--no. That was what the slaves called her. The Baroness, she thought, correcting herself. She would have sent a mindslave after her already, maybe even that spy. She had to keep moving, but where would she go? The Baroness had many slaves and all of them behave completely normally, and totally undetectable.
She considered her options as she dropped down through the tree branches. The obvious option was to return to her homeland, the Far Frozen North. But she would be lucky if she was merely shot on sight by the Royal Elven Rangers. The things she did for the Baroness under the protection of her various bodyguards made her one of the most wanted elves in the North.
"I'd die immediately, if I was lucky." Tanya whispered.
None of the human kingdoms, republics, or other polities would be appropriate either. She was in charge of the Baroness's information network and knew every mindslave in both Northern and Southern Karand would be getting orders to be watching for her in a few days.
"Dwarven lands, perhaps?" She mused, as she reached the bottom of the tree, and noticed an outcropping nearby. She sheltered under the rocks while she thought about it.
Dwarven racism against elves was infamous, and an elf living in Tel Hazan on a permanently basis would be incredibly suspicious. The information network was also embedded in the Imperial Guard too, so they'd inevitably find her even there. So what did that leave her?
"I could use shape change." Tanya said quietly. "But between all of the slaves, they know every single one of my faces."
Tanya knew what this meant. She'd have to take one more person's mind. One more stolen life, and she'd finally be free. She thought back to all the times she did it previously, of how she felt annoyed if anything when she took minds and faces. So many times she viewed them as little more than fodder for her goals, and it started to make her feel terrible.
"No." Tanya said, slightly louder. "That was not me, that was a monster wearing my skin. Just one more. I'm so sorry, whoever you are."
Tanya stood up and looked around. Her short stature was ill-suited for navigating any forest, nevermind the Dragontail Mountains, and so she needed to wear someone else. With a snap of her fingers, she took the form of an Elven ranger she encountered some thirty years ago. After one more quick glance around, Tanya took off in a run, covering remarkable amounts of ground in no time.
Tanya ran for hours, and was thinking about what type of person she should target, when she lost her footing. Tumbling down the slope, she tried to catch herself on anything in reach but failed. Just as she was wondering when she would stop falling, she hit her head hard on a rock, and passed out.