Lys: Freedom

Aithne gaped. It was true. It was too wonderful to be true, and yet it was true. Master Lucius, however, had said it and dismissed her with as much pomp as if he'd asked her for a glass of milk.

She stood there only a moment longer, then turned and ran headlong from the solarium, racing through the garden and up the hill, through the orchard, and still on, until she could run no longer. She collapsed in the grass, the apple trees still in sight but small, and lay there heaving great breaths and grinning like a madwoman. She was free! Free to say yes or no, free to go where she pleased, when she pleased. She would yell if she could get a good breath. As it was, she merely whispered,

"Free."