Fight or Flight

The young man pushed in and turned several 'buttons' on a certain painting in his room. The portrait swung inwards, revealing one of the lesser known passages. It didn't actually lead out of the castle itself, no, this passage largely only led to other bedrooms.

The youth climbed into the opening, closing the entrance behind him. He had barely taken three steps when he heard the door to his bedroom crash open and the sounds of shouting.

"Where is he? W-wait, what happened here?"

"It doesn't matter, spread out and search for him. Tim must be found at once! Alive, no less, so go get him!"

Oh gods, what was going on? The youth held absolutely still for a heartbeat as the guards started searching his room, but he wasn't taking the chance that they didn't know about this passage. Tim was a sneaky prince, used to having to work hard to avoid his brothers and would only fight if cornered.

Well, that said, he'd never actually hurt someone so badly before. He didn't take the time to think about it right then, moving on adrenaline and chutzpah, Tim carefully made his way to the end of this passageway.

Step one finished, next task... He peaked through a hole carefully cut into the wall at an odd angle. This peephole was largely hidden, which also meant that the view wasn't the greatest, however what he did see was enough.

Guards were swarming his father's room, desperately searching for... something. Well, he wasn't a corpse in this room, at least so far as the boy could see, but there was no way the family guard would act like this unless they were certain they would get away with it.

This meant his father was dead, deposed, or captive somewhere. Damn it, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that. Move... Move Tim. MOVE!

Slowly, the youth backed away from the peephole, now moving in the other direction. He knew this was a risk, but there was no choice but to move ahead from here. Desperately quiet, the boy continued sneaking up to his room's entry, where the sounds of destruction greeted him, then beyond it.

Okay, sure he was the third son of the High King... but he was still one of the children of the freaking High King! How dare these people not only assault him but to trash his room, too? Well, his father's room was being ransacked as well, but the nerve of these people was really too much.

The boy moved onward. Even if his enemies knew of this passageway, which seemed unlikely at this moment, there were so many ways out that they might be uncertain where he was headed. There were other important things that concerned the boy, such as whether his family was betrayed by a family member or something else.

Regardless, he didn't have time to worry about that right then and there. If he was going to escape without some 'unfortunate accident' befalling him, he had to step right along. Everything he did within the next few minutes would determine his future.

Almost before he knew it, Tim found the far exit of this tunnel... Things would be risky going forward, but that was fine. The boy was young, sure, but he was the most powerful Wizard in the Hundred Realms for his age group.

Although, in fairness... It was true that he was a 'rare genius' in that he was able to use all schools of magic, he wasn't the best at any of them. Honestly, if he was willing to literally spend all of his life studying he might become good enough to be considered a 'master' of about half of them.

Heh, who had time for that? He was currently best at blending into crowds and removing traces of himself. Tim believed that the trio whom had been searching for him earlier might be scrying on his movements... This would be a problem in the long-term, unless he took precautions pretty quickly.

His answer lay just ahead... Twice, the young lad had to duck into the rooms of servants. Fortunately, in both instances the rooms had been empty. He wasn't sure if they'd fled, were in hiding, or were prisoners somewhere, but he was grateful for the use of a room for bit of time.

Each time the search came near, he ducked into a closet and vanished behind a spell of invisibility. Well, there was a lot to such a spell as it wasn't really himself vanishing so much as light passing through him. It was an odd feeling.

When the search party had moved on, he'd wait another five to ten minutes, then continue sneaking his way by. It took him almost an hour to travel what would otherwise have been a five minute run. Tim was very displeased with the way his life was going right then.

He approached the treasury at long last, however. It was odd for there to be no guards at this location, of all places, but Tim was fine with that. It was possible that all hands were securing his family's home, but he took precautions.

He couldn't travel while invisible due to limitations... Light went through him, meaning that while he couldn't be seen, he couldn't see either. Sound generally had the same restriction, but Tim had recently learned a better method using 'wind' magic, essentially adding a small layer of air for him to walk on.

Okay, it wasn't perfect, but it was a step. He had a way out of the castle if he were fast... but he'd have to time it correctly. He cautiously made his way forward, keeping both his eyes and ears open for an ambush or some sign that this was a trap designed to snare him.

His search proved to be in vain, or they hadn't bothered setting him up. No matter how hard he looked, nor listened, there was nothing to see or hear. And so, simply speaking, he entered the treasury with nobody around to care.