[notDEADyet]

Easy peasy. No one’s looking. Don’t make it obvious. It certainly wasn’t the first thing she’d stolen. But, perhaps the most secure. She had taken care that no one really saw her when she made off with her new item a week ago. If only someone could use, say, magic, that sure would be nice.

She bit her lip to keep from smiling, she didn’t need anyone in the station stopping to talk to her. Not the security guard she just passed, not that shifty looking man in a suit. Now,helooks suspicious. They might ask to look in her bag. And that might, probably, lead someone to finding her newly acquired piece of paper.

A special piece of paper.

Probably.

No, no. She smoothed her hand over the strap of her bag, looking perfectly natural as she walked out onto the street. Special.

Ell wasn’t an art historian. She wasn’t any sort of historian. In actuality, giving her any manner of official title would be a serious misstep on the part of someone's administration team. On her best days she was a freelancer. On her worst, a homeless mage. She'd had enough forethought to do just a small amount of planning. She'd planned out the theft. She'd planned out a place to live. That really was all the planning she had gone through. Her response to being called out on such a lack of plans was always the same. I hate being tied down. As true as that might have been, the honest truth was that she couldn't be bothered.

She’d never even been to France. She'd never been a lot of places outside the States. The continental states. She pressed her fingers against a yellow stone necklace, Sammy'd like Hawaii. Not being able to speak French would, more than likely, not end well for her. It might have been easy enough to grab a recording that taught basic French before she left. But, she hadn’t.

Not that it really mattered, she had been far too busy on the three hour ride over.

With a sudden jolt Ell sat straight, hair a mess from being rolled against the back of her seat, a single line of drool having made it’s way down her chin.

Attractive.

So busy. It was too late for that, though. It shouldn’t really matter. The nice couple she had rented the studio from had spoken English. Hopefully anyone else she needed to talk to would also.

Not being arrested on her way to her new home for the duration of the War was a good sign. “Won’t be arrested,” she muttered, unpacking her single bag carefully, “Won’t be eviscerated summoning my new friend.” She took the sketch page out of the folder she’d been keeping it in. “Pft,” she nodded, satisfied with it’s state, “Not even smudged. I’m amazing.”

After patting her own back she cleared space in the sitting room, hoping the nice couple wouldn’t notice the mess she was about to make. “I’ll just repaint… Re… Put new hardwood…” She shrugged and began putting together what she’d need to get things right.