Characters: Mal (with references to her family and their neck-stitched Igor, and Carmine).
Rating: A

Disclaimer: The author makes no claim to owning the rights of anything to do with Terry Pratchett or Discworld.

Leaving
by Amazon Syren

     The sun came up hours ago. It rises early this deep in Summer, but it sets late, too. I have all the time that I need.
     I slip out of bed, careful of the light even still, and have a morning cup of coffee.
     My brother’s old suit – fifty years out of date, but we tend towards classic cuts in any case – has been secreted behind a wall of black velvet gowns. He probably won’t miss it.
     I dress in my brother’s clothes, clean the coffee engine and pack it away, next to the beans and the lapis earrings that I couldn’t quite bear to abandon in the city.
     I creep down the stairs, valise in hand, listening warily. My family are all asleep, expecting the same of me, no doubt, but Igor is awake and ever watchful.
     I take my father’s sword – what is a man, without a sword, after all – from over the fire place. It is sharper than when I arrived. I doubt that he’s noticed.
     I pause at the front door of our family estate, take a deep breath, and step out into the light, knowing that the coming day will make a man of me.