The Fall

The Priestess was smarter than most, so she knew immediately what Alara had planned when she raised her hand into the sky. Even without the incantation, the Priestess remembered that move from her dear friend, the first Elding King. If she didn't stop Alara, all soldiers, including the Elding ones, would be seriously injured or even die when the floor gave out. No. She wouldn't let that happen. It would be too much guilt for anyone to bear, let alone one as young as princess Alara.

Prioritizing the safety of the others, the Priestess used a strong blizzard wind to blow them all back to a safe distance. Now she only had to save the princess. Concentrating her mana in her legs the Priestess made a dash towards Alara. The moment their skin made contact and the Priestess reconcentrated Alara's mana to reduce the casting distance, a vision flashed before the Priestess's eyes and the rune on her collar bone glowed brightly.

It was  a vision of Alara looking lovingly at her as the two were preparing a meal together. Her smile was so wide that her eyes wrinkled and somehow the Priestess knew that she was mirroring the same face back at Alara. The most striking feature of the dream though was the presence of a rune on the nape of Alara's neck and the small rune of mating on the space between both women's  right thumb and pointer finger. The small infinity symbol only showed up when people found their fated partner. As fast as the vision had come, it was over. When the Priestess blinked her eyes, the floor was collapsing beneath them and instinctively she pulled the princess close to her body as she wrapped them both in a thick protective coating of ice.

As the tomb of ice fell, floor after floor collapsed beneath them, somany that even the priestess lost count. The temperature was so low inside the capsule that Alara had quickly lost consciousness, which was probably a good thing considering how much she wanted to fight. Sleeping like this, Alara was actually quite cute. Her eyelashes were long and thick and elegantly covered her closed eyes. And of course, because of the closeness, the priestess could feel her chest rise and fall as it was pressed up against her own. 

It had been such a long time since she had been close to anyone like this and could feel heat racing to her cheeks and she reveled in the intimacy of simple close touch with another. Of course, the princess made it even harder when she tightened her grip around the priestess and nuzzled her collar bone. She knew it wasn't on purpose and was probably just Alara's body trying to seek out warmth as it fought to survive the bitter cold, but it still made her feel flustered. They needed to get out of here and they needed to do it fast so no harm would come to the princess.

The Priestess let out a breath, thick with frost while she gathered up her mana. She envisioned her fingers as spikes of ice, then clasped her hands together strongly. As she opened her eyes, they were fiercely glowing blue. Then as if moving something heavy, she moved her hands towards the outside of the capsule in opposite directions, while ice shot out from their icy tomb, she began shaking with effort as the spikes began grinding against the walls where they were falling. Eventually the spikes brought them to a sudden and rough stop. The pair slammed into the ground and the Priestess immediately dispelled the ice and placed Alara on the wet stone floor. 

The Priestess scanned the surroundings as she hurriedly gathered some straw and bits of wood that were scattered throughout this cave. The open ceilings, lack of running water, and the strong stench of death, convinced her they had fallen to maybe the 25th floor. It was hard to tell from where they were but it wasn't the priority right now. The Priestess's eyes flashed scarlett as she released a tiny flame from her finger and started a fire.

Alara needed to get warm quickly. The quickest way was a fire and to share body heat with someone else. She knew this was going to freak the sleeping princess out, but she was looking blue so it was an emergency. 

The Priestess stripped them both down to their underwear, then realized that she had on nothing to cover her own chest after seeing the princess's frilled brazier and used part of her worn shirt to fashion a makeshift bra of her own. She hoped this would make Alara feel less awkward when she woke but it probably wouldn't. She covered them with her fur lined robe, and wrapped her arms around the sleeping princess.

After just a few seconds, the Priestess found herself drifting off to sleep. It was so warm and being so close to someone else felt so comforting after not doing this for at least a century. It didn't help that Alara's scent, which was sweet like candy to the Priestess, brought on an immediate feeling of peace. If she had to guess, the Priestess believed that this unwarranted feeling came from the two's compatibility. This made her start to think that her vision may have been real. She could not remember a time that she felt so at ease with anyone, let alone someone she just met. She wanted to fight it, but she was overcome with exhaustion and fell into a deep sleep. 

Hours later, Alara began to stir. She still felt cold, but was finally able to feel her body again. Without opening her eyes she moved closer to the warm and soft thing that was right in front of her. She took a deep breath. “What was that smell?” she thought. It was a delicious scent that reminded her of meadow in the Spring, strong like the scent of blooming flowers, yet subtle enough that it didn't overwhelm the senses. 

The princess blinked her eyes slowly and what came into focus left her confused and panicked. Her face was pressed right against the bare neck of an almost naked woman, and wait a minute, Alara was nearly naked too. The woman turned towards her, their lips only a centimeter apart, but wait a sec. That hair and those eyes. No way! It was the Priestess! She let out a scream then scrambled out of the robe to her feet. 

The Priestess followed suit. 

Alara with a look of absolute horror, “Said whay the fuck is going on? Why are we naked?!”

The Priestess rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand and yawned. “Good morning princess.”

The princess with a look of horror still on her face began backing away from the scantily dressed holy woman.

“I wouldn't keep backing up if I were you.”

Alara took a few more steps back anyways when “sizzle” she fell back in pain. 

The priestess shook her head, “I told you to stop stepping back like that. You really are a stubborn one,” then she hopped up.

The sudden movement caught Alara off-guard and she sent a bolt of lightning flying towards the small woman, it missed and in an instant, the priestess was right beside her as if she had teleported. Alara turned to try and crawl away before she felt the healing touch of water wrap around her feet. She looked up at the priestess.

“Please don't be an idiot. I'm not your enemy here. Just stay still while I heal you.”

Alara began to protest, “But up there we…”

The Priestess scoffed, “Up there what? You were attacking the ice users. I stopped you. Also you are the whole reason we are in this mess. If I hadn't stepped in, the soldiers would have fallen to their deaths. Lucky it's just us down here. You're welcome by the way, for saving you.”

Alara turned red, suddenly embarrassed by her rash behavior. She hung her head, “I'm sorry. I know sometimes I rush in, lightning flashing, without taking a minute to think about what could happen. Would the troops have really died?” 

The Priestess looked up at Alara who had tears forming in the corners of her eyes. “She's really cute,” she thought to herself. Though she knew this would probably hurt the princess's feelings she needed to be honest with this idiot before she really hurt someone badly. She put Alara's feet down and with a grave expression, “If I hadn’t pushed the troops back, ALL of them would be dead. You're lucky I was even able to save you. Though I guess the ice did almost freeze you to death. Which is why we are like this,” the Priestess gestured to her half-naked body. 

Alara's eyes narrowed. She didn't believe that anyone would save their enemy without some sort of ulterior motive so she turned to the Priestess and asked her flat out, “Why would an Isaz like you save an Elding princess? I'm sure things would have been easier for you all without me around, right? Plus you took my father's hand so you obviously did not want peace.”

The Priestess smiled and shook her head. “First of all, I am not Isaz, nor am I Edling. I'm not even sure I am human at all. I am the guardian of this dungeon. Human life is too important to allow any to perish while I am around though. I gave your father a warning to get out of the dungeon, and he outright refused, so I took his hand. I could have killed him and in my youth I would have.”

Alara's face changed to a puzzled one, then, suddenly she began to feel the cave spin. Then it all went black.