"Princess, please, we must go!"
The sounds of violence and despair can be heard from all corners of the royal capital. Enemy soldiers have broken the gates to the city, raping and pillaging where ever they pass.
Lost in a world she doesn't recognize, a young woman, barely past her coming of age ceremony, trembles as she watches the chaos invading her home from her balcony.
In 18 years, Allysandra had never known fear and terror. She knew that the empire past the borders of her father's kingdom of Genoa had made aggressive maneuvers in recent weeks and months. But, the knights of her kingdom had always shone with a nobility and power that she could not conceive of any other surpassing.
"Princess, please..." the young handmaid pleaded. Her cute face distorted by anxiety.
But, the princess could not tear her eyes from the gardens that graced the castle of her home. The knights she had so revered were being overrun from every direction, the clamor of blade upon armor and flesh so much more violent than she had ever envisioned.
The cool evening air blew loose strands of Allysandra's brilliant gold hair across her face. A pale white hand trembled as the princess pulled the blonde hair from her face.
Barely an adult, her features were soft. Her delicate chin crinkled under a concern she didn't even know how to define. Cream colored skin that stood in stark contrast to the vital red of her pretty lips. A natural flush gave color to her cheeks in a way that no makeup could match. But, it was her eyes that made men fall in love with her.
Sapphire blue eyes that could express so much emotion now watered with anxiety.
The white dress she wore caressed her maturing figure as the wind toyed with it. Her breasts were neither large nor small, perfectly proportioned with her moderate height. She was a lady of refinement and modesty. But, while the men of her kingdom would die to protect her smile, they'd happily kill for even a hint of what she hid beneath her gowns.
She had no comprehension for the animal that was man. Only that the men in her life had been kind and respectful to her and her royal position.
Now though, as she looked down on the gardens she had played in during her youth, she was taught a brutal lesson.
The valor of her father's soldiers could not compare to the numbers of the enemies. And, the line was broken in many places.
Allysandra leaned heavily on the ledge as she saw a young woman, maybe a year older than herself, desperately run from a pack of imperial soldiers. But, it was apparent that she could do nothing to escape their trap.
The girl had tended the flowers for as long as Allysandra could remember. A pretty, if unremarkable, girl. Now, in her desperation, this burgeoning woman cried desperately as she was violently grabbed by more than one man.
The blonde princess' eyes stung all the more as she watched the pitiful woman scream as her plain clothes were torn. Soft white flesh almost seemed to glow from beneath the torn garments.
Allysandra had never seen the naked breasts of a woman, not since as a babe she suckled at her mother's own. But, now, she saw this sobbing woman's nakedness exposed for any who had the eyes to see.
The savage men showed no reservation as they ripped every shred from her. The woman would have collapsed were she not supported by the strong calloused hands of the soldiers. Her tears only seemed to excite the men as they laughed and pawed at her sex.
Allysandra listened as the woman desperately pleaded for mercy. But, the men were unmoved. And, one loosened the belt of his pants.
The princess' jaw, painfully clenched as she watched the tragedy, drew open as, from a distance, she saw a man's nakedness for the first time. She could barely see it. But, she knew what it was.
In the moment that the young gardener was violated, she looked up as if for divine intervention.
Allysandra felt her soul shake as the two young women's eyes met. The raped woman screamed as her purity was stolen from her. And, the princess felt something uncomfortable within herself. Something she'd never known before.
A cold ice formed in the blonde princess' belly and stirred something she couldn't define. But, she had no mind for the change within herself as she watched the assault on the woman and the gathering of ever more men waiting for their turn.
"Princess!" her own maid pleaded.
Her pale face turned from the violence outside to look at another young woman in despair. Blue eyes, wet with fear, looked dully into the brown eyes of her attendant. Her pretty mouth still hanging dumbly open as her mind tried to catch up with what was happening.
Recognizing her chance, the maid pulled the shell shocked princess from the window and guided her to the door.
"Where are the guards?" the woman with brown, braided, hair whined.
When the invasion began, guards had been left at the door. But, in the chaos, they had fled their posts. Now, the two women were left alone in a kingdom that was falling to ruin.
"We..." the young maid struggled. "We have to go. Come, princess."
The noble beauty, still broken by the things she'd witnessed, allowed herself to be taken down the halls of her youth.
Fighting had broken out on the ground level and the pair are struck with terror at every turn in their descent into the bowels of the castle.
The maid's grip on princess Allysandra's hand is white knuckled and cold. For all the exertion they labor through to get to their destination, both shiver.
Finally, as they dig into the guts of their home, the clamor of battle and looting grows dull. The screams of disgraced women become as whispers in the minds of the princess and her maid.
In a storeroom, the woman in braids pulls her ward into a hidden alcove. Allysandra vaguely remembers being taught of this escape route and stirs from her stupor.
"Rebekah," the name escapes the ruby red lips of the blonde youth.
The handmaid turns from examining the wall to look at the fair skinned beauty. Despite the circumstances, Rebekah smiles reassuringly at Allysandra before turning back and opening the hidden passage.
As if having found the open maw of hell, the princess is torn. She wants to go back. It's all too scary and the abyss before her causes her to only want the security of her father's embrace and the warmth of her own bed sheets.
Maybe it's all a dream. A nightmare that she will wake from. It has to be. The alternative is just too terrible.
Rebekah senses her hesitation, but only pulls on her hand all the more desperately.
Weakly, the sheltered princess enters the mouth of hell.
A torch can be found a few feet into the tunnel.
"I'm sorry, princess. I... I don't know how to light it." The maid can't contain her own trembling. The abyssal darkness that extends before them drives her anxiety to new heights.
"I'm sorry... I'm sorry..." she mumbles as she leads Allysandra into the dark.
The passageway behind them closed, they can see nothing. And, all the noise of the outside world is cut off to them. Only their shaky breath and shuffling feet fills their ears.
The two girls cling to one another, the difference in their stations as nothing before their fear.
Rebekah can't help but feel the dampness of liquid dropping onto her sleeve. Her princess, a person who had almost never frowned before this fateful day, cries quietly in the dark. And, for as much as the maid wants to be a rock in this storm, her own will is broken.
The two women try to suppress their sobs. But, the agonizing sound echoes all around them.
Still, they inch their way onward. And, the tedium of the abyss gradually blunts their misery.
"We'll be fine," the maid swears over and over. Building her assurances into a mantra in their never ending journey away from their home.
In the endless dark, princess Allysandra is trapped in her own mind and memories. Every tragedy she had seen that day repeats itself, until she thinks of the young gardener. She wants to will it away. But, the violation of the woman, her screams for help, and the vague nakedness of a man... It stirs in her disgust and anger like nothing she's ever known. And, yet, that uncomfortable coldness in her gut. The tightness in her breathing when she thinks of the moment her eyes locked on with the woman. There is a restlessness, that she doesn't understand, that wells up within her.
"...hate..."
The word is so subtle that Rebekah's not sure she even heard it.
"Princess?" the maid asks the shadow beside her.
"I..." Allysandra says with some difficulty, "...hate them."
The words are soft, difficult. The princess has never hated anyone before. She's never had reason to.
Rebekah stops moving and takes the sad figure in the darkness into her embrace.
In the abyss, two young women feel warmth for the first time in what feels like a lifetime. It's a long embrace that knows nothing of social class or hierarchy. Just two women who've lost everything and only want to be comforted.
It takes time. But, they find strength and, in time, find their way to the end of the tunnel.
The gateway opens and they find themselves hidden in deep foliage. The forest on the periphery of the capital is far from the chaos of the city and castle. But, new terrors await them in the dark woods.
High above, the moon sheds its light on the world. Silver slivers shine down through the canopy. It's more than they had in the tunnel. But, in this over world, the noises of the forest startle the two maidens with every step.
In the distance, a wolf howls to declare its territory and Allysandra's eyes widen with fright and she tightens her grip on the maids hand. Rebekah would like to reassure her of their safety. But, her own breath is labored from anxiety.
There is no road at their feet and the princess grows worried.
"Where... Where are we going?"
The question goes unanswered. The king had villas throughout the kingdom. And, sometimes, Allysandra had been brought to them. But, she had no knowledge of how to find them on her own.
