Prologue
She knew it was wrong.
She knew it was wrong, stupid and irrational in every way. Her mind kept telling her to turn back but she still found herself descending down the old and moldy stairs , moving ever deeper into the underground dungeon beneath the Hetrius arena.
She passed patrolling guards and the stationed sentries with absolute ease. She was quite accomplished in the arts of magic and casting a veil of invisibility around herself was child's play to her, the guards would sooner detect a specter before they detected her.
As she smoothly made her way through the maze of tunnels , she could hear scratching, growling and other threatening sounds coming from all around her but she barely cast a look towards the many eyes staring at her with bestial rage and madness. They might glow threateningly in the dark but all the beasties were locked away securely behind ademantium bars where they were kept until they were taken to the arena to fight for the amusement of a bloodthirsty crowd. She didn't feel a drop of pity as she passed the imprisoned monsters, they were nothing but mindless animals and she didn't give a damn whether they lived or died. No, her interests lay even deeper in the bowels of the dungeon.
She finally reached the very lowest part of the dungeons, a place simply known as The Pit. No guards patrolled this area, if something escaped from here they wouldn't have stood a chance against it anyway. It was eerily dark and silent as she carefully stepped forward. The floor was no longer the cobblestone that paved the rest of the dungeon, the floor was now treacherous and littered with jagged knife like rocks. She needed to be careful when she took her steps lest she trips and find herself impaled by the countless protrusions .
The Pits were a system of natural caverns repurposed into a prison for the most dangerous creatures of the arena, nightmarish monsters that could destroy armies and deadly beasts created by the god of death himself.
As she navigated her way through The Pits , she saw vile abominations and twisted creatures , all brightly displayed in the darkness by the blue glow of the complex and intricate magic circles that kept them confined. Unlike the simple creatures imprisoned in the upper layers, these ones didn't growl or try to get at her. No, these creatures just silently followed her with their eyes which was more unsettling to her than the beasts who had impotently growled and lunged at her at the upper levels because the glint of intelligence in these creature's eyes was only too apparent. These creatures were smart, they didn't waste their energy on something impossible, instead they bid their time and waited for the right time to strike.
She went deeper into the pits under the scrutinizing gazes of the surrounding predators and as she continued going deeper the creatures only grew more and more dangerous until she came face to face with a door.
Now, this was no ordinary door. It was a door forged from pure moon-silver and almost every inch of it was covered with glowing symbols that throbbed with power. The door didn't have a knob, latches , or any other opening mechanism on its smooth silver surface but that didn't deter the woman. She stepped forward and pulled out a locket that was hanging on a golden chain around her neck. She lifted the locket up to the door and the whole door turned translucent, she then stepped through the now insubstantial door and stepped into a dark room.
She squinted her eyes and tried to see into the pitch black room but she couldn't find the thing she was looking for even with her sight boosted by several spells.
As she turned her head from side to side looking for her target, a hand appeared from behind her and fingers hard with calluses wrapped around her neck,
"I thought I told you to never come back here again." The voice that spoke was a low rumble reminiscent of a thunderstorm or a volcano about to explode. It was a voice that inspired fear and awe in many but the woman wasn't cowed by the man's intimidating voice. Instead of cowering she straightened her back and replied with a clear voice,
"You did, I just decided to ignore you."
The hand holding her neck tightened ever so slightly, "You are playing a dangerous game princess. Maybe I should just snap your pretty little neck and use that amulet of yours to escape this wretched hole."
"Do you think I will fall for your scare tactics? If you are going to do it, then do it. Snap my neck and you will have the freedom you so deeply desire. Kill me and you can return to your homeland and you will never have to see the blighted lands again. Well, what are you waiting for?" The princess fearlessly raised her chin to give him better access to her neck. For a moment both of them were absolutely still as the princess put her life in the hands of a desperate man. Minutes passed by but the fingers around her neck did not constrict.
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She placed her own much more delicate hands upon the hand around her neck before she gently removed it and turned around to face her assailant,
"You can't do it , can you?"
The large man who had been threatening her only moments ago turned his face away from the princess , trying to avert his eyes so that he wouldn't have to look into her lovely lilac orbs but the princess didn't let him. She gently placed her hand on the side of his face amidst his wildly overgrown auburn beard and turned his face back to her so that they were standing face to face with their lips almost touching and their warm breath mingling with each other.
The contrast between the two was as clear as night and day; the tall beautiful willowy princess with her fancy looking dress dripping with jewelry and the unkempt looking mountain of a man wearing nothing to cover his muscular body which had horrible scars crisscrossing around most of it. She looked fragile next to him but it was clear for all to see that she had the power in this situation.
The princess looked at the man with deep tenderness and affection in her eyes before she rested her forehead against his, "Oh how I wish you could abandon your oath and discard your honor. There are no gods in the twilight kingdom, your oath means nothing here. Why do you insist on remaining stubborn? Why must you be so mule headed ? Can't you see that they are trying to kill you? Each time they pit you against impossible odds and every time you triumph it only angers them. I can't bear to watch another match when I know that it will be your last. They are planning on having the arch mages of the kingdom summon a chaos beast from the sixth circle of the abyss. Please, just take the amulet and leave before it is too late."
"You know that I can not do that. If I take the amulet then you will be trapped here in my stead. You might be a princess but that will not save you when the Staavi come for you."
"To the abyss with the Staavi! Their torture will only be a light tickle when compared to the agony of watching you die. I beg you Nicolas , just take the amulet and leave."
Nicolas placed his own hand on her face and he lightly caressed her dusky skin,"And what makes you think that my agony will be any less than yours if I let you die because of me? Do you think that I love you any less than you love me Annette?" He wiped the tear that was rolling down her cheek and brushed her silver hair behind her ear to reveal that it was dainty and pointy, "Don't be sad princess. Know that I die a happy man. The time I have spent with you has made everything I have been through worth it. My only regret in like is that I couldn't be with you longer."
"So this is goodbye?"
"We paladins don't believe in goodbyes, when we are about to die we only say 'until the next life' ."
The princess and the paladin spent the rest of the night in each other's arms, locked in a passionate embrace.
The next morning the paladin woke up and felt that something was terribly wrong. With a heavy feeling in his chest he turned around to look for the princess and found her lying on the floor. At first he thought that she was still sleeping but something about her unnatural stillness made him think that something wasn't right. He rushed over to her and found out that her breathing was shallow and that the cherry red lips that he had kissed just last night were slowly turning purple.
He knew about poisons and he knew that only one herb could cause these symptoms so quickly, a bush named the reaper's thorn. He tried to perform his highest level heal and cure spells but it was all for naught because the room he was in was warded against magic.
All he could do was rage and scream as the woman he loved slowly died in front of him.
When the princess finally took her last breath ,an envelope fell out of her left hand. The paladin picked up the envelope and opened it. Inside he found the amulet and a piece of paper with only four words on it.
Until the next life.