Ellie & Nalye

The Run

Ellie's breath was short, but she kept running without risking a look behind her. It was a good thing that Nalye lead the way; not only was she the fastest, but she also knew those streets way better than Ellie, who would more likely get lost in the blink of an eye. Masculine shouts were being heard not so far behind the two friends. One hundred meters away, maybe two. They had less than a minute before Alok's Militia caught them up and arrested them. Ellie was still confident; Nalye hadn't sworn yet, therefore it meant they still had a chance to escape.

Luckily, that night, the weather was playing in the girls' favor. The heat of the previous day followed by the freezing temperature of the evening had left the soil roads full of ice, which made it impossible for the Militia to follow their path, as long as they stayed in the streets. As they turned on a new pathway, Nalye took advantage of the fact that the Militia couldn't see them and forced Ellie towards a large building surrounded by a fence that reminded her of the Royal Palace's. Thankfully, the fence wasn't as high as the Palace's and Nalye had enough time to give a leg up to Ellie before she climbed the metal palisade herself. The girls kept running until they reached a secondary set of stairs on the side of the building. As they were getting closer, Ellie had understood they were heading into a young girls' convent.

"What did you expect, bringing us here?" whispered Ellie to Nalye. "The Milicians will notice that we disappeared after we turned; this gargantuan edifice is among the first places, if not the first, that the King's men will search."

"Breathe, banû meis. And trust me." Ellie

"It's not like I had an actual choice," grumbled Ellie.

Nalye made her way under the stairs, moving the grid that ran beside them. Ellie was surprised to see that there was space between the soiled floor and the stairs, just big enough for a single person to hide. Nalye began to palpate the wall. The Militia's lights chose that moment to begin to shine through the night. The Militians were close. Ellie opened her mouth to comment, but Nalye single-handedly shut her up. After a couple seconds, she finally found what she was searching for: a tiny opening, so tiny it couldn't be noticed unless someone ran their fingers on it. She gave an impulse so strong on the wall, Ellie feared her friend had broke her arm against the brick. And then, just like that, a perfectly rectangular piece of wall folded back into the convent, leaking a thick cloud of dust in its movement. Nalye grabbed Ellie by the coat and rushed her into the new hiding place. She managed to put the grid back on to the side of the stairs just as the first Militians appeared.

Amidst the dark of the convent's cave, Ellie couldn't discern Nalye's face. She searched for her friend's hand, and when she found it, she didn't let go until the voices of angry men were so far that she couldn't hear them anymore. Only then, she allowed herself to take a deep breath. She was safe. Nalye moved away from her and opened an old candle that mustn't have been used for decades, judging by the thicknest of the layer of dust that covered it. They both looked at each other for a minute and burst out laughing, the adrenalin still running through their veins.

"How did you know there was a secret passage?" Ellie asked after regaining some self-control.

Nalye tucked her long black hair back behind her ear before glancing back at Ellie.

"I used to study here, in this convent," she said. "Only I know about this spot; I used it to go in and out of the dormitories at night without alerting the old witches. I skipped God knows how many of Mother Gabriella's classes only to come here and smoke a little."

Ellie raised an eyebrow, shocked. "You used to smoke?"

"Used? Banû meis, who said I stopped?" The dark-haired woman stared at her blonde friend for a second and started laughing. "You should see your face, you look like you saw someone tear off a baby panda's ears," she said with an irresistible smile.

"I just didn't think you were like that," stammered Ellie. They stopped talking, and then Ellie said: "Do you think someone could've recognized us?"

"We had our wings and our scarfs," Nalye said. "And on top of it..." She walked the distance which separated the both of them in two little, soft steps. "It's difficult to recognize one's face when someone else's is on it," she whispered, her lips almost touching Ellie's.

The blond-haired twentysomething woman blushed, and her heart began to race. She tried to speak but didn't seem able to pronounce a single word. Nalye kissed her slowly, and Ellie felt like flying. Kiss me again, she thought as her girlfriend took her lips off hers. But Nalye moved away. "We should go before your husband notices you're gone," she said.

"Yeah," Ellie managed to answer. "We should."

They headed back to the Royal Palace, which they entered through underground paths few people knew about; they were meant to evacuate the King and Queen along with their personal guard in case of extreme emergency. The importance of the secrecy of these passages was so great that the King did not keep them guarded by the Militia; that made them the perfect escape for a romantic date, especially when the concerned couple risked being trialed and executed if word of their same-sex relationship spread. Once they were in the Palace, Ellie and Nalye wished each other goodnight with no further ceremony. Nalye headed to the servants' quarter, and Ellie made her way to the King's bed.