Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
2412, Crescin 10, Daleth
Ravalee tried blocking her ears to avoid looking back. Because if she did, she wasn't sure if she would be able to leave.
Cyrdel followed her, jogging to catch up even though she was trying her best to lose him through the throng of bustling ice sprites preparing for today's battle. She braced her hands on the wall as the floor shook and tilted. Whatever was happening on the upper floors, it wasn't good. All the more reason she should hurry and Cyrdel wasn't making it any easier.
"Ravalee!" He pushed past ice sprites who were now helping the wounded get to the two-hundred and sixth floor. The Grand Marshal wouldn't take chances and decreed that each and every wounded ice sprite must be brought to the very last floor to prepare for escape to the tunnels.
Ravalee's heart pounded knowing that the Ice Capital only had the one hundred and eighty-ninth floor to defend following their close defeat yesterday. The moment she saw more and more wounded ice sprites flood into the corridors, she berated herself because she's here. She's the one who could do something. Yet, she so selfishly wanted more time.
Death had never felt so terrifying when she's already at the face of it.
"Ravalee!" Cyrdel called again.
She willed it to stop. Please don't let her hear Cyrdel's voice. She didn't want to have anything to do with him. Because if she did, she would end up wishing for another day more. She would want him more and forsake her duty in the process.
She couldn't do that. Every minute she spent hesitating, one more ice sprite would fall in battle. She has to save what she could save. And Cyrdel...
This wasn't fair to the both of them. Ravalee knew that. Last she checked, fate wasn't fair to everyone that perished in this battle. The truth was because life rarely was.
"Ravalee!" Cyrdel's voice floated above the explosions above them.
She stopped in her tracks. Her fingers clenched by her sides. She didn't want to part with him under these terms but he left her no choice. Cyrdel stood in the middle of ice sprites zooming in and out of her vision when she turned. Faces blurred as movements became a quick whizz of ice blue between them. She only saw him—his face, his questioning eyes, his memories with her.
She saw only him.
"Ravalee," Cyrdel's chest was heaving from running after her.
She wasn't thinking. She ran and fell right into his embrace. Tears long ago held back broke free. No, she didn't want to go. She didn't want to die.. Cyrdel. She wanted him.
Cyrdel wrapped his arms around Ravalee's waist tighter like he had been doing the past few days. She stopped herself from sobbing any harder. If she let her emotions take over, she wouldn't ever stop.
"Why you, Ravalee?" Cyrdel said in her ear, his breath heavy on her skin. "Why does it have to be you? You don't deserve this."
Ravalee pulled away from Cyrdel and looked at his sandy brown eyes. This would probably be the last time she would ever get to stare into those warm pools. Oh, how many times had she taken this chance for granted. If she could go back in time, she would never look away from his eyes. She wouldn't look anywhere else.
