Fight or die.
Those were her options.
Fight or die.
Valeria kept her eyes glumly on her feet as the guards walked with her to the black gate. Her pretty red dress had been replaced with a simple white shirt and brown leather pants. There had been no time to tie her raven-black hair into its usual braid and instead it fell down her back like a waterfall of silk.
It was without the red ribbons that signified that her body was for sale, but there was little point to those anymore. Her body was meant for something else now.
The guards offered her sad smiles as they led her into a small shack, not far from the black gate and the people gathering in front of it. Valeria walked in, desperately trying not to cry and the door closed behind her with a click that sounded all too final.
The room was bare, aside from a table with a few items piled on top of it.
Leather armour, consisting of a chest piece, some greaves, bracers and what appeared to be an armoured skirt had been readied for her. It was well-crafted, but Valeria had seen heroes walk out of here with far nicer equipment.
'No need to waste steel on the hooker who's just going to die, huh?'
She thought as she disdainfully threw the armour back on to the table. A sheathed longsword lay next to it and when the raven-haired girl drew it, it slid out easily with the rasp of steel on steel.
At least they'd put some effort into that.
Resigned, Valeria began to put her armour on, but before she got very far the door opened and closed behind her very quickly.
Surprised, she spun around and gaped at who had rushed in. "Jane."
Tall, curvy and with soft features, Jane was the very picture of classical beauty and elegance. The blue dress she wore clung enticingly to her curves and the expensive necklace with her family's coat of arms glittered even in the little light the shack got. Her one act of rebellion, her short blonde hair, was mussed and her cheeks were flushed.
All the same, Jane was gorgeous. Or at least she would have been, had she not looked so utterly distraught.
"Val." She whispered, thick tears running down her cheeks as she took a few hesitant steps closer. "I..." The words stuck in her throat and, after a moment of indecision, she rushed forward and buried her face in the crook of the taller girl's neck. Loudly sobbing, she clung to Valeria as if she would crumble in her hands.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Jane sobbed. "It's my fault. It's all my fault."
"Hey, hey, hey." Valeria wrapped her arms around the sobbing noble, her voice shaky as she tried to be strong. "Love, none of this is your fault. I promise I don't blame you." Her silver eyes slowly drifted shut as she basked in the warmth of Jane's body against her own.
They had been like this before. A lot. As time went by, there was always this feeling that they were just shy of the embrace becoming something more. Something they both craved. Even now, it started a small fire low in Valeria's belly.
Even when she was about to die, she could breathe in Jane's scent and wonder what it would be like to kiss and taste and touch.
Reluctantly, Valeria pulled back when her friend trembled and shook her head. "But I knew people were suspicious." She whimpered, only moving closer to Valeria. "I knew but I was so happy and I thought it wouldn't matter even though I know how Mathias can get and-" She trailed off with a sound that was a cross between a sigh and a whimper. "I was...I'm so in-"
Two slender fingers on her lips stopped the noble from rambling and big, watery blue eyes opened to look at Valeria.
The taller girl had rested their foreheads together and her face was twisted in a way as if she'd been physically hurt. "Please don't." Valeria pleaded. "I'm just barely holding it together and...and if you say that and I can't...Jane, I can't do anything. I
have
to go."
When Jane's brother Mathias had bought her months ago, Valeria had never expected feelings to become an issue. He was just another client and she was only happy that a noble with deep pockets wanted to keep fucking her.
Of course, the more he bought her, the more time she spent at his family's mansion. The more time she spent there, the more time she spent with his gorgeous sister.
Men had never really been her thing. An inconvenience that came with the job, really. They didn't appeal to her as women did. Of course, with that being outlawed, it was sort of a moot point. It only came up whenever Valeria was bought by a blushing girl who wanted to find out if she enjoyed the touch of another woman more than a man.
That was always the same song and dance. They would praise her tongue and her fingers and beg to be fucked and fucked until their repressed lust ran out. And of course when the red fog faded, they burst into tears and lamented that they couldn't be gay.
Valeria couldn't judge, really. She'd spent about a week panicking and throwing up when she first realized.
And then she had to go and fall in love with a gorgeous noble. Yeah, fate just loved Valeria.
Jane was just...Jane was everything. Sweet, kind, funny. Their friendship had formed quickly, but it wasn't enough. A drunken kiss was what set them on the slow, slow path to something more. After all, Jane absolutely could not afford to be kissing another woman and Valeria couldn't just stop selling herself to Mathias if for no other reason than the fact that she wouldn't have an excuse to see Jane anymore.
Of course, Mathias was a jealous little bastard. He didn't like sharing his toys. Just once he'd found his sister and his whore acting a bit too close and suddenly they found a golden ring with the family seal on Valeria when she tried to leave.
The dark-haired girl quickly realized that she could keep saying that she didn't take it until she was blue in the face. Nobody was going to believe her over Mathias.
So she had a choice. Be executed for stealing from a noble, or volunteer to be the realm's hero.
Long ago, the black gate had been a source of monsters and demons who spread their corruption like a disease. Then, the king struck a deal with some sort of all-powerful creature on the other side of the gate. As long as they provided a hero every five years who would step through the gate and act as the all-powerful creature's warrior against these foul creatures, no more would come through the gate.
The heroes that came before were rarely heard from again. Only two had returned, to Valeria's knowledge, and neither remembered anything.
Still, it had to be a marginally better fate than just getting your head chopped off for a crime you didn't commit. At least this way, nobody got to see Valeria die.
Jane watched the dark-haired hero struggle and smiled at her, slowly moving her fingers away. "I'm going to kiss you now." She whispered, leaving Valeria no choice in the matter as she leaned in.
Valeria couldn't deny herself this. Jane's lips were soft and gentle and they kissed with a reverence the young prostitute had never experienced before.
She whined in protest when the shorter girl pulled back and her eyes fluttered open to find Jane looking a little dazed.
"Oh." Jane muttered, as if coming to some stunning realization. "I...I hadn't realized how much I wanted that."
The two looked at each other in silence for a moment and then there was a shift in the air and it was like the thin thread keeping the apart snapped. They clashed in a furious kiss, mouths open and tongues tangling as Valeria walked her shorter loved back until she could pin her against the wall.
The dark-haired girl cooed when her lover's hands slid boldly under her shirt and she guided them up until they were palming her sizeable breasts over the bindings. Jane whimpered into Valeria's mouth, stoking the fire that was spreading through the hero's body. How she had longed to hear those sounds.
What did it matter if anyone could walk in? Valeria was going to vanish soon enough and all she wanted before then was to leave with Jane's taste on her tongue.
The blonde noble pulled back with a nip to the taller girl's bottom lip and whispered to her. "Take me. Please take me." Kissing her jawline, she began to hoist up her dress. "I've wanted it for so long, Valeria. I've dreamt of it. Please."
How was she supposed to deny her that?
With a hungry growl, Valeria began to kiss and nip her way down Jane's neck.
The dress was too heavy and complicated too really get Jane out of it right then and there, so placed light kisses on her belly through the soft material as she moved lower and lower until Valeria was on her knees in front of the pretty girl.
She'd never hated the other girl's perfume as much as she did in that moment. She didn't want to smell jasmine and orange. She wanted to smell the evidence of Jane's lust. She wanted to reach underneath that dress and find her soaked.
