Keya's Ordeal

[Translated from the Maastrichtian-A Codex to modern vernacular English by Professor S. Rutherford, PhD., Von Däniken Chair of Paleoexoanthropology and Language, University of Cascadia]

In the final days of the Cretaceous period, before the Cretaceous--Paleogene extinction event, the Great Peace of the Ark, holding the unity of Earth, was upended. The dark forces of the warlord B'ir Damm assailed the Holy City of the Ark.

For a week he lay siege to the city, fighting the Holy Army on the plains below the towering white walls. The invaders' mecha suits were outclassed by those of the Holy Army, but the Holy Army was outnumbered by an alliance never thought possible until the rise of ignorant men outnumbered the education and wisdom of the elvenfolk. In the end, the city gates fell, and B'ir Damm's victorious forces entered the city, stepping on and over the scorched metal scraps of destroyed mecha suits.

Mop-up operations continued against the fanatical resistance of surviving Holy Army soldiers, but the High Priest realized defeat was the reality, and was already waiting at the top of the vast staircase to the Holy Temple of the Ark, flanked by his priests and his daughter, Princess Priestess Keya.

Her mother had died giving birth to Keya, leaving Keya next in line to succeed her father. At 19 years old, Keya had only just been initiated, and only knew how to perform the sacred Dance of the Ark.

They all stood motionless and silent as B'ir Damm and his martial retinue strode up the stairs.

"High Priest Raegel." B'ir Damm addressed him with a bow. "I'm sorry to have been so blunt with your army, but surely you now see this was meant to be. This is the destiny of the Ark. To anchor a new era of glory. You have been a worthy guardian, and without you and your ancestors watching over the Ark, this would not have been possible. I thank you."

High Priest Raegel said nothing. A holy ensemble of blank, stony faces gazed silently back at B'ir Damm. B'ir extended a hand.

"Will you not join us? Become my High Priest and take your place as my counsel in this great new era."

Finally, Raegel spoke.

"I would not be your High Priest. The Ark does not belong to you. You cannot imagine the folly of your efforts," he said. "I have nothing to give you."

"But you do, Your Holiness, you do. You can tell me the sacred words that will unseal the Ark."

"I will do no such thing. You have no idea of the power that would unleash."

"With that power, I can transform this world for good. I can shape it into the most glorious world you can imagine. What a squandering of power it is to leave the Ark sealed. We could achieve such wonderful works, you and I."

"This world would be destroyed if the Ark were unsealed, you fool! You do not know of what you speak!"

"How regressive. What a superstitious fear you perpetuate. I have come so far, and you can see what I have had to sacrifice for the cause of the glory to come. Now, High Priest: tell me the sacred words to unseal the Ark. Only you know what they are."

Raegel remained silent.

B'ir Damm shrugged. "Seize that priest," he said, casually waving his hand at one of the priests to Raegel's right. Two of Damm's retinue violently seized the priest and forced him to his knees in front of Damm.

"Keya, get inside the Temple," said Raegel urgently.

"No," said Damm. More of Damm's men stepped behind the holy ensemble, blocking any retreat.

Damm looked at Raegel pointedly for a moment. Then from the mecha armor on his right forearm emerged a long blade. Damm seized the priest by his hair, jerked his head back, and drew the blade firmly and deeply through, and across, the priest's neck. The priest briefly gurgled but otherwise made no sound as he collapsed on the stone, almost decapitated, and bled out rapidly. The body rippled spasmodically, and the head faced the opposite direction. Raegel looked stoically ahead. Keya had covered her face.

"The sacred words, please," said Damm. Raegel stared back at Damm but said nothing. Damm waited patiently before nodding his head at another priest. The second priest was dragged without resistance, silent and calm, in front of Damm. Damm paused and then pushed his blade all the way through the priest's belly and out the back, before drawing it sharply upwards, stopping short of the priest's jaw. The blade sliced through the rib cage with no resistance at all. The priest's torso was completely undone, but as with the other, he made no sound as he died on the stone, opened like a split fig. Damm kicked the pulpy mess down the steps and turned back to Raegel.

"High Priest, do you care nothing for your clergy?"

"I care for them as I care for the Ark. And so do they."

"Nonsense," snorted Damm.

Suddenly he turned to gaze at Keya, who involuntarily flinched. He took in every detail of the young priestess.

She wore the sacred, long, flowing robes, and the crimson Sash of the Ark, like her father. Her long, blonde hair was tucked and hidden beneath her white coif and veil. All of Keya was covered except for her pretty face, and her pretty feet, upon which she wore her sacred, dainty, bejeweled, strapless, open-toe heels.

Keya was also half-human. She had elven features from her father, but she also had the human sensuous curves and large breasts of her mother, which her chaste robes could not entirely hide.

"Do not look at her thus!" Raegel thundered. "She does not know the sacred words, nor will she until it's time!"

"Then we will make the time come!" shouted Damm and snapped his fingers at his men. Three stepped forward and restrained Raegel while Damm stepped forward and seized Keya's hand gently but firmly as she shrank back. "Please come with me, Your Holiness."

The commotion that followed was unlike anything ever seen on the Temple mount. Damm's men effortlessly slayed the priests who rushed to the aid of the High Priest and the Princess Priestess. Keya screamed.

Raegel alternated between calling at his daughter and shouting at Damm as he struggled. "How dare you profane her! Don't you dare touch my daughter, you blasphemous animal!"

"Daddy don't give in! Don't give in!" Keya yelled as B'ir Damm hustled her away.

"Keya! Keya! Stay dignified and modest! Stay modest! I will come for you! I swear by the Ark! Stay modest! Stay modest, whatever you do!" Raegel shouted desperately. More men had to restrain him as he found strength he'd never had in his life.

"Ha! I can see in your eyes just what exactly you truly think and feel about your beautiful daughter!" Damm mocked Raegel. "We'll see about your care for the Ark! I'll have those sacred words from you yet!"

***

B'ir Damm's warship was anchored in the desert, hovering 30 feet off the ground at a safe distance from the battlefield. It was as almost large as the Holy Temple. Keya was brought aboard and shown to a chamber. Damm personally escorted her inside.

"So, I'm your prisoner now. Your hostage," she said.

"No, Your Holiness. You're our guest. Does this place look like a prison?"

Keya looked around at the sumptuous room. It had an outer area with a stone bench. Damm showed her a curtained inner area for gowning, an adjoining inner bedroom area with a large comfy bed, and a toilet/shower area adjoining the bedroom.

"Thus, your modesty shall always be preserved," he explained, smiling.

"You won't hear from my father," she said defiantly.

"Please call if you need anything, Princess Priestess," he said soothingly. "Perhaps in time you'll come to see the greatness of what I'm working to achieve. I would love for you to be a part of it. Later, I'd like you to meet the Council of the Alliance."

"My alliance is to the Ark. My loyalty is to my modesty." Keya put on a brave tone, but inside she was terrified, and worried sick about her father. The thought of the fall of the Holy City overwhelmed her.

Damm's smile was patronizing. "Your vows of dignity and modesty are certainly very important, Princess Priestess. Dignity and modesty are states which shield us from the deep shame of our fundamental vulnerability. Indeed, you embody that principle. Certainly, your beautiful body embraces that principle."

"What? What do you mean?" Keya stammered.

B'ir Damm only inclined his head in response and left the room. Keya caught sight of two guards as the doors to the room opened and closed.

***

Over the next four days, Keya found that she was treated as a guest, but an imprisoned guest. She was given full, rich meals and experienced a luxury to which she was completely unaccustomed as a priestess. Her status was respected by the deferential nods of the guards, who never entered her chambers without waiting for her answer. In the mornings Keya would slip from her bed and into her robing space, and the reverse in the evening in privacy.

Keya also had access to many areas of the ship, including a great observation deck with a view of the Holy City. Keya spent hours gazing at it. From a distance, it looked as it always had, the towering white ramparts glowing in the distance, while a herd of Isisauri grazed nearby. The illusion was spoiled by the lingering column of smoke that rose from within the walls and smudged the sky. Keya prayed constantly and thought continually about her father.

"Daddy please be okay," she whispered. "Please may I return safely to you."

At the end of the first day, B'ir Damm and a lieutenant visited her with a request.

"Please, Your Holiness: we will convey an audio recording of you to your father." He held forth a crystal. "Please tell him how much you miss him."

Keya did miss him. She badly wanted to go home. In the interest of assuring her father that she was alright, she leaned toward the crystal and spoke.

"Daddy, it's Keya. I'm okay, I'm alright. They're treating me well. But I miss you so much Daddy. Please don't give in. Don't tell them the sacred words."

Damm smiled and passed the crystal to his lieutenant.

"Edit out her last two sentences before sending it to the High Priest," he instructed.

"Don't!" she pleaded.

Damm shrugged.

"I want the sacred words. I can't kill him. So, you're our best means of persuasion right now. The message must be just right."

"How can you not heed the message of the Ark?" she protested. "The last time the Ark was unsealed, thousands of years ago, our ancestors barely escaped Fourth World to start again here. Neither the elven folk nor humans are meant to live here. We are here only by Its grace. The Ark made this planet habitable. To unseal the Ark would be to break the Covenant and turn Third World into what our ancestors fled."

"I don't need a history lecture from Your Holiness. That's a story made up by a bunch of people we don't even know," replied Damm. "And we're the poorer for it."

"You will get us all killed!"

"You are passionate about the fantasies your father put in your head. I live in the present reality."

He wheeled around and exited the room, followed by his lieutenant. Keya quietly wept, her shimmering tears caressing her soft cheeks.

***

The fourth day passed, and no word came from the High Priest. B'ir Damm was furious. He burst into Keya's room, interrupting her prayers. She squeaked with fright and backed up against a wall as Damm stormed in.

"That's enough!" Damm was shouting, but his voice softened when he saw how frightened Keya was. "Princess Priestess, I'm not going to wait days for your father to come to his senses. Tomorrow, we begin a new phase of persuasion." He pointed a finger at her menacingly before stalking out. Keya was left trembling and wondering what he meant.

She eventually slipped into her gowning area, where she took off her sacred robes and coif, hanging them carefully, before slipping through the inner curtains into her bed. She could not sleep, tossing and turning with worry. Were they going to harm her father? Could they even be capable of doing something so unspeakably blasphemous as harming the High Priest?

She struggled to sleep for two hours before a noise outside the curtains made her freeze. Someone had entered the room. The footsteps were unmistakable--soft and stealthy. When she heard the outer curtains rustle, she pulled the bedsheets tightly against herself and held her breath in terror.

Time slowed down for Keya, and she could feel herself going cold. Then she heard the outer curtains rustle, and the stealthy footsteps fade away, out of the room.

Keya lay still and quiet for half an hour, listening intently for any other noise. All was quiet. Slowly, silently, Keya slipped out of her bed and peeked out through the chamber curtains.

Her sacred robes were gone.

Her father's words echoed in her mind: "Stay modest!" She fled into her bed in panic, wrapping herself in the sheets, and curled up in a ball. She could not guess why her robes were stolen, nor by whom. Was this a misunderstanding? How could she ask for help if she could not leave her bed?

She thought of the guards posted outside her door and realized they would have had to let whoever took her robes pass into her room.

"O Sacred Ark, this is intentional!" she thought.

After another two hours, Keya could not sustain her vigil, and eventually collapsed into a fitful sleep.

***

When Keya awoke, she knew it was morning but not what time. She immediately sat up, remembering the mysterious theft of her sacred robes in the night. She studiously avoided peeking out into the robing area, but instead slipped through the curtains that were behind her bed into the washroom. There, she washed herself, and combed out her long, blonde hair. She secretly adored its natural curl and body, and how it fell in cascading locks. She, alone, enjoyed it, because the rest of the time it was hidden under her sacred coif.

Keya slipped back into her bed and stared at the curtains separating her from where her robes should've been. Perhaps it was a dream. Perhaps she had imagined it. She leaned forward and parted the curtains.

At first, she thought her robes had been returned and hung improperly. The material was certainly that of her robes. Next, she thought that only part of her robes had been returned. They seemed much less voluminous. Whatever was now hanging there had a note pinned to it. She took the note and read it.

"Put this on and then summon the guards."

Keya read the note three times before turning to the fabric hanging in front of her. As she turned it over in her hands, she realized two things. First, it was the material her robe was made from, including the colors, white and blue.

Second, somebody had turned her robe into a whole new outfit, possibly discarding parts of the robe in the process. Her red sash was nowhere to be seen. The only thing remaining unchanged was her delicate, strapless, bejeweled heels which rested demurely on the floor.

An overwhelming sense of violent sacrilege coursed through her. "What have you dared wrought with my sacred robes!" Keya wanted to shout.

She noticed she was breathing hard and calmed herself as she inspected the outfit. It consisted of two pieces: a top and a skirt.

The top was a white, long-sleeved, buttoned bolero jacket with blue accents on the neck collar and cuffs. The skirt was a white, very short, flared skirt with structured pleats, and blue accents at the waist and hemline. It was made from her sacred robes but bore no resemblance to the design of her sacred robes, and Keya considered the possibility of slipping back into her bed and refusing to come out.

She heard one of the guards cough. It was clear and loud enough that she realized the door to her chamber was open. Keya had a sudden vision of B'ir Damm storming into her room again without any notice, and so she quickly put on the bolero top.

Keya was mortified. As a cropped jacket, not only did the bolero top bare her entire midriff, but it also bared the lower half of her very large breasts. Keya had an uncomfortable amount of underboob exposure. She could distinctly see the bottom curves of her breasts swelling out, bare and exposed. She wondered how high she could safely raise her arms.

Furthermore, while the jacket had a high collar around her neck, it also had a large boob window across her chest, exposing lots of her upper cleavage as well.

Keya took a deep breath, stepped into the mini skirt, and pulled it on. The skirt flared out and away from her hips, and she had no sense of how it looked on her. She slipped into her heels and made her way into the washroom where there was a full-length mirror. Normally she could feel her robes swishing as she walked, but in the skirt, she could feel nothing except the faint brush of fabric against the very top of her hips, and the occasional light touch of the skirt as it gently bounced up and down in the rear when she walked. She looked at herself in the mirror.

The incredible shortness of Keya's skirt took her breath away.

The waistline of her skirt dipped low in the front, revealing Keya's bare navel and more below it. All of Keya's shapely, smooth bare legs were on display. The skirt rode higher around the rest of her waist. The mini skirt was so short that it barely covered Keya's behind. She turned one way and then the other, testing the skirt in the mirror. It swished and bounced with each movement.

Then she turned around and looked over her shoulder, in the mirror, and slowly leaned forward. She hadn't leaned forward very far before the hem of her skirt rose enough that she could see the twin crescents of her bare bum cheeks start to show. She knew that if she leaned further forward, her bare pussy would be exposed between her cheeks, with its very, very prominent inner lips. Keya straightened up immediately and smoothed her skirt down in the back.

She turned around to face the mirror and looked at her jacket's bare underboob. She lifted her arms straight up. The bolero top was pulled up by the motion of her arms, and the jacket slid up over her breasts. Keya's bare nipples popped out.

She instantly lowered her arms and tugged her top down as much as she could.

"O Sacred Ark!" she whispered and went back to the area where she had found the outfit.

She searched around for something to wear underneath her skirt but could find nothing at all. Keya remained bare underneath her short little mini skirt. She tugged it down as much as she could, but it was snug to her waist.

She stood behind the curtain, paralyzed with indecision and embarrassment. She knew she was supposed to summon the guards, but she didn't want them to see her in her embarrassingly skimpy outfit. And her hair was exposed, as no coif was provided.

But the choice was made for her. Someone knocked loudly on the open door to her room.

"Princess Priestess?" a voice called.

Keya poked just her head out from between the curtains. It was one of the guards. His eyes widened at the sight of her uncovered, beautiful blonde hair.

"Oh! Your Holiness, please forgive me, I didn't realize you weren't yet robed."

"I am robed," she said quietly.

"You are? In that case I'll let Lord Damm know. He wants to see you. Are hungry? Do you want breakfast?"

Keya shook her head. She wasn't hungry at all. The guard left, and Keya looked carefully around her room for any sort of modest clothing she could wear. She saw nothing. She retreated behind the curtain and sat down to wait.

When the guard finally returned, he was joined by the other. Keya could hear their armored boots.

"Princess Priestess Keya, please step forward and come with us."

Keya slipped meekly out from the curtains and stood before the guards. She blushed as their eyes lit up. They openly looked her up and down, slowly, as they processed the reality of what she was wearing. Their eyes took in her exposed cleavage and underboob, her bare midriff and her sexy, beautiful bare legs--all parts of the young priestess they would never expect to see. They quickly exchanged glances in the uncomfortable silence.