it is the 1st of december, so . . . here is an actual chapter of princess anarchy hehe

(totally not planning the techno public execution chapter for the 16th . . . totally not)

Stela said that it took her a shorter time to get to the base and find it before, as she was able to use her teleportation abilities without it tiring her too much. Constantly teleporting three people at once would've been a struggle, so the three women chose to get horses and ride to the base, usually making stops at villages on the way to the base.

Nia, Sara and Stela plow through snow, their legs and backs aching from the ridiculous amount of horse riding. They're glad that they're not cold at least. They've had to acquire warm clothes for the cold weather from the last village they visited.

"We're almost there." A grin spreads across Stela's features as she gazes into the distance, staring at a mountain before them. "There's an entrance there."

"Another cave, really?" Sara questions with a raised brow.

"Is that what you wanna complain about?" Nia knits her eyebrows with an amused smile. "I could go on a tangent about how fucking stupid all of this snow is."

Stela rolls her eyes, ignoring the two. "Let's just get to the portal."

The trio heel their horses forward, getting them into a canter. They reach the entrance of the mountain in no time, jumping off their horses and tying them to a spruce tree nearby.

Stela stares at the mountain briefly, looking around it, feeling the stone, looking for the lever that opens the well-hidden entrance. A smile appears on her lips once her fingers graze the lever before wrapping her hand around it and pulling at it.

Sara gasps as she watches a whole part of the mountain going up, revealing it to be a gate — a quite sophisticated type of technology as well.

"This looks like something Sam would build," the redhead says, smiling upon the mention of a man that used to be her friend. At least during the time she first appeared at the Dream SMP. Life was so much easier back then; the community was smaller and everyone merely wanted to live in peace.

"What do you know, maybe he did." Stela shrugs. "He's immortal, isn't he?"

"I never really asked." Sara shrugs.

"It would make sense, considering his species," Nia pipes in, despite not knowing Sam all that much besides the very basic information.

Stela points her index finger at Nia with a smile and nods. "Exactly."

"Let's go inside?" Sara asks, turning her head toward the opened redstone gates.

"Of course," says Nia.

The three women make their way inside, entering what looks like a simple cave. Nia and Stela grab a torch for themselves, while Sara gets by with only her powers — her palm bursting with fire. Stela leads them further inside the cave, the walls closing in on them as they move forward.

It gets smaller gradually, until Stela stops, searching for something. She finds a button eventually, pressing it. She doesn't notice the way Sara flinches. Nia's eyes lock onto the black beanie the redhead wears over her starry halo.

Another door opens. The trio enters, the first thing they see being a gigantic wall of blackstone. Though the entire room is made out of it besides the three plinths in the middle. Each of them is decorated accordingly for the three women.

Nia's is in the middle, made out of plain stone, an apple carved into its side, and a handprint on top. Stela's has the eye of ender and is made out of obsidian, and Sara's is made out of blackstone and gold, a flame carved inside it.

"We need to put our hands on those," says Stela obviously. "It should activate the portal."

"Are we sure about this?" Sara questions dubiously.

"I have nothing to lose anyway." Nia shrugs.

They step forward, taking place at their plinths. Exchanging glances, the three women put their hands on top of the plinths, watching them glow in red, green and purple for Sara, Nia and Stela respectively.

The portal before them makes a sound that Nia has a hard time describing, but it activates, flowing over the entire wall of blackstone before them.

"Wow," says Sara.

"Let's see what's on the other side, shall we?" Stela grins, being the first to make her way toward the portal. She puts her hand through it first, perhaps to know what to expect on the other side.

She shrugs, when Nia and Sara raise their eyebrows at her.

"Well, we didn't come here to stop at the portal, did we?" Nia says, huffing.

"Let's go," Sara concurs.

The three women nod at each other, Stela being the first to cross through the portal. Nia follows after her, then Sara.

It teleports them to another dark room. Nia grips on her torch tighter. She examines her surroundings, noticing the stone bricks, some covered in moss.

"Oh my— this is a stronghold," says Stela, walking deeper into the place. The portal behind them remains active.

"Wait, I think I found something," Sara remarks. She approaches a spot near the portal, flicking a lever. It creaks briefly before the first light turns on. Several lamps burst with light throughout the entire stronghold, making everything visible to the trio.

Nia gasps. She gapes at the gargantuan library. One that looks similar to the one that she saw in her dream when she first found out about the existence of this place.

"What the hell."

"There's so many books," Stela comments, her eyes darting from bookself to bookshelf stacked with books.

Nia's eyes get stuck on the path that leads through the middle, however. There's a lectern standing at the end of it, just like in her dream. So, doing what she did then, she makes her way toward the lectern and the book that will perhaps explain to them what's going on.

Sara and Stela follow her.

Except there seems to be a tiny problem. Nia stops by the lectern, staring at it with her eyebrow arched.

"It's empty." Sara examines the wooden lectern.

"There used to be a book here, though, look," Stela says. She points at the dust that covers the lectern. There is a less dusted square in the middle.

Nia steps back, only to see a small sign at the side of the lectern that reads: The Revival Book.

"The Revival Book?" she repeats it out loud, earning Sara and Stela's attention.

"What the hell is the Revival Book?"