The right

The door opened into a small, round room. Teysa didn't have time to check for exits-- she threw herself inside, followed closely by Aliara, who pulled the door shut. Mercifully the hinges were well-oiled and made no sound. No sooner had they closed the door behind them and ducked down below its porthole then the approaching footsteps entered the kitchen. The tiny room grew brighter as the intruder's torch came around the corner.

They were in a storage closet. Half-full bags of grain and dried mushrooms lined the walls. Shelves held rows of ceramic dishware and racks of utensils. Jars of brine filled one shelf-- inside each were what looked like small, round eggs. Some of the food items were difficult to identify, and Teysa edged away from a sack that seemed to be writhing slowly. A barred window high on one wall let in a sliver of light from outside.

The occupant of the kitchen was moving around. Teysa and Aliara huddled on the floor beneath the door and tried to breathe as quietly as possible. Outside, footsteps paced in a circle, fading and growing louder. Teysa's heart leapt into her throat as the footsteps approached and paused right outside their door. She didn't dare look up to see if someone was peering through the porthole. At any moment, she expected to hear a cry of alarm, or feel a sharp pain in the back of her neck. For what felt like ages, there was no sound.

The door let out a loud, metallic clunk and the footsteps immediately receded. The room grew dimmer as the torch disappeared up the staircase from which it had come. The sound faded, grew quiet and was gone.

Teysa let out the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. She became aware of a pain in her wrist. Aliara was staring at the floor, wide-eyed, one hand gripping Teysa's wrist as tightly as she good. Teysa gently peeled her friend's hand off of her arm and shook some feeling back into it. She stood, feeling a little unsteady, and helped Aliara to her feet.
"That was close," she whispered. Aliara shuddered. "Let's just get out of here, ok?"

Teysa pushed on the door, but it refused to budge. She turned to Aliara, panic-stricken. "It's locked! We're trapped in here!"

Aliara said nothing, but turned and strode away. "Li, where are you going?" Teysa hissed. "Li... Li, come on, talk to me. What's going on?" Aliara didn't turn around, but crossed the room to one of the shelves. They were heavy, solid-looking slabs of stone set directly into the wall. She pulled sacks of grain off the end of the shelf and tossed them into the corner, then vaulted lightly up like a cat. Teysa could only watch as her friend scurried up the wall, swinging herself up from shelf to shelf. Her ridiculous attire didn't seem to hinder her at all, though it provided Teysa an excellent view of Aliara's round, supple butt wiggling and flexing as she climbed. She **** herself to look away in embarrassment.

"Tey," Aliara whispered urgently, "come over here. Come up. I need a hand." Teysa regarded the shelves with trepidation. "Li, I don't think I can-"
"Hush. I know you can. Just go slow. One at a time, hand over hand. It's easy, these things have a lot of grip." She looked down from a perch about seven feet off the floor. "Come on, I need you up here."

Teysa hopped onto the lowest shelf, then gingerly grabbed at the second and rolled her body awkwardly onto it. Ignoring Aliara's pitying gaze she squirmed her way onto the shelf, paused to catch her breath, then grabbed the next highest and pulled herself up. One shelf at a time she shimmied to the top. It took her a lot longer and it probably looked a lot less impressive, but soon enough she had joined Aliara on the top shelf. To her surprise it was larger and wider than it had looked-- a little ledge, with plenty of room to set. Aliara pointed up.
"See up there? The window? I need a boost to get up there. The bars aren't set into the stone, see? They're just resting in grooves. If you can get me up there I can get the bars out, and we can get out of here."
"Are you crazy? There's no way that window is big enough for us." Teysa shook her head. "I wish you had told me your 'idea' before I wasted all this time climbing. I could have saved myself some embarrassment."
"Shut up," replied Aliara, but there was no venom in her tone. "Look, it's big enough, ok? Trust me. Who's the climber here? How often have I done this kind of thing?"
"A few," admitted Teysa, "but you usually have rope. What happens if you fall?"
"I won't." That seemed to be that. Sighing, Teysa knelt and knotted her fingers together. "Be careful, Li. If this doesn't work we'll figure something out."
"This will work, oh ye of little faith. Now quiet, I need to concentrate."

Teysa grunted as she took Aliara's weight in her hands and lifted. Bracing herself against the wall, the half-elf rose into the air, and Teysa felt the pressure lessen as Aliara grabbed the windowsill. Above her there was a scraping and a metallic grinding noise, then Aliara's urgent whisper: "Ok, I'm coming down now." She descended lightly and stepped off onto the shelf, carrying a heavy iron bar in each hand. "Ta-daaa! There's tons of space up there. I'll go up first, then help you." She laid the bars on the shelf, then gestured for Teysa to boost her again. This time, at the top of her ascent she grunted with exertion, and Teysa felt the weight lift itself off her hands. She looked up to see Aliara crouched in the windowsill, halfway out. "Tey!" she hissed. "There's a lot of room up here! It's a little ledge outside the window! Come on!" She stuck her arm out, and Teysa grabbed it. Aliara was small, but there was a lot of muscle in her wiry frame-- she pulled with all her might, and Teysa scrabbled for handholds in the loose brickwork of the wall. It took a couple of false starts, but she managed to get her free hand onto the ledge, and from there it was just a minute of huffing and puffing to get her whole body onto the ledge. She lay there for a moment to catch her breath. It was tight with two people, but Teysa didn't care.

"I can't... believe... you used to... do this... every week..." she moaned, clutching the stitch in her side. "This... is... brutal."
"Nah, it's easier with tools," Aliara replied. "Come on, look what I found." She gestured out the window.

They were about fifteen feet off the ground-- there was a subtle rise in the building's floor plan, it seemed. Across the street a bare obsidian wall faced them, polished so smoothly that Teysa could see faint reflections in it. The street below was lined with steel grates from which a thin white mist issued at irregular intervals. Below them, and about three feet to their right, another ledged window was set in the temple's wall. Aliara pointed at it. "Look, it's so close! We just drop down onto that ledge, pull out the bars, and voila! Home free."
Teysa stared at her. "Are you joking? No way! I can't make that!"

Aliara rolled her eyes. "Come on! You did fine so far. I'll go first and show you how easy it is." Without waiting, she swung her body out over the gap and dropped off. Teysa let out an involuntary gasp of alarm, but Aliara moved in a graceful arc that ended with her landing lightly on the window ledge. She ducked down for a few moments, then straightened holding two iron bars. With a theatrical flourish she dropped them into the alley, where they clanked against the cobbles. She ducked into the window, then stuck her head out.

"Tey! Come on, I did all the hard part for you! Just lower your body, then try to swing out a little to cross the gap! It's just a few feet, and the ledge is really big! This is a bedroom or something. It's empty, but you have to hurry!"

Teysa swallowed. There was no way Aliara was coming back up, so she really only had one option. She sat on the edge of the ledge with her legs dangling, then slowly slid her body down off of it. She clung desperately to the edge and swung her body side to side, trying to build up some momentum. Her grip was growing perilous-- she knew she had to leap soon, or fall. With a silent prayer she swung one last time and vaulted out into midair.

This was a mistake, she had time to think at the pinnacle of her arc, before she started to descend. She could see the ledge below. It suddenly looked a lot smaller than it had. She tensed the muscles in her legs for impact.