The Maid and Her Princess

II. A Fallen Guardian's Remains

Initially, the flight to the mysterious crater seemed to be a short distance away, but neither Madoka or Audrey seemed to be in a hurry. From above, she could see the aftermath with alarming clarity. This dead field of mud and the shattered debris were the remains of a Petal, a shard of a sprawling vibrant forest that bloomed out from a central Labyrinth entrance called the Circle.

Now, it was scarred and scorched by the Guardian's wicked attacks. All because it was hunting for them. Madoka felt guilt clogging her throat, mixed in with burning smoke from remains of a tower's turret that was half embedded in the earth. She had not stayed in Gladeban for a long time, but she still ached with regret over its loss.

Moreover, the ache reigning over her skin was deeper. Her journey started with a city being burned to the ground and has come back full circle to where they are now. She even preferred the strange broken up field of the Uracksheegal, where a lonely battlefield rested abandoned over time. This troubling feeling was guilt for that empty feeling that haunted her again.

How could both Fiara's destruction and now Rustaze's plains not move her heart? Madoka stuffed it down into her soul again. She already had enough trouble sorting through her thoughts on everything that has happened so far that it kept her from thinking about her Princess. Whatever Petal or section of the Circle this was— it was no more nor a concern of hers.

Audrey's eye, that beautiful sapphire jewel, was still inside of her own face. She did not know whether or not to cherish this precious gem. It still twitched from the residual sting of magic coursing through her pupil. She still did not know what to call their newly acquired shared ability.

A vision swap? That did not sound quite appropriate. They do not simply swap visions, they see what each other see and what is before them. Shared pain. Shared dizziness. A sight between lovers. Intwined between a maid like her and a Royal Princess. A bonded gaze like this, she supposed could be all of those.

She did look through Audrey's eye to peer at whatever she was looking at, nor did she sense the Princess's magic spying through her own. They both let the lonely wind carry the silence over what they have done here.

Madoka let her mind wander to the road they had traveled behind her. When Her Highness spoke of such troublesome matters, of mad promises of endless adventures, and beyond— she never had any idea that it would come to things beyond her own world. She barely knew how to pronounce what the Royals and kind gods call it.

Pnaumen. Such an odd name for an even stranger world. Madoka did not even know what Gods and Royals even called the world she lived in until recently. She knew from the day she heard of the Seven Wonders that the world was much bigger than she could ever imagine. No— Even before that.

The summer where that lost kind god spoke to them at the strange altar. Madoka thought she would not survive the Hall of the Frost Queen nor the lesser dragon that she slew. Based off the Uracksheegal's apparent defeat, she now understood the reason Audrey called that dragon a lesser one. Those other monsters that she destroyed paled in comparison to the Wind King Dragon. And the dragon was way smaller than even the Hall itself.

Back then, her world did not stretch beyond hallways and feather dusters. Madoka had believed she was destined for nothing but servitude and cleaning, but now she could not even remember how she acquired magic. What she considered as a dangerous adventure before all of this mess was a stroll in a forest near a guarded Estate. Now, she's crossed into dreams, other dimensions, spoke to kind gods, and learned more about both Her Highnesses— Elise and Audrey.

She did not know who was more important to her. Madoka recognized the sense of security that Elise was apparently doing well in that other world as the same as finding the troublesome girl who took her place safe after she ran off somewhere in the Palace, but she felt conflicted for feeling that way towards the former princess since Audrey was still here flying with her. That dilemma was quickly silenced when the hand holding hers tightened into a nervous squeeze. They were holding hands in the middle of flying, something even her dreams did not have her fantasizing about. If Madoka could shake her head in her flight without flinging into a tailspin, she would.

She also refrained from touching her lips, She wanted to kiss Audrey again. Kind gods, that desire seemed to be the only thing that seemed to be the solution to her emptiness. Pay attention, Madoka, she warned herself. The massive pillar of smoke was getting closer and there were no sign of any survivors, so her mind wandered once again.

Madoka also was having trouble wondering what she was herself. She was a Star or some kind of a kind goddess herself— a being of immense power and capable of standing in the celestial. What exactly Stars were supposed to be became whispers in the Royal Palace, something she was not allowed to know during her brief time as an Upper Maid.

But she did not feel like one. She was just Madoka. Was she simply a maid to Audrey? A lover? Something more? Her cheeks flushed.

"There," Audrey pointed. Madoka snapped out of her fantasy. The crater was not a crater at all. It was a valley carved out in an enormous cone, as if a mountain fell flat on its face and sunk into the ground. "This is where I pulled you from the Guardian's cannon attack."

Madoka remained quiet. She had never felt that small and hopeless. She also felt deeply guilty for troubling the princess. The flash of all of those magical lights bringing their heat upon her like an apocalypse designed for her, the memory was not going to leave her mind for days to come.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"And over there," Audrey pointed further beyond. A strip of untouched forest divided the destruction from the Guardian's attack and a new crater. A pillar of smoke reached to the sky. "That has to be where it crashed. Let's go."

She swooped down before Madoka could tell her it is not safe and not to rush. The maid sighed. Who knew it would be like the days back in the Palace?

Audrey was standing at the precipice of the crater's edge, presumably facing the remains of the Guardian. Madoka quietly moved next to her and suppressed the shock of seeing the metal beast's corpse. It did not simply crash. It created a valley. The ribs of the crater were dotted with white ashes like snow, like upturned clothes flipped and strewn. The wound in the earth where its burial grounds were disemboweled anything green. The beast itself lay like a fallen warrior, split in half by her own axe and Audrey's magic.

Its red metal had been sizzling into white and black flakes of ashes, spreading its dying presence all over the plains behind them and branding the grass with blackened fingers. Like burning bits of armor melting in fire under a blanket of black smoke in purgatory— trapped in the twilight of slipping into smoke and clinging to the earth desperately trying to escape the flames.

There were still traces of Knotting magic dancing along the massive mangled tangle from where she slashed it in half with her might. That seemed like an age ago, but only one night had passed between their supposed victory here and now according to the kind god of Adventuring.

"So? What do you think?" Madoka asked Audrey tentatively.

"Well," she murmured. "It's definitely dead. Perhaps we should start with putting the fire out?"

A number of terrifying conclusions instantly filled Madoka's mind at the mention of putting a fire out. A giant bubble of water? Even more fire?

"H-How are you going to do that?"

"That depends," Audrey suddenly got close to Madoka, making her jump. But the girl was not focused on her burning face. She grabbed the storage portal wrapped around her neck. Instantly, she gasped while the flustered maid was wondering how her hands would look wrapped around her neck and hair. When that strange thought shook her out of it, Madoka realized that the girl was shocked out of what she was looking at inside the Storage Portal. "You... You organized the inventory?"

"Oh, hai," Madoka nodded, respectfully and tactfully looking down at her feet.

"Did you..." Audrey marveled at the maid's work. Pride replaced her embarrassment. "Wow."

She must be looking at the imaginary constructs inside of the talisman she made with her mind. Madoka discovered that she could manipulate more than just the size of the talisman itself, it allowed her to create magical furniture inside of it.

Shelves for food, weapons, coins and other similar objects. Warehouses for the dead and gross things, along with another storage place for materials like the dragon bones she was planning on using for her next axe. There was not anything that seemed to be able to stop a massive fire like this inside of the portal, though. Before she could feel too proud of her work inside the storage portal.

"Well, that's what a Crystal Lizard is, I suppose," Audrey clipped the talisman back to Madoka's necklace and tucked it neatly down her cloak. The brief contact of her slender fingers on her neckline electrified her. Contain yourself, she breathed tightly though she kept her small struggle as imperceptible as she could. "The devs didn't really say how big things could get inside of there or how much we can shove into it. We still have that lizard inside there, because those guys were like, 'oh we can't accept the big lizard full of valuable magical metals for Processing its too big!' Bah!"

"Well, they were right," Madoka muttered. It would have definitely not have fit inside that Artisan Guild warehouse. She wondered if that Nobleman even made it out of Gladeban alive. She felt the talisman. It was still warm with Audrey's touch. When they tested it before, they did not know if the portal could carry flaming objects inside of it. What if it set everything else inside the portal on fire?

"Can you store fire inside of the portal?" Madoka asked tentatively, knowing full well of the risks.

"Are you— Are you going to try and suck that entire thing into the portal?"

Madoka shrugged. What else could they do to remove the fire?

"I could barely get the portal to accept the troll corpses," she muttered. "How did you even get that big ass lizard in there? Well—" She snapped. A tiny ball of flame no bigger than the tip of her finger manifested above her palm. "— Open it up, then."

Madoka hesitated, but reluctantly obeyed. It was her idea, so therefore she should regretfully follow it through to the end. Audrey raised her arm in a throwing position. Dread and regret instantly filled her, but it was too late. The fireball flew straight at her with a woosh. It was faster than the water jet she normally shot and she was not sure if the princess aimed it at her or the portal she meticulously opened.

The heat grazed by her and a trail of flame glinted before her eyes. She whirled around. The ball of fire went through the portal and lit up a hole in the smoke cloud above the massive Guardian's remains, seeing grey skies on the other side.

"Well, that— Madoka!" Audrey suddenly shrieked.

Madoka turned to question her, but quickly realized that her sleeve was now on fire. Yet no heat or pain came. She lifted her arm, watching the embers of her cloak shrivel into ashes, while Audrey panicked. The swishing wool had coiled like a dying snake, snapping off and exposing her arm. It also was sheathed in flames, yet, no fear came to her just yet. Had she finally lost it or did the flame's remit simply not claim her?

She found her answer when the fires spread up the rest of her cloak, consuming her in its hunger. Through her dry eyes, she saw Audrey preparing a spell to douse her. She only felt the heat's steam press against her like the stuffy air of a busy scullery. Otherwise, Madoka was unharmed. Was this Gechick's blessing too? She inspected herself, seeing Knotting magic dance with the tongues of fire, but it had become her skin. Two waves of forces, one jolting and one comforting, glittering with orange-gold and undeniable magic.

The energy was exciting, then instantly replaced by a freezing splash of water.

Enchanted hands immediately seized her shoulders, with blurry words calling her name. Madoka was strangely distant and uncertain. She had always feared fire since that night of the Palace. What was different now? Was it because it did not harm her? Or was it because Audrey could not harm her?

Tear-soaked eyes cooled her temporary confusion into nothingness. At the very least, Madoka had nothing to fear with Audrey's fire anymore. Other flames could still be a danger and she was not willing to find that out just yet.

"Madoka! You're..."

"I'm fine," Madoka sighed, but before she could scold Her Fieryness the girl pulled their last cloak out of the portal that was still up and tossed it at her. She was immune to the magical flames, but her clothes certainly were not.

The following heat that made her face crimson was a different kind of fire.