The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Idle Madoka (Spring 7)

VII.

"Earth to Madoka! Hello?" Princess Elise was waving a hand in front of Madoka. "Geez, it's your day off and you just... stand there menacingly."

Madoka was focused on her breathing techniques, but also not accustomed to not cleaning something or doing her duties. Apparently, she stopped in the middle of the hallway between her room and the princess's. Other maids had days off on other times of the week, a system the Princess made them follow. Madoka was not certain what they did either. Rain fell like clumps of mud, pounding on the glass of the windows.

What do people do on a "day off?"

"Y-your Highness," Madoka stammered, looking to clean something as an instinctive response. "My apologies..."

"Madoka, don't apologize to me," Elise said. "You just, like, go into hibernation mode when you're not doing anything, huh?"

"Hibernation mode, what does that...? It's difficult for me to not do things," Madoka admitted. She was no bear, she believed. "An order to not do any orders is strange. I have done the exercises, working out as you've called it, practiced the forms Leopride has taught me... But not a single thing has been cleaned!"

"There you go again, you workaholic," Elise patted her head. "Even practicing is working. It makes me proud, but kind of jealous of your determination."

Elise yawned.

"Zeron's been kicking my butt with the sword practice sessions," she admits. "He wants me to defeat you in a duel by Spring's end."

"We're going to duel?" Madoka found the idea of hitting Elise abhorrent. "What madness..."

"A mock duel, some kind of sword style whatsit contest to see which is superior, Fiara's Warstyle or Cherish Sword Style," Elise complained. "Doesn't Lord Zeron know he's putting a lot of trust in his delicate princess? I'm pretty sure I picked support mage in the Character creator..."

She sighed. Madoka scoffed at the ridiculousness of her ramblings.

"Naee wah!" Elise lightly punched Madoka's shoulder. "That's as strong as I can get, see? You'll trounce me! I'll be dead!"

"Train hard," Madoka said, but then stared off out the window. Those seven pillars were still there standing tall in the rain pour. She clicked her tongue in annoyance. "I better train too. But..."

She stared at specks of dust gathering on the curtains. She will have a lot of work to do.

"Don't go back into idle mode!" The princess yelled to keep Madoka from daydreaming again. "I-I have been training too! Hard! In other things."

"Oh, really?" Madoka smirked. The Princess danced around the halls that apparently Madoka stopped in. Her idle behavior was an issue for the princess but she was more into practicing her breathing techniques in complete silence. Perhaps she could hide away in one of the studies and practice there. Or go into idle mode there or whatever.

The pair ended up in the library again. Since Madoka could not read, Elise would study and report her findings to her.

"I wish I could show you my swordsmanship," Elise scratched her head. "I think I'm more suited for magic studies though. My theories have gone so far off the books that before I knew it they'd circled across the sun and flew back into the book."

"What does that mean?" Madoka asked her, while doing strength building exercises. Mealtime was soon yet that did not concern the princess.

"Gods, Madoka," Elise said, flipping a page of her book. A depiction of a six armed woman with floating orbs around her filled the page. "I haven't seen any of these things. I'm not one to believe in such... beings at all. The healers pray to this Goddess and of my curiosity, I have prayed every incantation with no magical effects at all."

"The kind gods work in mysterious ways, Elise."

"Spare me," the Princess scoffed as if she was bitter from something. "Their silence has cost me my life once already. If they were real or cared so much about me, I wouldn't be here in this world... Sorry. I shouldn't trample over religion like that."

"Kind gods exist in each of our hearts," Madoka said, on her 100th push-up. "Truth is, I'm jealous of those who can use magic. The gods work through them."

"Really?" Elise said, holding a hand up. A small glow lit up in her palm as she formed a ring with her fingers. With a puff of air, she blew a bubble of water from the ring. It floated peacefully in the air, before popping and leaving a small splotch on the ground before Madoka's 101st push-up. "I heard nothing from the gods, even back then. Do I lack something? Faith? Bah!"

"The gods are kind, even when you're not," Madoka simply said and meant it, cleaning the bubble's mess without hesitation. "They are working through you no matter what you say."

"Sorry, I made a mess," Elise sighed. "I suppose as insignificant as we all are to gods, we probably don't pose much of a reason for them to look our way. Still. All I imagined in my mind was forming a soap bubble with my core active. Glycerol from herbs, dissolved air, yada yada. Turns out there's a lot of things here that are similar."

"It's amazing, Elise," Madoka said. I wish you did not apologize to me, she thought. She had truly no idea how the Princess did not pray to a god or use an incantation like the healers to form that Water bubble, but it still formed. "Do it again!"

She inhaled and concentrated, forming a bigger ring with both her hands. It was a strange sight to Madoka, seeing a translucent layer of water form from the ring. Elise exhaled, pushing a bubble out that was much thicker and heavier than the first. She giggled, before tapping the bubble towards Madoka.

Madoka bounced the bubble back while doing a sideways plank, which seemed much stronger than the last bubble. She was amazed at Elise's progress. She had use the Fire element and now Water. Despite having no knowledge of the arcane herself, according to several mages in the Palace, using more than one element was a difficult and extremely rare trait to possess.

And her Princess could use two.

The game continued with them bouncing the bubble between each other until it eventually collapsed, splashing the floorboards in soapy water. Elise looked at a shocked Madoka and soon both were giggling.

"I'm sure this will come in handy when we travel a lot," Elise's tone dropped all the silliness from it. The colors of her voice turned to bleakness for a brief moment. Thunder rumbled from behind the window panes, making the Princess smile. Her voice became light again. "Thunder makes me nostalgic, you know. Chill noise to study to, I suppose."

Madoka looked at her Princess funny but said nothing, then continued on with her exercises. The two would carry into the night in peaceful silence, each working on their own training.