The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Night Terrors (Summer 2)

II.

She jerked awake, feeling cold and hot at the same time. Instinctively, Madoka felt herself all over, before reaching between her legs and stopping. She cursed herself and got up to get her sheets and herself cleaned. Damn nightmares. Her time in the Palace with nobles was not always the easiest to live with. Madoka turned down the hallway to her quarters after cleaning herself and her dripping bed sheets.

She'll have to ask Elise to conjure those soap bubbles later.

The moons hung high in the sky, their lights just a little brighter than the canvas of stars above. Distant, but kind gods waiting and watching her. As she crept through, a whimper sounded from the princess's room.

Madoka dropped her sheets in her room and nearly bolted to investigate Princess Fiara. She cracked open the door as if to avoid something sinister, peering in with aid from a sliver of the kind moon's light. The princess was flailing. A sickness?

"Please," she gasped and grasped her sheets. The room became illuminated as the princess flailed again. Elise was using magic in her sleep, her sobs and muffled screaming accompanied with the low hum of the arcane energies threatening to tear apart the room into a mess. Immediately Madoka rushed to her side, seeing the core's circle begin to swirl inside her chest. "Don't do this! Please! L-Let go of my neck, Dad! I-I'll promise, I'll call you Dad from now on! Mom! H-help me!"

She was choking and her eyes were closed shut; but she suddenly latched onto Madoka's shoulders with a surprisingly strong grip. Madoka was horrified that she couldn't break free, but also did not know what to do. "Elise! Princess! Wake u-up!"

The princess stopped her flailing but still held tightly onto Madoka, breathing and crying.

"D-Don't kill me," she breathed. How was she even able to do this in her sleep? Madoka had to think quickly. She felt like her arms were going to be ripped off under the sheer pressure of Elise's grip. The humming from her glowing magic core stopped.

"I won't!" Madoka solemnly swore to her sleeping princess.

"Don't let me die here," she choked. Madoka struggled to raise her hand, but she wiped Elise's tear stained cheeks with her sleeve. "I-I'm so alone here."

"I promise, Elise," Madoka answered. "I will not leave your side."

The grip was loosening. Yes, that's it!

"M-Mom, I'm s-sorry," Elise started choking again, letting go of Madoka. "I'm sorry I was b-born."

"You don't have to apologize, Elise," Madoka hugged her. The heat emanating from Elise's magic core burned her up, but she held on tightly.

"B-but—"

"Quiet, now, princess. It's late and it's time to sleep."

Madoka pulled away as the princess's posture slackened. Her sapphire eyes opened briefly, searching rapidly in her sleep for a way back to close. The moonlight illuminated them, though they were very much vast universes of their own. A pair of celestial oceans Madoka could dance in. But they were shut again as her glowing core flickered and faded like the last embers of a firepit.

She toppled back onto her bed, now a completely disheveled and chaotic mess of sheets and blankets. The night was somehow soporific despite the storm that passed through, with nothing but the two girls and the two kind gods watching over them. Madoka smiled at her sleeping princess. She sat next to the bed leaning over her princess, stroking her hair for what seemed like a long time and holding her hand.

It was not long before exhaustion overtook the maid. Her knees were a bit sore from sitting on them for a long time. Madoka chuckled to herself, she didn't want to think of the marks the princess's supposedly noodly arms left on her. She decided she'll fall fast asleep tonight, just in case.