The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

A Lost God's Grotto part 3

III.

The air was hard to breathe. Despite her head feeling light, Madoka stood behind her princess.

Audrey looked to the odd object on the side next to the door. A padlock? The maid would smash the door down but the idea of desecrating her princess's holy birthplace appalled her. The padlock suddenly chirped and flashed red when Audrey tapped it.

"I doubt it will verify my fingerprint," Audrey contemplated in a quiet voice. "But if my magic doesn't work here... Maybe..."

"I can smash the door down?" Madoka offered. Audrey looked at her with a slight disbelief.

"N-No, it's not that. He could be in there," Audrey stopped her but her face paled. Madoka's feelings darkened. She meant her other father. The one that killed her. "I— I didn't see his truck in the driveway. And the garage is full of his mess so there's no way its parked inside... But if he's somehow here... in this odd dungeon..."

"I could smash him to pieces too!" Madoka's hand gripped her sword tightly. She would destroy anyone who caused her harm. Especially the one who murdered her princess.

"I think he wouldn't recognize me," Audrey eased Madoka by placing a hand on hers. "Now that I look different and all. O-On second thought, m-maybe we shouldn't go in here."

"I'm with you," Madoka affirmed her. "This time you're not alone."

Audrey looked at her and then she silently prepared herself. Madoka watched her check the padlock again before she pressed several odd buttons on it in a pattern. It emitted high pitched sounds at each press when a clunk from the door itself startled the maid. There was no telling what she just unlocked.

Audrey nodded and opened the door. Madoka hesitated - she wanted to go in first just in case hostile entities were waiting for her but the princess was not fazed. Immediately the air changed again as a musty scent invaded her nostril. The smell of rotten paper wrapped Madoka's face before she saw the true horror behind the slowly opening door.

There were stacks of brown moldy paper piling up ceiling high. A narrow hall bordered by squalid scrolls and dust caked floors from only the kind gods knew greeted her. Madoka retched from the abominable sight. Something dark scuttled quickly across the floor into a black bag, startling her. There were multiple black bags squashed together in the corners of the room, teeming with those creatures. She did not hear its thoughts? She immediately drew her sword and prepared for anything inside this wretched place.

"Are you alright?" Audrey asked her.

"Y-You!" Madoka struggled to breathe. Her vision blurred as the oppressive waste assaulted her eyes. "This is absolute blasphemy! I don't know what world this is but even I—"

"Heh, I told you it'd be gross in here," Audrey chuckled mirthlessly. "Even through this place's grossness and without magic I can smell that god. I can't actually smell, but still!"

She shifted nervously. There was no part of the floor that was clean. The princess was known to be a little careless and cause troubles but this was downright disturbing to Madoka. She understood why she was that way now. Pity wallowed up inside of her and then wrath roiled. How dare these false parents of hers make her live in these squalid conditions?

Audrey strode in without hesitation. The maid was surprised but she recalled being shoved into the sewage canal of the palace. She was reminded once again that the standards she has placed on the girl were wrong. The princess had no qualms about getting her hands dirty if it meant to survive. So Madoka gulped and stepped inside with her.

"Home, sweet home, huh," Audrey tried casting more magic but remembered she could not. "It's just what I feared, this place has gotten worse since it's been abandoned. Or Ceghinort's magic could not support humans."