The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Before the Seige (Goblin Eschaton 3)

III.

Madoka woke with cold sweat beading down her forehead. She felt like she was freezing. Instinctively she moved to check herself over but stopped at the sight of her palm. The scar was not there. How could this be? Madoka checked her surroundings tentatively. There was nothing but darkness around her like a cold and damp rag.

Was she kidnapped? No, she concluded. She has traveled so long to not get taken by mere weaklings like those adventurers. Despite this, her rapid thoughts thumped against her skull and she felt like her eyes were going to burst. A voice called to her, beckoned her to listen.

Eyes.
Give me them.
I will be elated to see you...

"Who's there?" She growled. The darkness did not lift from her eyes but a shade of purple fog began to fill the place she found herself in. Madoka hated this place. If she was in a dream she would have woken up already. Panic welled in her but she dared not to show it to her adversary.

Be not afraid.
Just let me have your eyes and you will find me.
My time is fading.

"No!" Madoka screamed into the mist. Her own hands formed into feathery claws and jerked towards her eyes on their own! They clawed at her face while she resisted and shook her head. "Leave me be!"

I wish to be happy.
Why do you resist?
It cannot be helped then.
Child, let us play again some time.
We will meet again.
You're not like the rest.

A cackling laughter echoed in her mind but she felt like the grasp on her fingers lifted off of her. The purple fog enveloped her so she reached for her weapons. Her axe was not at her side! Madoka tried to reach for her crystal inside of her but her hand merely punched her chest. Something glowed within the illuminated violet smog.

A strange chamber? Black chains clinked around her ankles and the ground beneath her scraped at her feet but she pushed forward to investigate it. Chains have not been strapped to her wrists and legs since Madoka was a child. A small tear played at the edge of her eyes. Each step was a lesson but she was determined to learn through the gas. Her vision faltered but something floated within the chamber. It seemed like the both of them were suspended and somehow standing on thin air within this abyss. Madoka focused on the figure within.

A woman was unconscious and tied by black tubes inside of it! The maid looked around the pitch black room and saw the purple mist had lifted entirely. The woman seemed serene, floating within the confines of the chamber's bubbling waters. As Madoka studied her, the woman suddenly shook awake. Her blue eyes sharpened with anger and pierced Madoka. Her disheveled blonde hair swished rapidly in water as she rocked her head with an inaudible fury and her arms struggled against the black tubes that restrained her. The maid was worried she was drowning so she tried to break the chamber. It was no use! Desperation filled her when suddenly she heard a voice above her.

"Madoka!"

"No!" Madoka screamed. The chamber and the desperate woman sank into the darkness but the voice persisted over the maid's guilt. "Let me save you!"

"Madoka, wake up!"

Hands pulled her out of the abyss she was in and Audrey was above her. She looked concerned. The princess's full weight was sitting on her chest with her arms underneath. Madoka heaved in the stench of the battle they had before and rain showered upon wherever she was placed in.

"You stink," Madoka growled and signaled for her to get off of her. Audrey looked down at the compromised position they were in and got off of her.

"S-Sorry," Audrey glanced at the maid's hands. She followed her eyes and found her hands to be red. Blood. There was something streaming from her friend's face. Tears?