The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Journey to Gladeban (Interlude 4)

IV.

Madoka shook in her sleep.

She was back at that awful ridgeway above the crater that King Slime lived in. Audrey kicked a rock down the hill, watching it splash in the water she created with that miraculous magic of hers. Her hair was pasted onto her shoulder from the ordeal they went through. They fell into a crashing whirlpool, through a door, then entered into a strange world and fell back out. Audrey's world, Madoka struggled to understand any of it. Her head might as well have been tossed in the whirlpool a couple hundred more times. This Audrey is different, however. Or perhaps, always has been her. The Audrey in this dream seemed angry, upset over her past. She had seen her brooding over her own perceived failures, but Madoka did not understand why.

How could it ever be her fault? Like that sick maid in the inn, how could she blame herself even if her healing worked on Georgia? Was it concern that marred her pretty face that Madoka knew, or the weight of what that God told the two of them?

Kin slayer. That was something the kind God Ceghinort addressed Her Highness as. Someone who had killed their own family. Did it mean the Dragon they slew? Let me take full responsibility for that, Madoka thought. It was her savage axe that cut both of its wings off, after all. Audrey was no dragon, however. It was no use trying to get her to explain. Why was she dreaming of this place again?

"It was me," Audrey muttered, staring at her palms. She tried to hide a shiver, but failed under Madoka's watchful gaze. "I don't need a damn—"

It was too late, for Madoka already wrapped the little girl up with her own cloak. Whether this was the being who called her Kate or not, she was Her Highness's servant after all.

"You won't owe me for it, Audrey," Madoka scolds her. "I'm not your parents. Or the King."

Audrey shivered, but stopped herself as quick as the rapids flooding into the grotto. In the reflection of the water her eyes were two frightened and wide pools of sapphire, but she merely clutched the cloak tighter to herself.

"It was me," she finally muttered. "Up in that house, it was—"

"I'm sure you are standing before me, right here and now," Madoka reached an arm around her shoulder. Audrey was rocking back and forth. Madoka could sense the pain in her emotions from experiencing her past. She hoped she would remember to comfort her princess when she woke up.

"She'll never be fourteen," Audrey sighed, prying Madoka's arm from her neck and breathing heavily. "Won't ever see—"

When the princess turned to face Madoka, she screamed. To her own horror, the maid realized a massive black and purple bruise stretching around Audrey's neck. The girl began to choke up and shiver more. Madoka nearly screamed herself, but caught the girl as she collapsed. She sensed fear coming from the girl. Even a lifetime separating her from the man who killed her did not stop the overwhelming trauma from taking over.

"Audrey?"

Audrey was disturbed at the sight of the maid, which caused a sense of shame and hurt to well up inside of her. She pounded weakly into Madoka's arms in an attempt to get herself free, yet she stuffed her own feelings over and attended to Her Highness. The maid was much bigger, and the princess had a better chance at breaking a boulder with her fists than getting out of her embrace. The bruise was there but strangely did not seem to affect her. Instead, horror filled the blonde's eyes.

"Who are you?" Audrey stared back at her, shrinking to a cower. Madoka noticed a lack of recognition in her eyes as well as her normal fighting spirit was missing. Was this no longer her Highness? How long will this dream go on? What kind god was doing this to it this time? "How do you know about my parents? What... What are you?"