The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

Meeting With Fate (Beyond A Dragon 3/7)

III.

"I won't blow up the Inn, I promise," Madoka repeated what the princess said to her when she tucked her in the bed to Eraziror with a sigh. She felt more at ease around him, but still had her guard up. She knew that he was nothing and could not hurt her even if he tried, but the sharp daggers of the past still drove their way in between her and men.

"That does sound like her," Eraziror commented with a chuckle. "You mimic her voice quite well."

Madoka shrugged, since he could not detect the Knotting Strands forming from her mouth to copy Her Highness's voice. Eraziror looked at her and began to laugh, only stopping when he noticed the maid's inquisitive expression.

"You got an easy face to read, Madoka," he noted. "I'm just laughing since it seems like your Lady finally has some kind of weakness. No, no. Not like that. Just that, everything about her doesn't seem wrong. Perfect, like a Noble. Or perhaps like one of the Old Nobles. Not the pantsy ones you'd see today. It's a shame she cannot heal herself, but if you ask me: I wouldn't be surprised if she could."

"We've lost everything, sir," Madoka did not lie about losing everything, though she did lie about their stolen money. "So we can't afford a healer."

"Aye," he sighed. "When she healed the poison from those goblins, I was sure she was a Saint from the Hero Prophecy. That's a powerful Substance you don't see often, and for free! Hoohoo!"

He fell serious and his carefree tone vanished.

"She's bloody right though," he looked away to the Adventurer's Guild's orange tiled roof. "She isn't like me, or even you. Can't say I'd admit this to her, but between you and me? I'd reckon whatever's going on in her pretty face belies a past beyond the suffering we Commoners would ever endure."

Madoka did not realize it, but her hand was on her axe in case he said anything about the Princess she did not like. Would she be able to bring such a fate to those who would commit vile blasphemy against Her Highness? She relaxed. Time would truly test her and this dragon man would not be today's trial. He was right, Madoka nodded. The Lady has gone through so much more than she could imagine, in two lives no less.

"I'm not about to say forget your own problems and hardships— You have had it worse than I've ever seen on any regular servant," Eraziror pointed at her. "I'd never forget my common man and woman. It has to be tough being her servant."

"You don't know the half of it," Madoka muttered, but held her tongue quickly before more complaints escaped.

"Heh, I'm not a guard. I won't ever tell your complaints to anyone," Eraziror chuckled. "To serve a tough and terrible master one has to be tough and terrible themselves. Or something. I just made that one up, but you can add that phrase to your personal collection. Free of charge."

He bowed in a mocking manner. Was he like this because he knew the streets were more empty than usual? Or was it because his future was now uncertain and it was his way of hiding the nervousness? Madoka studied the golden Strands swirling around him and along the ground. No thought-shards echoed from him, only the birds and some horses pulling wagons by them had any of those purple needles.

"I'm not tough," Eraziror admitted. "Ceghinort called me to journey and seek the River Goêt, but the best I can do after these years is just... this. Took a long time to get notches on the old thing, but I still haven't got one on this junk."

He looked sadly at his Silver tag.

"I'm not stupid, but I ain't a hard worker, you know?" He scoffed. "Not taking risks and getting power, ripping through things until I get hair on my chest instead of scales — it's how I lost Eena. And now I'm losing Kanys."