The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

How Can One So Cold Manage Other's Feelings? (Beyond a Dragon 6/7)

VI.

"Onward?" Madoka questioned as she stared at the logs piled up before them.

Eraziror was about to speak, but stopped when Madoka drew her axe from the portal. She had gotten used to being able to use it at will, without even needing to hold it since it was close to her core. The hexagonal light simply floated nearby her conveniently. Now, "onward" was a command she understood. She rose her axe once more and smashed the fallen debris and logs to pieces, then swept them away with her Knotting magic. Now that the way opened for her, the maid bowed instinctively and held a hand out for him to continue. Eraziror gawked, but his expression remained wary before he hurried through. There was tension in the air, a certain something in the surroundings accompanying the gloomy grey skies sinking in that made her nose twitch.

"Death is in the air," she informed him. She also noticed that the purple mist from the Witch had fallen upon this place, but she did not inform him of that. Drawing Knotting magic into her core made it fade away from her vision, but her temporary party member seemed to notice the change in the atmosphere. After glancing at him, it seemed that he did not seemed physically affected by the mist. Good, that just left that look on his face.

"Aye," Eraziror seemed genuinely worried, but for who she did not know. "The landslide certainly didn't just hit where we were."

A sinking feeling settled on Madoka's skin. Adventurers face death and destruction wherever they go, do they not? How miserable. She was preoccupied by the thought of the upcoming battle with the Crystal Lizard that she forgot that she was supposed to be monitoring the situation here and the goblin attacks. Therefore, they pressed through the trees and eventually came across the Gladeban Mine's walled off site. The place was certainly neglected, though she could hear voices on the other side.

"You two," someone called them from on top of the wall. "Hurry in and get to the village chief in the Main Hall. We need hands to find missing miners!"

It was an adventurer with light armor on. He did not seem to have the time to check on them again before signaling someone else to unwind the gates for them. From the looks of it, they seemed like they were exhausted. Madoka hurried inside the walls, not even waiting for the gate to fully open before squeezing inside. The streets were littered with all kinda of filth, from debris and mud to cracked stone and fallen scaffolding. Most notable to Madoka was the presence of strange white powder mixed in with the dirt and damaged buildings. The Mineshafts themselves were blocked off by a giant closed gate, barred off by a stone barrier conjured by Knotting magic. The gate itself carved into the mountainside and stood taller than the trees. It seemed like it was not built for any Narm or Sovos, but Madoka could see broken gear mechanism attached to chains locked in place. The odd gate size and dark gloom that sheltered the whole place threatened to swallow her, but soon Eraziror pointed at one of the remaining small buildings left standing between the crushed houses and others.

The sign on it must have meant it was Main Hall, but it did not seem like much of one like the Gladeban's place. The door creaked open with a pitiful wail and whimpering broke the silence settling inside the hall. There were a lot of people resting inside of here. The glow of Substance magic weakly illuminated some corners of the room, but it only made Madoka wish Audrey was here to heal these people. An elderly Sovos approached Eraziror with a solemn bow.

"Here from the Adventurer Guild?" He asked, but surprisingly, he was directing his gaze at her instead.

"Hai," Madoka nodded, confused. "Reporting in from the Lady Fate herself."

"Ah," the Sovos man ran his hand across his forehead, seemingly exhausted from today's events. "I am the Village Elder and Chief here, though not much of one. The situation is mostly cleared up from goblins, but only after we've barely managed to seal the gate to the mines."