(week 1 of Writathon 2025-04)

I.

Madoka's stomach and heart rushed with the wind slapping her face. Either that or it was her hair, stinging her forehead and adding to the list of things she swore over as the descent fell over her body. She was not sure why she was so agitated, but perhaps the stress had built up. She could not blame anyone, especially not the princess, even if Audrey was partially at fault for leaving to speak with that woman and disappearing on her at first. She had carried this burden alone for the past few days feeling like she could not take a few moments even to breathe. Now, going through this ordeal and surviving has caused her brain to overheat. The steam from the ongoing strain between her ears had to go somewhere, so out her mouth it went in a stream of angry words that made no sense. This rant, carried uselessly in the thick foggy clouds' winds, was quickly interrupted by a familiar voice whispering in her head.

I am here. Fly!

"Oh, so now you show up," Madoka flailed her arms exasperated and kicked her feet for an added vent of frustration.

If her legs were on the ground, she would pace back and forth to express her particular annoyed state at this time. Unfortunately, the foggy weather smogged her lungs in a hiccups, stopping her from vocalizing her fury. The Crystal hummed again and she felt the jolting strands wrapping around her back. With the wings literally on her back, she could swoop faster and search for the fallen Eena. Having experience in falling from great heights already, any potential vertigo was nonexistent and her eyes could differentiate specks of trees from mountains or birds. Catching a "Watch it!" thought from one of the flocks of birds flying by, she spotted the unconscious form of the Noblewoman.

Madoka immediately swooped downward, snatching Eena and scattering the birds aside like fluff fluttering and flittering from a torn up pillow in plumes. Spotting a row of massive ballistae lined up on a tall wall, glinting sunlight off of them, she immediately knew those were the defenses of Gladeban. Eena jolted awake and upon realizing where she was, the loud scream she let out bothered Madoka so much that she roughly pounded the Noblewoman's back to shut her up.

"Calm down, Milady," Madoka growled, shifting her weight. The Lady stopped her fussing and looked at her with an odd expression. No, she realized that Eena was looking at something behind her just beyond her translucent and golden wings. Soon, familiar and distant screaming was immediately falling behind her. She must have jumped out of the Uracksheegal shortly after Madoka did. "Audrey!"

"Whoa!" Audrey flailed around in the air, her voice trailing behind her in a trail of sound as she spiraled sporadically. Her hands were outstretched and released Wind magic everywhere, but whenever she did the force sent her in another direction completely. Madoka hovered in the air just above the treeline, watching the show with a groan, yet seemingly she felt like all of her annoyance with the current situation evaporated. Eena's voice interrupted her out of her amusement.

"C-Can you please put me down," she gasped.

"Oh, my apologies, Lady Eena," Madoka realized that despite her initial roughness with the Lady, she was seemingly more at ease with the maid. Madoka did not really understand Eena's face changing colors to different shades of red, nor how she was able to guide the wings on her back to gently touch down on the surface of the world. Her mind just allowed her to control her wings every electrifying flap at a time.

Once her feet touched the ground and after checking Eena all over to see if she was safe, Madoka breathed a sigh of relief. She was on solid ground. No black roots, no thumping beat, no ominous cubes or statues calling her names. Only the soft whistle of chirp of insects, the droplets of dew falling off leaves and grey daylight poking through the tree branches upon them. Taking another look at Eena, Madoka almost broke away to search for Audrey, but was suddenly caught in an embrace. She should have broken away from the Noble, but something froze her in place despite the warmth covering her arms. Was it fear from all of the other past experience or sheer relief from being on the ground? The blonde Noble's face sent a ripple of complicated feelings quietly blooming within Madoka's own chest.

"We made it," Eena said softly. "Alive."

Madoka remained silent, stiffening under her grasp. The Noble pulled away after sensing her unease, looking at her with swollen eyes. A sudden crash blasted in the distance before Madoka could defend herself, allowing her to swiftly break away from Eena and escape. Despite the lingering warmth forming inside her chest, Madoka hurried to the sound, breaking into a full burst of speed. The faint chill in the air instantly dropped to an even colder plunge, immediately alerting her to the princess's presence. Bursting through a massive tree branch, she was right there.

"Audrey!" Madoka called out, not even caring that a shattered gnarled part of the trunk bounced harmlessly off her head. The branch thudded off the ground as she approached the fallen girl, checking her all over.

"M-Mad—" Audrey looked at her, but all she received was a silent inspection from Madoka. There was nothing but messy leaves stuck in the girl's hair and a few holes in her traveler's cloak left from the twigs she crashed through. The resigned look was quite familiar as well, so she figured Her Highness was fine enough.

"Where to, now?" Madoka asked her pointedly, but she was wondering about that more than actually wanting to know.

"W-Well," Audrey straightened herself up. "Gladeban's that way, so. Also, we have a Noble to take home."

Madoka turned around to see that Eena had followed her quietly behind her. A flustered feeling crept over her, so she quickly bowed and then turned back to Audrey. A small frown appeared on her eyes for a moment, but she switched back to her normal expression faster than Madoka could blink. Eena once again merely pointed where she wanted to go, marking the designation with one word: Home.

The two girls marched onward while she followed like a shadow. Madoka felt her eyes on her back, but after everything they had gone through she was not sure how to breach any communication with the Noble. Nor was she supposed to.

"So," Audrey broke the conversation as they walked. Madoka remembered she made some offhanded excuse of being out of energy to fly, but the truth was she was quite jittery still from the Knotting magic. Her tone was dripping with sarcasm. "How was your experience with the humans?"

The question as well as the mention of humans automatically made her scoff, which in turn made Audrey snort.

"Don't like them at all," Madoka shook her head and scrunched her nose, as if she was just presented with gross food. "They're so… small! How in the world can they clean anything? Come to think of it— I found your world's home quite cramped… Now I know…"

Madoka stopped as they came to a clearing. A jagged metal bolt stood before them, broken and chipped lay between a wreckage of trees with a groove as wide as a wagon scraped in the ground for some distance. It was snapped by a great force, like a giant hand swatted it aside. She instinctively looked up at the sky, knowing what had the strength to break such a massive arrow.

"We're probably going to have to face more of them in the future," Madoka mused.

"Yeah," Audrey's breath hitched as she joined Madoka in staring up at the sky. "You have a lot of opinions on them, huh."

"Don't you?"

The girl did not answer, but held out her palm to catch a few rain drops on it. As much as Madoka never wanted to take another step aboard that strange beast, she knew something was calling her up there with utmost clarity. The Link, as well as the swelling from her chest and something she could not describe else. A droplet of water splotched on her eye as she stared at the sky, fracturing her vision in ripples. The sudden face of Gechick flashed in her mind, even without a thought-shard anywhere to be seen. The sight made her flinch, but no one noticed. With a huff, Audrey started to walk again. A heaviness settled on the girls as they continued on. A stone proclamation rested around a crater littered with red thought crystals inside it, etched with symbols. Madoka could not read them, but refrained herself by looking at the ballistae bolts stabbed within the trees. They were bent and slumped over, like giant bodies riddled with arrows.

"More of those colossal things," Audrey mused, before stepping in one of the directions the Eena and the proclamation pointed to. "Saw 'em setting them up while you were away, shooting up at the sky. Made quite a ruckus, I couldn't even sleep!"

Away…? Right, Madoka remembered she crushed a giant Crystal Lizard infected by a parasite from Ares hours before getting taken by the Uracksheegal. She hoped Eraziror did not get caught up in that mess. Images of that dead beast appeared in her mind, along with a lot of minerals, magic crystals, and surprisingly, the Serpent Blade. The storage talisman glowed in her hand when she touched it, making her realize that when she used it to avoid being crushed it must have swept up the blade she lost during the fight.

"Convenient," Madoka remarked. "I still have my weapons in here along with the lizard."

"The what?" Audrey looked at the white hexagonal glow surrounding Madoka's necklace. As soon as she stopped touching it, the images of all the stuff inside it faded from their sharpness to nothing. Before she could answer, a commotion was heard ahead. The stone proclamation was near Gladeban, whose gate jaws sat clamped just further down the road. Yet, this way was going towards another place besides the city. Eena lived outside of Gladeban's walls? Was she all alone out here? Madoka thought to herself as she snuck a glance at the Noble. No wonder she got taken by the Walk.

Between them, however, was a commotion brewing on the wayside. That stench in the air…! Madoka glanced at Audrey. The girl tensed up as well. That was the smell of death. Remembering the nasty pool of brown liquid that was present before the hatch opened, she realized that all three of them were not the only ones who fell out of the Uracksheegal's Process Bay. That nasty goop must have splashed all over there.

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"Brother eugh," Audrey crinkled her nose and looked at the mess with the corner of her eyes. "Now we know exactly what that stuff is."

There were several men with Gold Adventurer tags standing around a large wagon halted at the edge of the path. A twisted and writhing form lay on the legs of the men, then the frantic thoughts and pained neighing of a fallen horse rang out in Madoka's head. Should we do something about that? She questioned Audrey with a look. The princess merely shrugged, but as the girls began to walk around them she heard a heated discussion from behind the fallen carriage. The disgusting slop covered its roof, but she could see the distorted emblem of that familiar Sword Hawk on its ripped stitching.

"You hand the Artifact to us as compensation!" An angry voice shouted in Noble at the Gold Rankers. "You promised our merchandise would be covered, protected from everything! That—" Madoka saw a gaudy robed hand wave over at the broken wagon and dying horse. "Included protection from the damn Sky, you hear?"

The Gold ranked party seemed to disagree with them, which threw the Noble in a fury. An Artifact? Madoka wondered. She peered through the fallen horse's perspective, seeing the Artifact clutched tightly in one of the adventurer's hands was one of the human's laser rifles. That was a problem, was it not? Despite knowing the weapon was defunct and broken, a human weapon was quite dangerous.

"Audrey," Madoka stopped her princess's hurried gait. After a questioning look, she pointed at the adventurer's party. "They have one of the human's guns."

Audrey shrugged, but soon they both stopped to watch the spectacle. Soon, a steady hostility rose between the Noble's men and the party over the weapon. The argument died down when they noticed a cold chill in the air. Her Highness's Aura! Immediately, the Gold party drew their swords and faced the trio.

"You there! Halt!" The apparent leader with the Artifact called out. Three more flanked his side and a female Narm held her worn out talisman out. A faint green glow covered them in a net of small lines, nowhere near the power of Audrey's own Substance magic. "This is the Guild's affairs. Get lost."

Madoka stepped in between the girls, Serpent Blade in hand without even realizing she had drawn it. Breath came from each of the opposite's party members in white fog like warnings along with a meager hostile intent that could not even disturb a candle. A hand felt her elbow from behind her, making her remember what Eraziror taught her to do. Sheathing her sword, she pulled out her own tag.

"We're with the Guild, too," Madoka stated plainly, flashing her iron tag to them. "And we are passing through, thank you very much."

The Gold Adventurer with the gun paused, but after a slight deliberation exchanged between his companions they all lowered their weapons and bowed. Apologies?

"Forgive us," he surprised her and spoke in Commoner. "We're caught up with the chaos brought on by the Sky and our… Commisioner… is making things quite hostile."

"Ah! A friendly face, or two!" The Noble called out and rudely interrupted the adventurers with little regard of Guild protocols. "Finally! Someone here worthy of respect and her—" He placed his lecherous eyes on Madoka. "Lovely servant."

"Hi, Sir Rhev," Audrey suddenly had a light skip in her Noble, but Madoka heard mocking in her tone. She remembered clearly who this person was now. This man was the first ugly Noble they met when they reached Gladeban. "What seems to be the problem?"

Just like that, the adventurers had quieted down their protests. The glance from the leader with the gun to Madoka was one of sympathy. They had a tacit understanding that she was a slave to Audrey, remaining weary. This was not a mere conversation to diffuse the tension between their plight with the Warring Merchant, but a manipulative and easy extraction of knowledge on the situation that happened during their time in the Uracksheegal. Madoka noticed that the Adventurer was holding the gun in an unsafe manner, thanking the kind gods that he did not know how to use the weapon as well as it being completely depleted of battery.

"These fools got my beloved horse injured, a beast that has served my House since it fell, and refuse to heal it! They could not even predict or stop the Sky from harming it!"

"It seems reasonable that they should hand you the gun— er, the Artifact to you, then?" Audrey asked with a friendly smile that did not quite do a good job at hiding her schemes. The Merchant, catching onto some meaning in her question, perked up.

"You understand my reasonable request, right?" He rambled. "They say their Substance healer can't heal such a simple wound! Could you believe that?"

The horse's wounds were beyond "simple" to Madoka and his thoughts were thin, threatening to succumb to a collapse completely. Audrey pretended to contemplate for a moment, pulling out one Esmeralda talisman out of her bag. Before she could say anything, Sir Rhev's eyes lit up. Not the special one that she had in reserves for Madoka.

"You— You're serious on healing my pet?" His ears and fat grin widened after Audrey gave a hum. "Forget the Artifact, Miss. Even if we claimed it first, we still have a delivery to make in Gladeban before we can leave this dirty country for good. Without this beast, all is worthless!"

He kicked the fallen horse in frustration as he waved his hands around in complaining and overwhelming theatrics, but Madoka failed to see how that helped anything.

"I can take a shot at it," she supposed, feigning concern though her tone was indifferent.

"If you heal it, we can start business with you right away! Company A has no shortage of Horns, you'll see soon enough," Sir Rhev perked up, seemingly ignoring Audrey's lack of enthusiasm. "I am well-known in the Merchant Guild and I could spread word of your name and deeds to my friends in high — and low— places."

At that man's offer, even Eena seemed surprised. Sir Rhev greeted the Sovos Noble with a formal bow as well. It was clear that there was some kind of advantage in working with A Company, so Audrey marched up to the fallen beast to inspect it before finally smiling to the hopeful Noble man assuredly. Madoka marveled at the girl's mind and how everything was unusual about her. She spared the Adventurer Party from getting robbed of an Artifact and appeased an overbearing Noble Merchant. To the surprised gaze of even the Gold Ranked party and the Merchant himself, Audrey let out a cool breath through her talisman. The green Substance strands bloomed out from her in a flowing web, both vibrant and visually pleasing to the eye, and wrapped the horse in light. He was not intelligent enough to form words, but he could instantly neigh in a joyful surprise when he realized there was no pain anymore and his hind legs were back to normal. He got up happily as if he was not kicked.

"That's one problem solved," the Noble clapped hands. He glanced at the wagon, which had a broken axle and tattered wooden boards, and hung his head again dramatically. "Now this must be fixed too, but alas, a carpenter or anyone of use will be hard to come by in times like these. Or else who knows what might get us. I've sent a missive to the city, but as you know, Lady Dalion, we can't rely on these useless fools from the Guild, can us Nobles? It could take days, even weeks. All is hopeless!"

"Oh, actually," Audrey turned to Madoka. "Can you fix his wagon? We still have to get rid of— er, escort Eena to her home someday."

Madoka did not feel inclined to do so, but seeing Audrey's pleading eyes and having an abundance of Knotting magic welled up inside of her, she sighed. After marching up to the shattered wagon and inspecting it, she found it was indeed teeming with Knotting Strands. She felt Eena's silent gaze on her as she prepared to do her work on it and suddenly felt slightly embarrassed. There was no helping it, she grabbed the wild golden chains firmly and felt an intense pull electric on her fingertips. Energy flowed up her arms as she smoothed out the racing Strands over the the broken pieces into an orderly pattern, but they eventually obeyed. After running her hand over, the Strands followed and the carriage began to rise upright as the wood bent and popped before becoming fully restored back to its original form.

This time, everyone besides Eena and Audrey gasped in awe, though Madoka could not understand for the life of her why fixing things with Knotting magic was worthy of such gestures.

"You!" The Noble Rhev exclaimed in amazement, but instead of looking at Madoka he acted like Audrey was responsible for her training. "Lady Dalion, I just knew you were a cut above everyone here. You even raised your slave to be better than, gods, even these so-called gold fools I hired for extra hands. A waste of Horns, the lot of them. Speaking of coins, I have gold and platinum. My offer for her still stands, far beyond anyone else would offer for a Narm slave."

The air around them, already cold, instantly dropped like a sinking ship. Even the Gold Adventurers, while they did not fully understand all of what the Noble said, could grasp that Audrey was not pleased with what she was hearing. Madoka felt a pang of something tingling within her chest. Sir Rhev detected this change, tugging at the nearest uncomfortable guard's arm in fear.

"She belongs to me and me alone. I have nothing to do with how great she is, that is just how she is."

Audrey said that deadly declaration in Noble after an intense moment. Then she repeated it in Commoner, her eyes sweeping across anyone with ears to hear. Beads of cold sweat dropped from the Noble's forehead, like boulders in a rockfall.

"I'll forget I'll hear you say anything about her just this once. Let's just leave it to our initial agreement, Rhev."

The informal use of his name was sharp enough to cut metal, the message clear. Why did she defend her honor like that? Madoka could guess a million reasons why, but nevertheless the way she said it so resolutely made her heart beat with something fierce and somehow sweet at the same time.

"F-Forgive me, Lady Dalion," Rhev shook with fear, but then he spoke more earnestly as the temperature seemed to freeze. The Adventurers and his mercenaries shivered, while Madoka stood aside unmoved. "I-I'll even personally deliver a Writ for your Adventurer Guild for you. I s-swear, on Ares's name!"

The cold atmosphere reverted back to a pleasant morning chill, making everyone breathe with a sigh. Rhev peaked at Madoka, who remained unbothered with anything surrounding her, but whatever look Audrey gave him made him nearly topple back in shock. Rhev stuck out his hand to a servant of his, who snapped out of her daze and stood at the ready.

"A scroll, please," he ushered her, not even realizing he still was stammering in Reverent Noble to his own servant. She quickly returned with a scroll and Madoka had to keep her amusement off her face at his meager Knotting, but sure enough there was a magic seal revealing a fresh Writ of Completion with an even more complex pattern on it. He still maintained his Reverent Noble quite shakily. "This will get you far. We will even return you three to Gladeban immediately. Surely, Milady, you can accept our token of appreciation and forgive us?"

Audrey hummed, then suddenly remembered Eena existed. Madoka glanced to the bewildered Noble Sovos lady, but she suddenly agreed to this proposal. The day, it seemed, just started for most people here even though they went through quite an ordeal all last night. The wagon traveled swiftly to the gates of Gladeban after finally parting ways with the Gold Adventurers even though she felt uneasy letting them go with that human weapon. Along the way, Audrey was up front speaking with the Noble, but it sounded it like lecturing to her. Something tugged at her sleeves. To her surprise, it was a rough and scarred hand. Eena's.

"I have… Things to show you," she said softly. "At the forge."

Madoka glanced at her with an curious expression, but the Noble turned her gaze to the scaled green blade at her side.

"You need an upgrade," Eena finally spoke up. There was a spark coming from her pupils directly to Madoka, a passion not lost to the time. "That blade isn't worthy for you. For anyone."

Madoka could not stop a small smile, placing her own scarred hand on top of Eena's grip. Those hands of Eena's were nothing like the smooth and soft ones she had seen on the Nobles in the Palace. These hands seemed like they were broken repeatedly over years of hardship, but now were molded to tear everything that gave her trouble down and build something anew. Thinking this, Madoka nodded, but upon looking at the Noble's slightly flushed face she instinctively withdrew her hand and hoped Audrey did not notice. Sure enough, she saw tufts of messy hair of Her Highness bob ahead of them enthusiastically as she spoke with Rhev.

"Your hands…" Eena mused. "They're just like mine."

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