I.

The light blinded Madoka and the rush of wind tossed her hair in wild directions. It took a while for her to ascertain where she was, those strange visions quickly fading in her mind besides a few visions of the heavens like a pleasant yet vague dream. The bright daylight, endless blue sky above her, an ancient forest covered mountainside below, and the tall monastic Truth Guild building standing in front of her meant one thing: She was back in the Capitol like nothing had transpired before.

More specifically, she was at the entrance of that horrible Secret Garden. Additionally, the she could see skinny path leading back to the silent alleyway bordered by houses made of mud bricks and golden wood. Beneath it, she realized there were massive pillars supporting the ancient neighboring City borders, and green vines intertwined with the natural formations traveled along down into the foggy depths of the ravine below.

Everything here was a harmonious vision of natural and manmade beauty. Wrapping around both the segregated Truth Guild and the mountain were massive pillars. It was like a colonnade of vines and carved stone propped this whole place up. She was not sure she missed such a beautiful sight when they first arrived here, or that the Secret Garden had changed upon her return. Now she only had one last missing factor. Where was that princess of hers?

She waited for a moment and the answer came to her. The air beside her shimmered, making her step back. That must be Her Highness. A faint light began to manifest out of the center of the distortion, then it took the shape of person. Madoka waited for the commotion to cease, readying herself to catching her. The light let out a small hum, then Audrey appeared, stumbling straight into her arms.

Madoka did not even move an inch. Instead, she took advantage of the princess's disoriented state and held her close to her chest. Wind blew Her Highness's scent into Madoka's nose, and she felt no resistance nor struggle from her captured girl. That is right, she and Audrey finally were out of that dark and horrible place.

She did not let go until the shadow of the Truth Guild's massive telescope covered them. Time was moving in this place, and they were wasting it. Audrey shook out of it, but she still looked a little dazed.

"Audrey?" Madoka finally broke the silence.

"We're back here," she murmured. "In this horrible world again."

"We're here," she confirmed. "Now where to?"

Audrey peeled away from her. Madoka wondered why a look of pure shock struck her face, but pressed back with an expectant gaze. The princess balled her fist and smacked her chest, but the maid did not budge and was absolutely unmoved by the useless pounding. Slowly, the fist stopped and its owner looked up at her with an aggrieved face.

"Nae waaaah," Audrey moaned. "How can you be so heartless?"

Madoka contemplated her tantrum for a split second, then simply steered the flailing girl towards the path. She did not want to be near this place any longer than she needed to be. Before she crossed into the alleyway, Audrey glanced back at that strange structure embedded into the mountain across the gigantic, cloud covered valley. The Holy Spear Gulzos, Madoka recalled the name. How truly enormous was the kind god Ceghinort's true form must be— in order to hurl such a massive weapon.

"I've been thinking," Audrey said.

They have been walking under the sun, but time in this place had frozen. Madoka walked quietly, not necessarily sure if she wanted to hear her thoughts or not. To process them, to even breach an understanding of what the princess was saying— it was indeed an endeavor that she could not easy undertake. But she knew Audrey would speak.

"Entanglement, the likes, the shared history between a particle—" Audrey shook her head. "Sorry. I shouldn't go off into a nerdy tangent."

"You can say what you want to say," Madoka said. Then she silently added, because I can't stop you from doing so anyways. Thinking, after all, was for Her Highness, not her.

"There used to be a misconception in quantum physics, how shared states work. After all, how could one particle be in a certain state in relation to another billions of miles away? I been thinking about how magic works in a similar way. In this universe, I guess. Obviously, the practice doesn't match the presuppositions. I— I'll stop. Sorry."

"Maybe magic doesn't need to be studied that hard," Madoka said offhandedly. "It's there, whether some of us like it or not."

She felt Audrey's gaze land on her. Please, she begged the princess in her head. Do not take this servant's mindless thoughts as a study.

"That's right, like an entanglement, the moment magic happens, the moment magic inside me is…" Audrey trailed off. Her eyes were shifting slightly, calculating something in the unseen. "I still don't even know if we're even on a planet or not… Causality can't just be measured the same way. Prophecies seem like the closest thing I've been worried about in regards to this… whole mess we're in. How entangled Prophecies are with Time. How I—"

"Audrey?" Madoka noticed that the girl was shaking. Trembling. She knew Audrey was thinking of the end.

"I— I'm fine."

Audrey tried to wave Madoka off. But it was obvious that she was not fine at all. The girl crouched down, burying her face in her hands. The pressure was too much for them, was it not? Her heart sank to her feet as she silently supported the princess, letting her weep on her shoulder.

"It's ah, like a CTC, a closed time-like curve, no matter how I look at it, isn't it?" Audrey was murmuring strange words to herself in Madoka's burning embrace. "Nothing anyone can do about it, it will always return back to that point, won't it? Fate will always happen, my death will come. I can't stop it. I can't go forward or back to find a solution to it. I will— I will—"

"Don't say it," Madoka told her. She held the girl's face, wiping the tears that were streaming down her face. "I— I'm here. Even after what happened to me. And we don't know how far in the future the prophecy I've seen is. There's still life!"

Audrey kept her eyes open, and her purple eye started to glow. At the same time, Madoka's blue eye glowed. She was looking at herself, probably, seeing her own pathetic state. The maid saw a terrifyingly possessive face looking down at Audrey, framed by wild, tangled red hair tossed by the wind and their journey in the Abyss— Her own face.

Then Audrey let out a hiccup, interrupting the heavy atmosphere between them.

"I'm a coward," she said bitterly. "And I regret ever telling you how it ended for you."

Madoka held her tightly. She had heard Audrey say that before. Secretly, in her sleep. Back when they traveled over the Hall of Royals Mountains. She truly did not remember how she felt back then. Thinking back, she probably did not have much of a reaction. How could she? She was too busy being swallowed in her own confusion, her loss of direction in this world.

For one, their time at the Estate felt like an entirely different life. One where she had no faith in Her Highness, and even less patience for her strange ramblings. How was she supposed to divine a single gleaming pearl out of the murky depths of such a boundless soul? A stab to the heart was one of many such strange things she spoke of back then.

"You are not a coward," Madoka stated simply after a long time. She had admittedly little to no relationships with anyone else to compare Her Sadness's supposed cowardice, but she vehemently denied the self-claim. "You are quite the opposite, actually."

"You really mean it?" Audrey hiccupped again. The magic in her eye ceased, but Madoka's hand, which was now holding a spare clothe she found in the storage portal, did not stop dabbing her stained cheeks. "How did I— How did I die then?"

At the very moment she asked the question, the stark image of Audrey's disfigured and dismembered appearance instantly made Madoka feel sick. A self-deprecating scoff shot from Audrey's face. She moved to try and soothe her again, but her chest met a palm that stopped her instead.

"That bad, huh?" Audrey sighed. "That is beyond the standard transmigration procedure's Sword of Damien's, I suppose. Wait, that doesn't sound quite right. Sword of Democracy? Er. Dopamine's? Whatever. Starting to think we should have took Mom's offer and cut our losses here rather than… No, no, no."

There were those ramblings again. The princess's spirits were going up, at the cost of Madoka's mental patience for her act.

"Enough about me already," Audrey sighed. She pulled the commission the Armor inside of the Secret Garden out of her bag. "We got a quest to do! Though the strange properties of this commission and its weird origins don't make no sense, it's ours now! And— We gotta fix your sickness."

She started off directly towards the busy streets of Ceghinortan's Adventurer district but stopped when a sliver of manners managed to intercept her impulsiveness. She turned back to look the maid, with a look of sheepishness on her face. Madoka leisurely followed her, noting how the people and even the massive flying beasts were not moving beyond the exit.

"It's like a painting," Madoka mused. "The people, those beasts, and the scenery."

"Yeah," Audrey said. "I wish I could stay here in this creepy place, but there's not a whole lot we can do but go forward, right?"

"Yeah," Madoka nodded.

They did not have the choice. The air rushed over them, and Madoka's ears began popping again. Everything in the world instantly came back to life, noise and all. Such a rush was temporary and exhilarating, like a cold tide rushing over Madoka with a chaotic wind. A party of Adventurers were walking by them, and Madoka could catch snippets of Commoner.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Did you hear?" One of the men asked his friend. "Afflicted have been disappearing from the Fair Fountain Plaza."

Madoka turned to the princess, who was recovering from the sudden whirlwind of activity. But it was clear that she had heard that fleeting conversation, her gaze turned to confusion and ears perked with curiosity. Before she could even voice her desire for involvement, Madoka silenced her with a glare.

"We are already on a commission, Audrey," Madoka hissed. "Do not get involved with others' business."

Audrey's pleading was squashed in her throat and she deflated immediately. This only prompted Madoka to press her advantage, so she continued to steer the princess towards their next step. The busy street ahead was chaotic and full of people, so she was eager to leave this place behind.

"The commission says grabbing Elwatcher flowers in a place called the Angel's Harp," she said. "So— We need to find out exactly how to get there. If we were to get information on that, well, the Guild probably has information on where to go, right? Though, it's Platinum ranked. And we're, well, way down in Silver."

Madoka considered her words, and decided it made sense to at least visit the Adventurer's Guild. There was not much to go off of, other than slaying a beast that lives inside this very mountain somewhere. Despite the implication that this journey could endanger Her Highness's life, she was eager to let off some steam after all of this constant thinking. Whatever the Vale Bá is, she will crush it! And maybe eat it!

Audrey was, of course, unaware of all of this going on inside Madoka's head. She was instead looking towards the large, orange tiled dome of the Adventurer's Guild's rooftop. At least, she had successfully, albiet, temporarily distracted Her Highness from their future's unrest.

"Never liked them, those Afflicted."

While they blended into the crowd the best they could, Madoka could hear more fragments of conversations. The air around them was full of Knotting magic, booming inward musings from the rising Alpir'Row, and the clanging of metal from the Forge. This place was vibrant and full of freedom, but based off of the truth she had gleaned during her time in the Secret Garden, it seemed like a hopeless thing in the end.

The kind god Ceghinort was using them for his own gain, muddling his intentions within the dreams of these bustling adventurers. Madoka could not help but have an invasive thought. This city was full of companionship everywhere, and there was not the sense of duty compared to Fiara's Capital. A god who gains power through Adventuring, who also urges his people directly to his own freedom— and their doom.

She wondered if that revelation would shock these people. Madoka also wondered if it was any of her own business to care about. A squadron of those winged Sovos flew up above the railing nearby, each holding boxes and tools, landing with little effort near a damaged structure that looked like dock. They looked like they have traveled together for a long time, moving in sync and laughing as they worked. That ease caused another thought to drift in her mind.

Who was to say that their journeys was a complete loss? The friends they live and die for, the weapons, the thrills of finding a new place untouched by anyone else and the essence of traveling were indeed enticing. There was light, darkness, and choice she could easily imagine as a good bargain from serving a kind god. Even if Ceghinort himself had his own plans, some probably do not see it as serving him in the grand scheme of things.

Madoka thought of her own adventures with the Princess. She knew she was a lot more powerful than she was back at the Estate, or back in the Palace of Fiara. But even through everything she had gone through, there was nothing but a profound sense of survival and desperation. Yet, the turquoise sky stretched far above her and the princess was walking in front of her, taking the lead. As they always have been.

There is still life here, yes, Madoka glanced at the Guild doors now in front of them. Perhaps that is the reason why so many cling to each other. In the end, should this kind god truly leave his people behind they will have each other. A hand tugged at hers? shaking her out of her inward spiral.

"Well, here we are," Audrey said.

They did not have time to steel themselves for a moment before entering. They had to hurry in after a rush of adventurers flowed in and out, lest they get stuck in waiting or get into unnecessary conflict. The doors to this place were huge, and, like the Truth Guild, Madoka realized that the space inside was far larger than what appeared to be on the outside. The Sovos were adept in this kind of spacial magic, were they not? She had not noticed the peculiarity when they first arrived here.

Audrey quickly shuffled aside away from the crowd. Madoka still stood on guard in front of her, though they appeared to be invisible to others she would not risk it. The princess had already pulled the commission out again.

"I wonder if there's a map to this huge ass place," she complained.

"Language," Madoka said instinctively, but covered her mouth. "Apologies, you can say—"

Audrey laughed, the sound sounding like a tiny chime in the wind. In this loud place of business, it added yet another layer of the freedom seeking life of this country's Capital. Madoka was not sure why she laughed, but it did not seem to alert anyone around them. So, she swept her gaze around the place, searching for any familiar faces.

Instead, she heard a familiar, pompous voice. The owner was clearly not pleased with the environment. Was that…?

"Madoka? Where are you going?"

She moved on her own, further into an infrequently visited corner where barrels and storage boxes sat. There! Madoka spotted the inconspicuous tuft of orange fur protruding out from underneath one of the fruit stained barrel stands. She called out in her mind. "King Hei Meng?"

"You got some nerve, cur," the cat hissed at her. "Addressing me so brazenly—"

King Hei Meng did not have enough time to finish his disdainful speech. A body flew past her in a flash. Audrey's hands shot out, seizing the cat against his will. A flurry of curses and flailing radiated from the little beast, but the princess did not care or feel his claws.

"Caaaat, caaaaaaaa! Cat!" She buried her face in his side, while moving her fingers through his fur with fervor. Madoka could see a light blue aura of magic forming on the tips of the princess's fingers. She was cleaning the victim, while somehow reducing the palpable reluctance shooting from the cat. "How did you survive? Did you use too many lives? I'm sorry, little wittle cat, we will make it up to you, honest!"

Madoka examined the way the princess was adeptly stroking the cat. For his part, he screeched in vain to a girl who could not hear him, and was unconsciously melting into her arms with his resistance greatly diminished. A pang of jealousy suddenly shot through her.

"D-Don't just stand there wishing to take my place, cur!" King Hei Meng roared desperately. But it came out as a soft meow. "Get this demon to unhand me!"

"Meow," Madoka murmured.

"Is he saying anything?" Audrey asked through muffled fur. "Perhaps, how good my fingers are? Tell him I love him! Tell him he's my little best friend!"

Madoka snapped out of her selfish desires and looked at her as if she grew a second head. His Majesty, King Hei Meng, finally swatted a lucky slap on her hand and slipped away. He retreated far out of reach beneath the wooden benches.

"Insolent. Wretch. The two two-legs are insolent wretches!" The cat seethed. "I've used one of my lives to escape the beast thoust wrought upon my old kingdom!"

"Glad Your Majesty is alive and well," Madoka replied. His owner, Lady Fate, was still alive out there somewhere, so it was only natural that he too somehow was here. Still, it was indeed remarkable that such a small being was resourceful enough to survive through the Guardian's brutal catastrophe. The lives, however, piqued her interest. Could it be as Audrey said? Such beings have nine or even more lives?

"What's it saying? I wanna know! I wanna know!" Audrey's eyes were stars, full of curiosity and innocence.

"Sendeth thy demon away! Away!" The King commanded. "And dareth are thee, to show thyself to me without fulfilling our accord."

Madoka ignored the strange speech from the pompous cat. She decided to relay his displeased communications directed towards Audrey. The princess could pop all she wants, but hopefully would refrain from getting in the King's bad graces.

"He said," Madoka said as she straightened herself up. Only now, did she realize the two of them were sitting unattended and unobserved on the floor a short distance from the loud center room where business boomed. Only piles of wooden boxes and barrels separated them from the Guild Commission Board. She spoke in Royal. "Taketh away thy demon!"

Audrey's ears took only a moment before registering the language of her bloodline. Then she scoffed. "Of course the cat would speak in Royal! That's quite like. Madoka, I want to keep him!"

"No. Absolutely not." Madoka outright denied the request without hesitation. Audrey looked sad for a moment, but no amount of smoldering and tearful looks would sway the maid. She had already sensed they were wasting enough time. Thinking of this, she circled back to the cat, who was slinking further into the shadows. "Have you heard of the Angel's Harp?"

"You miserable cur! By what right do you asketh one in stations far above your own?"

Madoka sighed. Talking to an animal was absurd, and attempting to speak to one so willful exhausted her. The way it spoke seemed forced, a strange mixture of Royal, Noble and a hint of a language she somehow understood yet never heard of. This power of hers was mysterious, allowing a myriad of languages to spread wide within her mind. Perhaps, she truly was speaking Cat. She already had an answer by forcing her mind into King Hei Meng's skull, extracting an aerial view of a large exposed shaft somewhere below the Adventurer's District from the cat's memory.

"Insolence! You'st dare invoke His Image within me? I'll have thy head for this!"

Madoka ignored him and found a path to it, located in a winding staircase sealed away near the Guild shops. It was enough of a clue to go by, but she recognized the kind of door. It had a slot inside of it, which required a certain type of stone key in order to infiltrate. As a small thanks, she felt the Storage Talisman and discovered leftover meat of suspicious origins inside it. She knew that Audrey had no doubt bought it while she was stuck inside that room. She shook her head. Putting her sick days aside, she placed it under the closest bench and slid it towards His Majesty.

The complaints instantly stopped. A paw snatched it with an astonishing speed, dragging it into the dark corner. Soon, Madoka heard contented nibbling coming from there. She felt a hint of exasperation. What this cat says and what it desires is quite different.

"So, the Angel's Harp?"

"By Tomorrows, you already know where to go." King Hei Meng growled, but in the darkness his tongue clicked and his chewing never ceased. "But, after you are done, I have an acquaintance who can help you. She is in the Living District, Fair Fountain Plaze. The Afflicted in the city are disappearing all over the shop. A cowardly thing, she. She will know my name, and she will tell you what to do. Cur, take your demon and business elsewhere."

When Madoka realized the cat had no more interest in conversing, she was startled by Her Highness's stare. Audrey was watching silently, with a hint of jealousy in her mismatching colored eyes. She could not understand why, but she was not keen on finding the reason why.

"What did it say?"

"There's a sewer, or something, located somewhere behind the shops," Madoka shared. "I found it through His Maje— er, the cat's memories."

Audrey looked at her with a questioning gaze, about to say something when a commotion burst from the Guild's entrance. They happened to be closest to it in this storage room, so any planning they could do was curtailed by the noise. Looking at her, Madoka found to her horror that the girl still was transfixed on small space where the cat crawled under. Only when the doors banged wide open did Audrey's eyes snap fully out of it.

Shouting and heavy boots stormed in along with a loud gust of the mountain air currents. A pair of men and a pair of woman, Madoka counted each head. Each of them were irate, exuding an air of superiority and contempt upon everyone here. They were searching for someone who presumably offended them. Audrey had already begun to move, opting for an opening between the barrels that led to the opposite side. That would assist greatly in not directly getting in front of these troublemakers.

As they snaked behind to the back of the crowd of onlookers, Madoka got a good look at them through their murmuring. Tension was high, but she could pick up that these strangers were no doubt powerful adventurers. They each wore a small matching Serpentine emblem on their armor. Madoka caught a glimpse of a gold tag hanging on one of the woman.

"A party," Audrey murmured. Her eyes were scanning something floating above their heads, but Madoka was praying to the kind gods the drama could end quickly.

Unfortunately for her, the kind gods clearly had it out for them today.

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