The Maid and Her Princess [On Hiatus]

The Journey Back to Livertorjan (Spring 12)

"Okay, okay," Madoka snapped. The words her princess weaved for her covered her face in warmth. She hoped the moonlight did not show how red her cheeks must be, but the jealousy did not seem to soften. "So what is it you two were talking about?"

"Well!" Audrey perked up. Madoka was impressed at how she switched to becoming completely happy from the tense and almost seductive mood a moment before. "Kept the details smaller, but I asked about Knotting magic."

Oh, great, Madoka suddenly became filled with exasperation.

"How you do that whole, 'rising to your full height' thing," Audrey recalled. "Knotting magic is interesting. I originally thought it was like earth magic, or alchemy, but it goes beyond that. It changes things on a fundamental scale, makes you literally grow bigger, changes the sound waves and language, and even metals to liquids or the other way around. I kept your hidden weapon a secret, because I don't even know how to describe such a thing..."

"It's good that you did," Madoka sighed, and omitted that she used it against the shadowy figure posing as Kanys.

She now felt embarrassed over the lengths the princess went through to discover her own source of power. When she went over the things she went through to become stronger, she realized she owed Audrey a lot, though neither one would admit it for different reasons.

"Then there was that... thing living below that saved us," Audrey whispered. "They call it the Cuckoo, but in my world, the cuckoo bird is an invasive bird that lays its eggs in other birds' nests. Perhaps, it does that with ideas, or thoughts in other people's minds to survive."

"Survive?" Madoka scoffed. "It's a God, Audrey."

"I know, I know, you don't like me diss tracking gods here," Audrey sighed. "There's a lot of things I would lore-dump upon you in terms of how these gods function, but I'm starting to believe that's why Arudite and I get along in heresy together. Who else but a witch princess and a scholar seeking the forbidden Truth would dabble in heretical shit, huh?"

"If it helps, Audrey," Madoka reassured her. "I know you mean well, but I'm afraid they are listening to us. In our conversations, they might get angry at your heresy. The Cuckoo goes by the God of Tomorrows, according to the goblins and those trolls..."

She trailed off, realizing that their corpses were in Audrey's portal. The princess grunted. What were they to do about any of this information anyways?

"Speaking of this divine... weapon," Madoka plunged her hand in her heart and withdrew it as a brush. "It's bath time now."

"Wha—" Audrey protested. "Bath time here? In front of a church?"

"Yes, now sit and do your magic," Madoka dragged a broken stone pillar over and commanded her princess. Audrey sheepishly stripped and sat down.

"Who's the actual heretic here?" She muttered.

Luckily for them, no one seemed to be around them while Madoka worked, feeling everything on the girl's body. Her skin was perfect as all Royals were, and warm to the touch from the kind God Ares.

The portal still had fresh clothes from Lady Saze so she was happy they could bathe now, patting her shoulders down. Afterwards, Audrey was like a new person. The girl smiled mischievously.

"Your turn!" She cheered. Madoka felt ashamed of her own body, but stripped down and allowed Audrey's eager hands to clean her unworthiness. "Yep, God, you are beautiful."

Madoka said nothing in return, but shivered as she felt Audrey's warm fingers rub the dirt off of her with the mysterious and miraculous soap water. The crystal brush shattered into golden dust, then withdrew into her core. Her hair was too short to brush anyways. The fingers traced her burn scars and other imperfections, causing a tingling sensation to dance along her skin.