The Maid and Her Princess - Chapter 53: Chapter 53

Madoka stirred awake feeling warmer than usual. There was someone's familiar frame cuddled up next to her. She thought the princess would be more uncomfortable sleeping on the ground. Audrey remained undisturbed, even though they must have been wandering around for weeks without a soul in sight. She must have gotten used to it. The poor girl has been through it all, Madoka thought idly to herself. Something caught her eyes.
Glowing fairy-like lights floated above her. Spirits? Little orbs of greens, reds, yellows and blues swirled above almost playfully. Beautiful, Madoka took in the sight of the spirits quietly. They bobbed in the air and paid her no mind; their forms bulbous with small strands of tentacles underneath their bodies. They seemed to push off of thin air towards a greater light. Above Madoka and the spirits, daylight made the icy cavern's roof a translucent cerulean and lit up the ruin's dome like structure. Madoka blinked and the spirits were gone.
Although this section of the ancient room seemed torn down by time itself, the ice that kept it all together showed no signs of letting it go. Daylight meant that the storm outside finally ceased. Madoka looked towards the slopes they slipped down from beyond the cracked mural and found them to be too high up. There was no chance of getting out of here, Madoka thought.
Audrey squirmed for a second and stretched. At least she did not freeze to death. Last night's embers still remained quietly in the firepit Audrey made.
"Kyaaaah," Audrey muttered. "I want sour gummy worms. And a damn bed. Especially some of those. Wha—"
Sour... worms? Madoka cringed at the thought of those being eaten.
"I can eat wherever I want!" Audrey sighed. "I studied, give me the worms... Why bring him into the picture?"
Audrey gasped and jerked awake. Then she shivered.
"Good morning, Audrey," Madoka offered. Audrey's hair was frazzled and the look on her face was one Madoka has seen many times even in the Northern Estate.
"Still here in this god awful world," Audrey sighed. Disappointment marred her pretty face. "Good morning, Madoka."
"We got work to do," Madoka sat up and stretched. "Mainly—"
"Hai, hai," Audrey waved her off but then she rolled over. "My body is stiff as hell. Give me a minute, would you?"
"How are you stiff?" Madoka sighed. "You sound like an old woman."
"S-So what if I do?" Audrey pouted. "It's not normal to camp out for weeks, you know."
"We're not normal people, Audrey."
"Well, you're not normal that's for sure," Audrey stretched and got up but stiffened from her leg growing numb. "Who wakes up so early?"
"It's day already," Madoka helped Audrey stay upright. "We have workouts to do before we go!"
"Naee waaah!"
A few minutes later, Madoka was ready to go. Audrey surprised Madoka by being compliant. She had always listened to Madoka, eventually one way or another and yet she would obey despite all her complaining. As she observed Audrey's movements and her body she noticed how toned and graceful she was. Every movement was exactly like her own. Not a single wasted motion and a quiet persistence underneath it all.
This was why Audrey was extraordinary to Madoka.
"Eh? Got some good things to say to me?" Audrey said flirtatiously. Madoka rolled her eyes.
"It's just that you've been carrying yourself well in these exercises," Madoka scoffed and crossed her arms. "As expected of you."
"Aww, don't be like that," Audrey whined, throwing her cloak on. "We have a ways to go. Though I doubt much is living inside these ruins, we should be careful of slipping."
"Right."
Madoka steeled herself as they found themselves in front of the hole they could get through. There was nothing but cave air howling above and the scraping of ice beneath their boots. Audrey gave a nod to Madoka. Here goes, Madoka thought to herself and she stepped through.
The way was a slope but her steps could balance as she traversed down. Audrey followed behind her and the two slowly made their way until Madoka felt flat stone beneath her feet. She gasped as she emerged from the hole.
She stood on an icy path that bridged over an abyss so deep she could not see the bottom. The path led her to the view of an ancient palace towering above her. The architecture was beautiful and alien while covered by mountains and ice. Countless statues of a goddess all watched out solemnly from the palace's many balusters. Perhaps they remember the past of their former glory, Madoka thought.
The massive complex seemed to stretch deep into the abyss as well with its towers like white javelins. Now, ice crystals flanked their sides and dwarfed those once beautiful and marble towers. Gears were frozen in place fated to never operate again. Madoka could see the shadow of a great mechanism threaded in and out of the ice like a stony needlepoint. Runes dotted all along the gears' edges.
It reminded Madoka of that strange world she was in temporarily when she died, though it lacked the colors.
"Whoa," Audrey's eyes gleamed at the whole view. "This must be the Frost Queen's lair, huh."
"Who is the Frost Queen?" Madoka asked. "Is she a kind goddess?"
"Not sure, Ares said she ruled over the 'ones who came before,'" Audrey said. "Probably like an ancient civilization who used to live before humans showed up and ruined everything."
"Humans?" Madoka asked. She did not know what that meant in English.
"Father. Brother. Other people like you and me," Audrey said as the two traversed the bridge towards the gate. "These were people who lived here before us. They were not like us, but they are no longer here with us. Be that some luck from evolution, natural disaster, magic shenanigans, or even a, urk, god intervention, they died out and us boring humans survived. Aaaand I lost you."
Madoka's mind could not keep up with Audrey's ramblings. She was too smart for Madoka. Instead, she thought of the design of the gate. It seemed like it was made for giants.
"Why have a gate this big?" Madoka muttered. She moved closer to the gate, in awe of the structure. There were more runes on them that matched the mural. Audrey was inspecting the fences of the bridge.
"Imagine if this place wasn't covered in ice," Audrey mused, reaching out and tracing a line runes on one of the posts. To her surprise they started glowing orange. "Ain't a freckle of anything not covered in ice and snow."
"D-Don't touch anything—" Madoka was interrupted by the ground shaking. The bridge suddenly became illuminated by runes. They filled the cavern with an orange glow on both sides of the bridge, eventually connecting at the very top of the gate's doors.
"Uh," Audrey started to say. "I think I should not have done that."
"You think?" Madoka instinctively held her axe from underneath her cloak. The cloak hid her arms quite well and made concealing weapons easy. She was ready for anything. Hopefully. As the rumbling subsided an otherworldly voice thundered above them in Noble.
「Greetings, unidentified lifeforms - Present credentials for entry access. Otherwise you shall not enter this holy place.」
"Huh," Audrey said, pulling out the Ares talisman. "What do you mean, you can't open it! Nani!?"
Madoka stood there, somewhat amused at Audrey's bickering. It was nice watching it happen to someone other than her although she could not hear the kind god's responses. Evidently, it made Audrey wave her free hand in exasperation.
"Screw it," Audrey said, before holding the talisman high above her head and yelling a weird phrase. "Open sesame! Yeet!"
A beautiful rainbow colored ray of light filtered itself in the room from the highest point of the gate before falling upon Audrey peacefully. Like a drink spilled, the strange light made Madoka's skin feel soaked and sent tingles up and down her arms. How much of this place was like a kind god, forgotten and frozen in time waiting for an ear or eye to remember it?
"What is happening?" Audrey asked like Madoka knew. She tucked the talisman away and backed away slowly. "Auroras in this place..."
「Access granted. Welcome, servants of the Holy One. We have been waiting for you for a long time.」
"Servants?" Audrey spat incredulously. "Yeah right. I'm not a—"
Madoka's knees buckled as the ground suddenly trembled. Through her shaking visions the gate's runes began to glow green. Madoka stumbled back and held onto Audrey as the deafening sound from ancient ice cracking pierced the air. Enormous glowing runes floated in the foggy depths below them, revealing the turning of gears the size of the gate itself.
Audrey mouthed something but realized she could not hear herself so she pointed. Beyond the calamitous ice crumbling, Madoka could see the gate was opening. A gale of freezing cave wind sliced through the air from the entrance, stinging Madoka's face as it passed through them. She felt like she was going to black out from the vibration. Eventually the noise collapsed into a stillness although her ears popped.
"Woo! We lived!" Audrey exclaimed after all the chaos had died down. There was a heap of snow, crumbled stone and ice collapsed at the gate but they were wide open. "Ares is upset with me but, hey, we are making progress. Madoka?"
"I-I'm fine," Madoka's legs wobbled as she recovered her bearings. She felt the chill pressed against her cheeks like sharp fingernails. They were covered in powder snow and shards. "It's only going to get colder, right?"
"Yeah," Audrey said, looking at how wet their clothes were. "I'm not sure how bad it's going to get but Ares tells me to keep going."
She opened her bag and yelled at the glowing talisman inside.
"I HOPE THIS IS WORTH IT!"
She flinched when the glow intensified from the bag. Madoka was too worried to scold Audrey for disrespecting the kind god. She decided to send them her meager prayers for aid and warmth anyways.
"Okay then!" Audrey whined. "It's time to see what this dungeon has in store for us, Madoka. Hopefully something warm."
As the two climbed up to view what was next, Madoka's heart raced at the sight.
Instead of a grand room like the Fiara Palace, the gates led to an open platform with a lot of wreckage and more ice on it. A massive chasm greeted them beyond from where they stood. The two peered down from the balcony into the moaning darkness. More of those rainbow auroras swirled beneath, reflecting off the dark walls. They could not illuminate the pitch black state of this ancient palace, Madoka observed. Treacherous ice formations jutted out from the side leading deeper into the abyss.
"I don't think there's anything warm waiting for us here," she said, kicking a chunk of ice down into the pit.
"Wow," Audrey said at the sight. "Sure makes you miss home, huh. Well, not all the fire and demonic roots, I guess."
"Well, what does Ares say about this?"
"Deeper," Audrey said flatly. Her mana core flared to life. She made a circular motion with her arm as swirls of flame began to manifest. "Yaaawwww YEET!"
As she screamed that odd word, the flames combined and launched into a sphere. Both said nothing as they watched the flaming sphere descend all the way down into deep eternity. The light from it grew dim rapidly then into nothing.
"Yeah! We go down there," Audrey said. "Somehow. Probably over there down those icy rocks."
Her eyes glowed beautifully, almost turquoise and sparkling in shades of blues after casting her fireball. Madoka shook her head and began to step on one of the cliff sides to the icy rocks.
"Wait," Audrey stopped her. "There is something odd about this banister. Well, it's not really a banister but more like a broken pile of wood. But there's something about this thing. Help me would ya?"
Madoka folded her arms as she inspected the wreckage and chuckled watching Audrey struggle to scrape the ice off the peculiar wooden structure.
"Screw it!" Audrey sighed. "Wind blade!"
What formed in her hands was not her typical spell but instead a sphere of violent wind. Madoka had to jump out of the way of razor sharp gusts and ice. The wind expanded outward, cutting through the frozen block and splinters of wood.
"How the hell did I— Nevermind," Audrey said. "Are you going to help me uncover this or not?"
"No," Madoka said. Audrey looked at her, exasperated. Madoka let out a small giggle at her face before stifling it. Apparently, the giggle calmed Audrey down and she began to clear the wreckage.
"I guess this is what I get for not helping you when you got stuck," she sighed. A while later, Madoka saw something glint in the wreckage.
"A sword's pommel?" Madoka asked as she felt it. It was ornate and gleaming despite how old it must have been. The two looked at it.
"No, it's a lever!"
Audrey pulled on it. Once again, somewhere in the cavern echoed a voice.
「Access granted. Warning: System Integrity Critical. Unstable Lift Mechanisms: Advise not to operate or ride on main lift. Lift status: Calamitous.」
"Why does that voice sound way ahead of our time?" Audrey sighed as she attempted to pull the lever again. "Do you hear any animal thoughts?"
"No," Madoka said. She could not help but peer down below. "How does the voice know Noble?"
"Noble?" Audrey made a confused face. "It's speaking in English for me."
Madoka stared at Audrey in confusion. The look was returned on Audrey's face.
"That's hella trippy," Audrey remarked. She cleared her throat to snap Madoka out of her confused state. "Nevermind that! Look!"
More ice from the walls of this massive chasm began to break open, revealing rows of rotating lifts. Madoka gasped at the sight. She has never seen such technology before. Each lift seemed to have a maximum distance in their descent, stopping perilously before returning its path back up from where it came. It seemed that they would be the ticket down. She heard a gasp from Audrey.
"Wow! Are those the lifts?" Audrey said excitedly. "It's a whole ass videogame platforming section!"
Madoka rolled her eyes. Of course, the princess would be excited over such a dangerous activity.
"Now, now. I know what you're thinking," Audrey said, barely able to hide her enthusiasm. "But it's seriously the way we gotta go."
"Slowly," Madoka said nervously. "L-Let's go slowly."
If there ever was a time Madoka thought she was in too far over her head it was now. They moved to the closest lift to them. Madoka was nervous. Audrey, however, was excited.
"After you," Madoka told her.
"Are you afraid of heights?" Audrey leapt onto the lift. "Come on!"
"Heights?" Madoka scoffed. "Anyone would fear the darkness below them!"
"Hey, what's an adventure without a little platforming?" Audrey teased. She was too nonchalant about this situation. "Come on— Waah!"
The lift began to lower and Madoka watched her descend into the dark.
"Audrey?" Madoka called out for her. A small ring of magic glowed in the depths meters below her, illuminating Audrey and the lift she stood on. Another lift passed by her, but sunk further into the pit. "Kind gods, here we go."
A lift moved up, but Audrey was already on another platform. Madoka tentatively stepped on to catch up with the princess. She was a devil in disguise, Madoka swore. She could see the ancient palace's architecture sprawl out beneath her, the broken bridges and lifts jutting out like the fingers of skeletons. Her stomach leapt as the lift began its descent.
For you, Audrey, Madoka thought, determined and casting the lurching feeling in her gut aside. I'll go even further into the darkest depths for you!