#4 kingdoms

Maria laughed as the song finished, shaking her head and pushing End away as he tried to keep her firmly placed on the dance floor.

“End, come on. I need a drink and some fresh air.” He reluctantly let her go, and she was sure she heard something about her staying away from anything alcoholic, but she ignored him and headed over to the table that had the drink set out on it. She wasn’t stupid enough to go after anything that had any traces of alcohol in them, so she grabbed a bottle of water and headed out of the building.

She stood on the grass, leaning against the wall as she stared up at the sky, wondering if Caitlin was looking at the same stars she was. It wasn’t the first time since the girl had gone that she had passed through Maria’s mind, but this was the first time that she was alone to actually think about her pretty much adopted daughter without something else taking her attention away to other matters.

I can let you see her, if you want.  

Maria just blinked. It had been a while since she’d heard from her god, and his offer intrigued her. He didn’t offer things like this lightly. She checked around her to see if anyone was near; she wasn’t dumb enough to believe that he would let anyone hear him, and she didn’t want to look insane tonight, but she did answer. 

“I would like to see how she’s doing at least. She’s been gone for a while.” She sounded wistful at the thought of seeing how Caitlin was doing after all this time, but the hope of at least getting a flash of how the girl was faring died when she heard a small chuckle. Before she could demand to know what Galaxy was planning, the wall behind her disappeared and she was throw into darkness. She staggered back, but even in her dress she managed to keep her footing, and was instantly on alert. She’d never seen this place before, and she’d been pretty far, but that didn’t mean that hadn’t left the realm. however, nor did it mean she was still in it. 

You wanted to see how she was doing, here you go. Go find her and ask yourself.

She spat out curses in Isphania and looked around her as an arrow whizzed past her head. She didn’t have anything on her, since she had been at a party mere moments before, so there was no need to take even a simple sword, or her armour with her. It was all still sat in her house, safe from sticky fingers reaching it. Another arrow passed a hair’s breadth from her cheek, and now she could even hear the twang on the bow string as another arrow loosed in her direction, she tried to throw up a magical barrier to protect herself, only to find out that her magic didn’t work, and the third arrow ended up lodged in her shoulder. Now injured, she turned and fled through the trees, trying to get a sense of where she was that was so far from home.