The Madame

"This... did I become your Link?" Harvet seemed slightly distressed as she asked but slowly appeared almost happy as she repeated herself. "Am I your Link?"

"Yes and no?" Uteu tilted his head to his right and tried to think of words to explain what had happened. Harvet tied Claris up with strips from the torn bed sheets as she waited for him.

"It's temporary I think. Much weaker than my connection to Grello. If his is at 200% yours is more like 50%. We can both break it, I believe? At least that's what I'm feeling from it. I really don't understand it, I barely know anything about this whole thing in the first place."

Harvet cradled her chin with her palm in wonder after sitting down on the floor and gagging her roommate. He felt mildly perturbed at her nonchalant way of handling the younger girl.

"You... are you really alright with this? She's your roommate. You're not going to try to convince her to not fight against us?"

Harvet removed her hand from her chin and looked down at Claris.

"She's just that, a roommate. We weren't particularly close or anything. As roommates we were obligated to take care of each other. We hardly know a single thing about each other. She never even knew I had a brother."

Seeing the look on Uteu's face Harvet continued, "She's not a normal little girl. Not in the least. We've all been trained by the Guild. Hell, she's stronger than me."

Harvet nudged Claris with her foot. She didn't look the least bit concerned about the girl.

"Enough about her, I'm much more interested in you! Let's go! We can talk on the way."

Harvet jumped up and made her way over to Uteu. However, as she approached, he took notice of all of her wounds.

"Your wounds though..." He mentioned in concern. Won't they need to be looked at?

"Hmm? Oh, don't worry. I've been trained to cut off the blood flow from the worst of the wounds, I won't ever bleed out." She said with a wry smile.

That wasn't what he meant at all.

Harvet yanked open the door, hinges and all. Uteu let out a small sigh when she ushered him out the door.

Still concerned, he abruptly stopped and looked at Harvet straight in the eyes.

"Through my link to Grello, you'll heal slowly, but it's not enough, we still need to look at your wounds. We need to disinfect them and wrap them up."

Getting the message at long last, Harvet nodded slowly.

"Alright little sir, I'll do as you say." She gave him smirk and ruffled his hair.

Feeling his cheeks flush he found himself asking childishly, "You! Why do you keep calling me that, you can't be that much older than me!"

Harvet blinked and laughed, she seemed almost surprised that she was laughing. It died quickly in her shock. His childish anger also died as soon as she stopped laughing.

"I can't remember the last time I've laughed, actually laughed." Her own words caused her to sober up and her whole demeanor changed to a gloomy atmosphere.

"It was... before all of this, at Jaren's 9th birthday party." She muttered to herself. Uteu almost couldn't catch her words.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say some words of comfort but found himself unable to come up with anything. He closed his mouth and walked over to her. Harvet moved through the halls and Uteu followed behind in silence.

They ended up in front of a room that seemed like a small infirmary. It wasn't all that far away from the hall that Harvet's room was in. The doors were pulled wide open, and glancing around, there was no one inside. Uteu found himself helping Harvet disinfect her wounds and bandaging them carefully when she had trouble reaching some of the more difficult spots.

They both moved swiftly to get the worst of her wounds taken care of. After feeling satisfied that her wounds were now clean and properly wrapped, Uteu stepped back outside. Harvet stashed a few supplies into her side bag along the way out.

She paused and then went behind a curtain, when she came back out she had changed into a clean, undamaged set of the same pair of clothes. She led them through the halls until they went out a door and were out in the open. The sun had just risen, giving them some light to see their surroundings.

"The middle square... I told you I thought Uti was there didn't I?"

Surprised that Harvet was willing to talk again, Uteu nodded.

"It's because I saw Jude hovering near there. Unless its to activate the array, that man would never stay around there. Too afraid. While he's arrogant around everyone else, he can't be arrogant around the Madame. So unless he's working, he'll never be found anywhere near her."

She mocked Jude quite happily as they went past what looked like a small store. It was closed with all of it's lights off. Harvet pulled Uteu behind the store, down a narrow alley. The sun didn't hit the alley, leaving it dark still.

"The middle square is where her office is located. I saw the lights on at her office floor. They never stay this late unless it's for something important, and besides that, those two should be dealing with the Association, but they aren't. They're leaving it to other people to deal with. So what could they be up to that they're missing sleep over it?"

The ground shook at the end of her words. A shrill ear piercing noise emitted from all around them for a few seconds. As soon as the shaking and the noise died down, the sounds of explosions and clashing metal weapons took it's place.

A sound of a gong rang once, twice, three times.

After the third strike of the gong, Uteu and Harvet could see people in Guild colors, charging down the streets to meet the freed members of the Association.

It was chaotic. It looked like a free for all as they went all out against each other. There was no order to it at all.

It wasn't until a familiar head of platinum hair showed up that the Association side seemed to be more organized, using actual formations to attack.

Harvet gasped and Uteu turned his head to follow her direction of sight.

"Its the Madame!"

Uteu stared at the large woman Harvet was pointing out. Her muscles rippled as she tore through a cluster of people dressed in black. The laugh lines around her mouth twisted with her sneer. Her graying hair flew from her high ponytail like a whip as she charged towards another group.

"The Madame is a Thew?" Harvet rose her eyebrows at Uteu's assessment. He was impressed, she was changing the tide back into the Guild's favor.

"No, she's a Psyche!"

The ground once again shook as the Madame wrapped herself in a protective layer of hardened earth. As she punched her way through, she sniped magic users in the back with the rocks forming at her fingers. She only needed to flick her fingers to shoot off a deadly rock at the speed of a bullet.

Uteu couldn't help from gulping, he sure was glad that she was over here dealing with the Association and not at her office, he didn't want to go up against such a powerful, despite being middle aged, woman.

Harvet yanked his arm, pulling him away from gawking at the battle. He had just glimpsed the Madame reaching the barrier guy's group.

"Let's go! Now's our best chance!"

Blinking, he followed Harvet through the alley and over a fence. Uteu clenched his fists and looked forward with determination.

He would bring Uti back home safe and sound.