Notes1: So I've started watching - and reading - MKR back-to-back on a whim (and you can't get any more simple than that when you're browsing the net, looking to expand your fanfiction horizons), and I don't think I've been this drawn into something since Nanoha (although the quality of those older fics aren't up to snuff as they are now). I decided to do a little ficlet just to get my bearings on this, and while I've probably got the reception to magic in Cephiro wrong I'll admit it's based off headcanon more than, say, how some of the darker aspects are viewed in World of Warcraft (shadow/Void, necromancy, and fel). However, the paragraph about prophecies does draw some inspiration from the Shadows of Argus patch in Legion.
To add further context: I'd put this more in the setting of the anime than the manga, even though, given what little progress I've made so far in the latter - having gotten to the point where the Knights reach the Shrine of Windham, the former doesn't offer as much worldbuilding as the manga does.
As she watches their retreating backs, the revelation hits Presea with all the force of a sucker punch to the gut: it feels as though she's sending them, these fledgling Knights, to their deaths. Young girls from another world where they live in peace and have never been in a fight before, preferring to keep well enough out of trouble.
Just because one carries a weapon so easily and has the training doesn't mean she will live see another day. Presea's seen one too many soldier, sorcerer, and mercenary come and go through these woods, claiming they would bring back the escudo for her to meld and shape to their heart's calling. "What if the Magic Knights never come?" they asked. "What if we die before they arrive? We can't afford to wait! If they don't come, then we will go find the Spring of Eterna and deliver you the escudo, so that we may fight in their place! We will be the Magic Knights that will protect Cephiro in her darkest hour!"
They never came back.
She wonders if Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, girls with the strangest names she's ever heard, will, too. Because they're still kids, not quite yet on the cusp of adulthood but well on their way, and there's still so much in life to look forward to and learn from.
It's not the first time she thought this—not since she first laid eyes on them in the cage of her study that was meant for Mokona—but in that moment, when the girls finally go through the tree line and disappear out of sight, Presea can't help but wonder, if only a little despairingly and—Princess forgive her—with some measure of anger, what made Princess Emeraude think they were the Knights of Prophecy. Sure they could outwit a mud golem…but that was just one monster out of thousands lurking beyond her little abode, beyond the Forest of Silence; and behind those monsters, wherever they lurked, were Lord Zagato and his court. One eye could be closed, but there would be others, open and lidless, searching the scope of greater Cefiro for Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, and if Zagato is smart he could compel the amalgamation of the peoples' fears and doubts and unbridled rage at their helplessness upon them. He would not even have to get up from his seat if he could help it.
Stop it, she tells herself, surprising herself with the sudden ferocity she gives to the thought. She loosens fists she didn't notice weren't clenched and takes a deep breath. Stop it. It's okay. They'll be fine. The prophecy wills it to be so.
But prophecies are just predictions, aren't they? Prophecies are only called that because they predict the outcomes that are most likely to happen. In this world now steeped in terror, it is only fitting—and justly fair as much as it's unfair—for some people to also believe the prophecy to be not of hope and a return to balance but doom and the ending of all things material and eternal. Magic, as an idea and as a construct of wills made manifest, is a creature of exceptional strength in oneself; it is a gift that, so the mages claim, exists in everyone, but those who can look deeply inward and draw forth that power are considered unique. Some might say they are blessed, if not from the Princess then by the Rune Gods, and the magic they wield is a symbol of respect, a display of beauty. Yet for all its mystical properties and romantic whimsy, it is a beast as wild and ancient as the Rune Gods. It is destructive and rips and tears the land apart in its wake, and that is why the people fear it as they fear the monsters in the forests and the moors and the untamed grasslands far and away from the main highways and thoroughfares.
These girls, blessed with the innate ability to surpass even the master mages of old with the speed that which their magical reservoirs and spells evolve, will both inspire and terrify the masses wherever they go. Even if they should succeed, would they still be trusted, feared and hated for simply doing what they had at their disposal to restore the Pillar?
They're going to, Presea thinks, and tries to convince herself that she means the Knights and not the people hiding in the shadows, hoping to avoid the worst of the violence. They're going to.
So she offers up a prayer to Princess Emeraude, alone in the Forest of Silence with only the wind and the very scant traces of wildlife that haven't fled in terror as her only companions. She asks that that she guide the girls on their Quest and to protect them from the dangers that will befall them, for there is no avoiding such trespasses in a land that is not their own that will want them dead…and if not dead by Zagato's hands, then surely dealt in a way that will make them wish for it.
When she finishes, Presea lets her hands drop to her sides and stares at the trees for a long time.
She hopes they come back.
There is always a first time for everything.