The familiars were dogpilling us, mechanical arms trying their best to restrain us and I was, I'm afraid, not doing much to help. I'd gotten in a fair few fights over the years, but they were mostly schoolyard scuffles and this, this was something completely different. Marnie was doing most of the work, waves of water she was controlling sweeping the familiars into the path of her pistol shots.

And me ? I was clumsily hacking at the familiars with the pointy end of my polearm, and a lot of them were getting past my guard with ease. I would later learn that most magical girls had hardwired combat instincts from the start, and that I wasn't one of them. One of the beings stabbed their long, pointy limbs through my forearm. I cried out in pain, but as soon as the creature retracted its appendage, the hole started to heal. I managed to take out a few other familiars but eventually fell down and Marnie grabbed my hand and pulled me back up, then quickly finished off the rest of the familiars with a sweep of water and three shots.

The scenery around us started retreating, leaving in its wake an alley, damp from rain.

-« Come on », said Marnie, taking out her Soul Gem to track the witch and starting to run.

-« The witch is retreating »

I tried following her to the best of my abilities, but getting used to my newfound speed and strength was a bit harder than I had initially anticipated. It was quite disorienting to be this healthy and strong, and it made me clumsy. I'd always had quite a weak chest, but that seemed cured now. I'd always been small and, to my sorrow, rather puny, the consequences of being mostly fed bread while at my foster parents, and then having my meals taken away for misbehaviour countless times while at the Foundling Hospital. Being strong enough to lift a horse over my head, as I would later test, was something quite new.

Within a few moments, we managed to track the witch and enter the labyrinth again.

Marnie told me while we were just at the entrance :

-« Use the shaft of your weapon as a staff, to block blows. Tell me if you get hurt. »

We manage to get rid of most of the familiars, although a few escaped. We ran through the labyrinth at top speed, and after following a path with many twists and turns, we arrived in the witch's lair. It had walls covered in clocks, and a giant person-thing made of thousands of gears was running from one clock to another. The constant loud ticking of all the clocks was really grating, and the witch wasn't something I cared to look at. It was as if someone had tried to represent a human body using only gears, and had used an anatomy book as reference. Its face was also all wrong.

Marnie whispered :

-« It takes me a lot of magic to actually blow a witch to pieces. So I'm going to restrain it and you just need to stab it. »

I nodded, and raised my polearm.

Marnie smashed her fist into one of the clocks, and this provoked the witch into trying to attack us. She bound it with trickles of water that she then turned to ice, nodded at me for the finishing blow. I charged at the witch and had to stab it several times before it turned into a Grief Seed.

-« Good job » said Marnie. « You're still going to need some training before I can let you go on a hunt on your own, half-pint »

Two clouds of Grief drifted from our Soul Gems into the Seed, and then Kyubey turned up to « eat » it. The sight made me shiver a little.

The next few months were pretty uneventful, as uneventful as hunting monsters every night can be anyways. Mama was given a clean bill of health and found work taking care of an old lady who was much nicer, thankfully, than old Miss Roberts.

We manage to rent a small two-room flat. It wasn't the sumptuous mansion I imagine I would one day earn through my writing, but as long as Mama was with me, I was happy.

I found work myself by way of Marnie. Marnie worked at a haberdashery, selling ribbons and buttons, and one of their longtime customers, a dressmaker, who went by the name of Mrs. Miller, was looking for someone to help her out with her eight children and her work.

I had both experience taking care of children (from my time with the Greenwood family and a year spent helping out in the Foundling Hospital nursery) and experience sewing (from years of stitching drills at the hospital). I learnt a lot about the newest fashions, the more intricate types of embroidery, and the finer details of adjusting voices and matching colours to complexions while I worked for her, as well as how noisy little children could be, and how to calm them down with songs and stories and games.

On the magical side of things, some things were good, some things were bad. It was good that my magic was getting stronger, and I better at using it, it was bad that I had to see so many people getting hurt or hurting others because of witches. Still, Marnie and I mostly managed to save them.

Mostly.

Marnie and I trained and hunted witches every night we could, which wasn't nearly enough. I gradually got better at fighting, enough that I could fight through a whole witch's labyrinth and solo the witch myself with ease. We didn't save the world, but we did help a few people. Mama was unaware of the whole thing, blissfully ignorant.

I often visited Freda, who was now accompanied by Lucy Locket, the world's littlest lady, and gifted them both dresses I'd made myself.

And then one day :

-« You know Hetty, Mrs Gaddis is going to visit her family for Christmas. Since Mrs Miller is giving you the week off as well, don't you think it would be nice to visit Miss Smith ? She's helped us out so much. » said Mama as she was taking a pie out of the oven.

-« Hmm, yes » I said halfheartedly. But then a thought struck me : If I go see Miss Smith, I'll probably be able to see Clover and Rose as well. Even better : they might be able to become magical girls too ! I know Clover would like a wish…

I stoop and started packing my things into a suitcase.

-« Well you seem in a hurry, Hetty » Mama laughed