There wasn't really anything to do down in the earth. Just sitting there with her familiar got old pretty quickly. "Musician… could you dig us out?"
"Sorry, my lady. I could escape, but the ground would collapse on you. You're not so durable."
…
"You're a god, aren't you? Couldn't you just… keep it from collapsing?"
He chuckled. "That's… not exactly the kind of god I am. I'm more of a paganish god. Really good at some things, but only sort of okay at everything else."
Louise gave him an incredulous look. "You can throw an axe hard enough to launch a boulder halfway to the capital, but you can't keep rocks pushed apart?"
"If you haven't noticed, I lack… precision. I could burst apart everything above us… but it might destroy your school."
"Uh…"
"Which I assume you want intact, yes? It's not that I can't get us out of here, but I'm a god of destruction. I'd be far too good at pushing apart rocks."
"Oh." Louise could honestly say that she never thought being too good at something could be a problem. "Then what? We sit here until we starve?"
"I'm playing music above where we are. Someone should find us sooner or later."
"Oh good. So long as it's sooner or later."
Louise waited, but Musician said nothing else. The silence was really too much, though. She needed something to distract herself from their situation.
…
"Are you going to be alright? Your shoulder is… bleeding gold fluid."
"That'd be ichor. God-blood. And if this pointy bit could get out of my body, I'd heal in just a few seconds."
Louise blinked. "Seconds? To heal such an injury with water magic would take days. Is that because of the… ichor?"
Musician chuckled. "Nah. I'm a… what-do-you-call-it… I'm not sure your language has a word for it that you'd recognize. Olympian? Æsir? Asura? Any of those familiar?"
"…No."
"Eh. I'm a… emergent god. We have our own little gifts, in return for certain weaknesses. Like how a pointy rock could hurt me in the first place."
"Does it hurt? You don't seem to be in pain."
"Believe me, the only reason I'm not screaming is because I've had much worse."
"Oh…" Louise didn't quite know what to say about that, and they returned to silence.
…
"Speaking of topic changes, what are you planning to do after we get out of here?" Musician asked.
"Pardon?"
Musician gestured with a hand. "Not to… upset you, my Lady, but I have been waiting since I was summoned for you to let your pride down, so we could talk. Really talk."
"Okay? I… suppose we have time right now." Louise sort-of-smiled at her own little jest.
"That we do! Now, a question: What do you want to do?"
"Could you not ask that for once?!" And here she thought he was trying to be serious.
"I mean it less generally this time, my Lady. Do you want to keep working here, at this academy? It doesn't seem to do you much good."
Louise frowned. Perhaps it didn't, but that wasn't the fault of the academy. And even if her magic never worked, and everyone always treated her as a Zero… She still didn't want to go home and admit defeat to her mother, or to Éléonore, or to Cattleya. Perhaps she was never going to accomplish great things, but that didn't mean she couldn't accomplish anything.
That said, she had no idea what that could be. "I don't know."
"Nothing?"
"I don't know!" Louise would wave her arms if they weren't trapped. "I never thought about it. I've been unable to do the simplest spell. All I've done is try and avoid expulsion. If I were to… dream… then perhaps I'd enter the military? But if I were to be realistic, I'll probably just marry my fiancée and bear his children." And wasn't that a fun thought.
"Ah, young people. So narrow-minded. Louise, imagine you had my power. What would you do?"
Imagine? Ha! So long as he did what she said, she did have… his… power…
By the Founder… Rule of Steel, Louise. Rule of Steel.
For all that Musician was powerful, any restraint had to come from her. It wasn't like he had any. Even if he could blow up an entire castle, her allegiance was to the princess. Brimir entrusted the responsibilities of the nation to the royal family of Tristain, and going against that would be sacrilege. She wasn't going to end up in heaven just to tell the Founder that she used the power of the pagan god He sent her to overturn His works. This was going to require thought…
The earth around them shuddered, and a crevice formed above them, letting light in. "Hey, are you two okay?"
Louise sighed with relief. "Professor Chevreuse! Yes! We are both alright!"
Musician smiled brightly. "Let's get back to our room, Louise."
Princess Henrietta was experiencing a wide range of emotions. First, confusion. Louise had a maid living in her room. And a pile of hay next to her bed, for some reason. And that familiar of hers…
Next, fear. Louise had actually won the familiar exhibition. Henrietta had wanted to be the first to congratulate her, and so had come up to Louise's room. Somewhere between then and now, Louise vanished, huge piles of earth were scattered outside, and one of the school towers had been damaged. Where was Louise? What happened? Was she okay?
And finally, some lingering bemusement. Louise's exhibition act was…
Was…
Words failed her. But the music notes inscribed in the wall next to the pile of hay kept reminding her of dancers and jugglers appearing and disappearing as Louise's familiar loudly praised her qualities for the nobility of Tristain… in the form of song. Henrietta wanted to laugh, in spite of how worried she was.
And those emotions were a volatile, conflicting combination made only worse by her confusion.
So, when Louise opened the door, Henrietta couldn't help herself. She flew at her childhood friend.
"That was quite the fast explanation you gave the headmaster. Might have been a new record for reporting a terrorist attack."
"I. Want. A. Baaaaaaaath," Louise whined, stumbling towards her door. She was dirty, covered in ichor (which apparently never dried out), and as soon as her bath was over, she was going straight to bed.
Musician chuckled. "I could just… make you clean. Like the floor, remember?"
"You're not allowed to do anything else today." And suddenly, with the door opened, she was covered in princess.
"Loooooooooouise! Are you okay?! Are you hurt? Where were you?!"
Louise's eye twitched and the Rule of Steel dropped for just a second. "…Anne? I love you, but I need you to just… not."
Henrietta blinked and stared directly into Louise's eyes.
Alarm shot through her as she realized what she just said. "Erk. I'm so sorry, Princess!" The Rule of Steel, the absolute rule that dictated service to queen and country, felt like cold steel in her back. Louise bowed low. "I didn't mean it like that!"
Musician snorted loudly. Henrietta looked briefly at him, tapping her fingers to a light melody, then turned back to Louise. "Dear Louise, don't you dare apologize for speaking your true feelings. Not to me. Now get off the floor and come with me to the baths. You appear to need one, and…" She looked down at her clothes, covered in dirt and yellowish gunk from where she'd touched Louise. "…I believe I need one as well."
