Chapter 2:
Charlotte had insisted on being ready and leaving early, not wanting to get caught in any delays. So, much to Victoria's displeasure, both of their alarms rang loudly at 9 AM and then again 10 minutes later. Although it took the combined effort of Charlotte and the second alarm to finally get Victoria to move from her bed.
Charlotte carried her backpack, filled with food and drink she had prepared whilst Victoria was waking up and getting dressed. Victoria had been adamant that she only wanted to be in London for as little time as possible, so didn't want to carry anything that wouldn't fit into her pockets.
They managed to leave by quarter to ten, giving them enough time to slowly make the walk down to the nearest train station. The station was situated roughly half the way between their house and the university library, although in this direction the walk was much easier due to it all being downhill.
It took just over half an hour to reach the station, giving them around a 20 minute wait before their train would arrive. It was no longer peak times but the platform was reasonably busy, forcing the two of them to have to stand whilst they waited. Charlotte was anxiously watching the departure board, expecting their 10:30 train to be delayed or cancelled. Victoria on the other hand spent the time leaning on Charlotte's side, head resting on Charlotte shoulder, half falling back asleep.
Luckily their train arrived at the expected time and there was enough space for them to sit next to each other. Victoria sat herself next to the window and went straight back to leaning on Charlotte's shoulder the moment she sat down in the seat next to her. The route to London Victoria took around an hour, where Charlotte had been left to her thoughts whilst Victoria slept through each stop on the way.
The next leg involved a short trip on the Underground. Charlotte led the way to the platforms that would give them a westbound, circle line, train. She had spent the evening before planning out different possible routes, as well as frantically double checking every hour that she hadn't gotten something wrong. Victoria was happy enough to let Charlotte essentially drag her in the direction of the underground, she completely trusted that Charlotte was correct.
The underground train only needed to stop once before it reached their off point, South Kensington station, the station closest to the Royal Albert Hall. By this point Victoria seemed much more awake and instead of following behind Charlotte, she was now walking by her side as they left the station and came out onto the street.
Charlotte took a few seconds of looking around to check that she knew where she was. "There's a road over there that we take all the way up." Charlotte pointed to a junction in front and to the right of where they were standing, a road that was much wider than the one they were currently on.
"There's Witches everywhere here." Victoria was holding Charlotte's hand and had moved in close to whisper to Charlotte so that no one else around could hear her. She had sounded almost distressed and Charlotte assumed this came from a want to hunt down the Witches and stop them from hurting innocents.
As they walked Charlotte put her hand over her chest, feeling the necklace and gemstone hidden under her shirt and jumper. As they had gotten closer to London it started to pulse gently, but increasing in intensity the further into the city they got. It had also started shifting around on its own, pointing in different directions like a compass.
She had been doing her best to ignore the pulsing, trying to resist the urge to jump into action. The pulse had gotten much stronger than anything she had felt before, suggesting the presence of many Witches, or at least multiple powerful Witches. But to take them on now would be far too dangerous and far too time consuming for them to consider intervening.
"In and out of London, no diversions." Charlotte reminded Victoria of the words she herself had said the evening before. Although she tried giving a consolatory smile as well as a squeeze of her hand. Victoria returned the hand squeeze, but it was clear she was not at all happy.
They continued along the junction and up to a traffic lighted crossroads. In front of them to the left were the front gardens and historical building for the natural history museum, whilst on the right hand side was the tall and red bricked building of the Victoria and Albert museum.
However as they crossed the road, to the paved pedestrian road alongside these two museums, Charlotte's attention was taken instead by the people that they were walking past and avoiding. There was a strange number of teenage girls, with some looking like they might not have reached teenage years yet, wandering around.
Some were in large groups standing in enclosed circles on the sides of the pathway, some sitting in the gardens on their left hand side. Whilst the largest amount seemed to be slowly walking in the same direction as Charlotte and Victoria. Outside of these groups there was a number of girls on their own or in pairs, the majority of them looking worried and very much out of place.
"You've not seen any teachers around have you?" Victoria had noticed as well and spoke low enough that no one would overhear.
"None of them have uniforms and the groups have mixed ages." Charlotte was fairly certain that these people weren't here on some kind of school trip and it'd be strange for this number of teenagers to be out of school during the middle of term time. But, if they were Magical Girls that had also received the strange invite, they would have good reason to skip school and make their way into London.
"They're speaking German there." Victoria made sure Charlotte was looking at her before gesturing with her head towards a group of 12 girls sitting in the gardens, who were talking loud enough for Charlotte and Victoria to hear them.
"Are there even Magical Girls from other countries?" Its not something Charlotte had ever encountered or even put much thought into beforehand. She had barely been outside her local area, so had only ever interacted with a reasonably small number of Magical Girls that had lived there or had passed through.
The moment Charlotte said the words 'Magical Girls', multiple heads turned in their direction. Conversations around them got notably quieter and a mixture of curious and nervous glances were thrown their way. Charlotte was instantly self conscious and forced herself to look forward and down, avoiding any of the stares. But no one seemed to try and catch their attention or make any move towards them.
"I don't see why there wouldn't be." Victoria outwardly seemed unperturbed by the extra attention. But Victoria's left hand had moved up to her neck where she was fiddling with the chain of her necklace, getting ready to reach for her ring out of habit. "Lets just get to the place and find a quiet place to talk."
Charlotte had little issue with Victoria's suggestion, so they silently moved along the street, trying to avoid drawing attention to herself again. They moved past the old buildings of the museum which switched to the more modern glass and steel structure of the Imperial College London buildings. Charlotte tried to move her attention away from the people they were walking past and alongside, trying to look at the buildings instead, but she couldn't help but watch as the area filled up with more and more teenage aged girls.
"Up on our left now." As they reached a large junction road to their left, with distinctive red and white brick buildings filling both sides of the road. It was a short walk down this road before they were met with the imposing view of the Royal Albert Hall.
A wide and open aired area had been cut out of the street and paved with white and grey stones, with deep green trees and hedges behind stone fences. They walked up 3 flights of stone steps before reaching a large rectangular plinth with 4 bronze statues situated on each corner and a fifth on a central pillar that rose above the others.
Behind the statues, and up another set of white stone stairs, was the grand architecture of an entrance hall, jutting out from the circular theatre behind it. The entrance hall was as tall as most of the surrounding buildings, yet the peak of the dome was still much higher, rising above all but the spires of nearby structures.
Charlotte and Victoria slowly approached the glass entryway, partly because they were busy looking and admiring the building but also because there seemed to be a small queue of people that were slowly being admitted through the doors. The doors looked like they were guarded by girls in what Charlotte presumed was a normal red blazer uniform of a staff worker.
As they approached they managed to reach the queue when it had emptied and Victoria moved forward and caught the attention of one of the attendants. A girl with long black hair, held in a bun on the back of her head with an ornate pin, who seemed younger than Charlotte was. The hairpin caught Charlotte's attention more than anything, due to the shining pink gemstone inlaid into the back of the hairpin.
"May I help you today?" She spoke clearly and loudly her eyes locked onto Victoria and with a smile on her face.
"We're here for an event at 1pm." Victoria had hesitated a moment before slowly speaking, as if figuring what she was saying word by word. To Charlotte it sounded as if Victoria was trying to be as vague as possible.
Without a second of hesitation the reply came, "Do you perchance have a name or an invitation?" With a slight bow of the head and an outstretched hand.
Charlotte quickly threw her back off her shoulders and dug in for the envelope which contained the black paper letter. "A Lady Penelope Hanover if I'm correct." Victoria replied whilst Charlotte was pulling the letter out of the envelope and handing it, folded up still, towards the attendant.
The attendant took a quick glance at the paper in Charlotte's hand, but didn't take it from her nor did she ask for it to be opened. She simply moved her hand away and nodded in acknowledgement, "Through the doors, stairs on your left and you shall find a familiar entrance above. Thank you for your time." And with a short bow the attendant moved to the side and walked past Charlotte and Victoria, presumably to someone behind them.
Charlotte was caught of guard by the abruptness and was frantically trying to put the letter back away in her bag at the same time as walking to the doors. Victoria stepped ahead and pulled the glass door open wide, so that Charlotte could enter, Victoria filed in close behind her. She managed to close up her bag and throw it over one shoulder, not bothering with the other shoulder, and took a quick look around before continuing to move.
Directly to both sides of them were stairs that led forward and turned inward up to a landing high above them, both sets of stairs seemed to lead to opposite ends of the same place. Directly in front of them seemed to be a small lounge and restaurant area, although it was cordoned off and with no lights on, it seemed closed.
They took a cautious pace up the stairs, with Charlotte sticking as close to the left side so that she was up against the wall. As they rose up the stairs, Charlotte could hear and feel a low pitched humming noise coming from her necklace, signalling that a labyrinth entrance was nearby. It was different to the constant pulsing that continued from the gemstone, yet as the humming sound intensified the pulsing did not. As they reached the top of the staircase both Charlotte and Victoria could hear each other's gemstones humming.
By the time they reached the top Charlotte had already pulled out the necklace from under her shirt and was holding it tightly in her right hand. She had also shifted to moving up the stairs with the left of her body twisted to be ahead, with her free left arm held horizontally in front of her. Victoria had gone slightly further and had pulled the clasp off the back of her necklace off and had put her ring onto her left hand, the stone on it glowing fiercely.
They reached the top of the stairs and instantly saw what was causing their gemstones to react. The mezzanine was wood panelled, compared to the metal staircases, and was wide with multiple chairs lining the sides and there was a red painted wall opposite the staircases and overlook railings. In the middle of that wall was an open doorway with another of the uniformed attendants standing to the right of it.
Where there should have been an opening to a room or corridor behind the doorway, there was instead a glowing pink circle. In the centre was what seemed like a flattened butterfly, with bright green wings that seemed to move in slow motion as if still fluttering. Around the pink circle was a ring of cartoon like, golden lions which had blue claws. This outer ring was lazily spinning around, as if the lions were sluggishly chasing after the tail of the one in front of it.
Charlotte abruptly came to a stop. She knew that normal people couldn't directly see labyrinth entrances, but it was unsettling that there was one in such a public space, especially after being directed towards it in such a strangely calm and polite manner. Yet, she hesitated on calling forth her magical powers, not quite sure what to do. To her side Victoria was also frozen to the spot and looked indecisive.
The attendant had spotted them and rushed forward, with both her hands up and shaking from side to side. "Please, no magic here. It's perfectly safe!" The girl sounded a mixture of both frantic and exhausted, as if she had said the same thing many times already.
While Charlotte wasn't wholly convinced by the girl's plea, she did loosen her grip around her gemstone and moved her attention from the entrance to the attendant. And although the blue glow coming from Victoria's ring seemed to dim she remained tense and her body positioned as if she was about to jump forward into a fight.
"How can a labyrinth be safe?" Victoria launched at the girl in a dangerous and accusatory tone.
The girl stopped approaching them and looked taken aback by the harshness from Victoria. "We managed to capture the Witch inside, and it doesn't create any harmful familiars." The girl managed to compose herself as she was talking and shifted to a tone not too far from prideful.
"We?" Charlotte posed her question in a softer manner than Victoria had. The idea that a Witch could be captured, or that anyone would even want to do so was insane to Charlotte. But she had many years experience dealing with witches. Meaning that, captured or not, it wouldn't pose much problem. On the other hand, she knew nothing about this magical girl or the group she and the other attendants outside seemingly belonged to.
The response came fast, "The 1st London Magical squad, we're responsible for dealing with witches in most of inner London." Whatever this group was, the girl spoke its name with a degree of pride and respect.. Victoria threw out a short derisive laugh and was shaking her head in disbelief, but Charlotte noticed that she was slightly more relaxed.
The girl returned Victoria's laugh with a deadly serious glare. "Straight down the hallway, doors on the left and right lead to the ground floor seats. And again, no magic once inside." The girl had moved to the side somewhat and with an exaggerated arm movement gestured the two of them to the entrance.
Charlotte wasn't ready for the girl to end the conversation in such an abrupt way, but it wasn't completely surprising. For a moment the three of them stood there in silence, the girl still glaring in Victoria's direction and Victoria looking as if she was about to say something. Although, before she could think of what to say, Charlotte grabbed her left arm and started pulling her forwards and towards the Labyrinth entrance.
"Thank you." Charlotte said awkwardly as they passed by the attendant, in part out of polite habit but also thinking it was a bad idea to be further rude to their hosts. Victoria on the other hand didn't say anything and looked straight ahead. And although she didn't resist to Charlotte pulling her forward, she did manage to readjust her arm in Charlotte's grip so that they were instead holding hands.
When they reached the entrance, Charlotte hesitated in front of it, her instincts and experience were shouting at her to not go through. Especially since neither her or Victoria knew what they would be walking into on the other side. Victoria seemed to have no such hesitation and it was now Charlotte's turn to be pulled forward into the labyrinth.
There was a moment of weightlessness and blinding white light, a sensation like being disconnected from the world. This faded and Charlotte's eyes had to adjust to a much darker environment, the light from the sun replaced by the dim glow of gas lamps.
As promised, they had walked into a reasonably narrow and long hallway, only just about wide enough for the two of them to walk down it side by side. At the other end, Charlotte could see three open doorways, one straight ahead and two that turned off to the sides.
The walls were painted a dark red colour, only broken by the painted outlines of light pink flower heads. And yet, whilst the flowers seemed to be painted in the same way as the red backing, they were slowly floating and bobbing up and down across the wall. It was as if the flowers were caught in a gentle breeze, not that Charlotte could feel the air moving at all.
Attached to the wall, sizeable intervals apart, were gas lamps made of a pinkish white metal arm and a frosted glass shade. The flame inside the lamps was burning a bright yellow orange colour, yet it seemed as if it gave off no light to anything around it and the intensity of the light only growing the further from the lamp it got.
The light just about illuminated the low ceiling, barely an arms length above the lamps. Huge flower heads made up the entirety of the space, seemingly carved out of what looked like blocks of white marble. Each flower overlapped its petals with the ones adjacent to it and curved downwards where it connected to the side walls.
The relative quiet of the world they had just left behind had also been broken. The sound of a grand piano echoed around them, a slow mournful tune that was punctuated by the lamps dimming between notes. To Charlotte the music seemed to have no direction to it, as if it was originating from the walls around her.
Charlotte had gotten used to the feeling that accompanied entering a labyrinth, but the surreal nature of the environments never faltered. She paused in place for a few moments, waiting and wondering if anything was about to jump out to attack them, although when no such attack came she turned towards Victoria.
"You didn't have to laugh at her you know?" Charlotte grabbed Victoria's hand, which had come loose when they entered the labyrinth, and slowly pulled the two of them forward in a slow walk.
Victoria started laughing again. "They've given themselves names as if they're a local scout group. Next they'll be giving out fancy coloured badges for beating witches or for how many people they've helped to cross the road."
Charlotte at least understood the absurdity that Victoria was reacting to. As magical girls they were all forced to fight and risk their lives in order to survive. Likening it to regional youth groups felt like a disconnect from the reality that they faced.
"Don't act like you wouldn't like badges." Charlotte responded before Victoria had the chance to continue.
"That's beside the point." The mocking nature of Victoria's words had softened to a much more relaxed and amused tone. "Lets just get inside and I promise I'll not to laugh at anyone else." Victoria's words seemed sincere, so when she sped up in pace Charlotte let her pull her forward along with her.
It didn't take them very long reach the end of the hallway, feeling as if the area itself was getting smaller with each step forward they took. To their sides the two doorways opened onto extremely steep staircases, with each step being barely wide enough to stand on and the distance between each step shrouded in shadow. Charlotte got the impression that she was meant to move down it like she would with a ladder.
In front of them, through the third doorway, was a smooth ramp that descended at a steepness only slightly less than the stairs. The ramp was an inversion of the hallway they had just walked, with a polished wooden floor flanked on either side by small strips of velvet carpet.
The light from the gas lamps barely reached inside the entrances. Only allowing Charlotte to see a few meters inside each, before what looked like a wall of shadow blocked view from the remainder of whatever was actually there.
"I vote we slide." Victoria said, and without any warning she threw herself forward and down onto the ramp, pulling Charlotte down with her. Charlotte reacted with a surprised cry as she fell forward, and only just managing to move her legs in time to stop her falling face forward and instead she managed to land on her side.
The two of them slid forward at an alarming speed, as if there was no friction with the floor below them. Charlotte had was disoriented from the abrupt, but she had lost all sense of position and direction in the pitch blackness. There was a strange absence of rushing air leaving the speeding floor beneath them as Charlotte's only indication of movement.
This lasted barely more than a few seconds before Charlotte hit what felt like a rounded section of wall, bouncing her off into a well lit area. Even with her eyes taking a moment to adjust, Charlotte could see that they had been thrown into the back of a seating area in a grand auditorium. There was 4 rows of expensively furnished, red fabric, seating ahead of them that spanned both sides forming into a large semi circle. There was a dark wooden floor a few meters above their heads, and a short balcony with railings in front of the rows of seating made Charlotte assume there was another floor below them.
Pushing herself up from the floor gave Charlotte a much better view of their surroundings. They had slid down onto a narrow gangway at the centre of all the seating on that floor, with the vast majority of the seats already being taken up all the way around circle. Largely these seats were filled with lone girls who were keeping to themselves, with only a few areas taken up by groups who were quietly talking.
But more specifically she now had a clear line of sight to the stage below. The stage was expectedly large for such a theatre, although the flooring was made from a clear blue material that exposed a sea of shapes which glowed bright blue and purple. And whilst the rest of the theatre was covered by a more natural light, courtesy of hundreds of gas lanterns, there seemed a bubble of blue that wrapped around the stage and everything on it.
Near the front of the stage was a fairly simple lectern with a small microphone poking out from the top of it. The microphone's wire, trailing off to the side of the stage, being acutely visible by its blocking of the glow below. The rest of the space remained empty, leaving only the slowly shifting glowing shapes, up until the rear curtains that were draped all the way from the ceiling high above them.
Towards both sides of the curtain stood two groups of three Magical Girls, all with weapons of varying sorts summoned and held casually to their sides, who were talking amongst themselves. One of these girls, who looked as if she was talking between both the groups and giving out instructions, stood out in particular to Charlotte.
At this distance Charlotte wasn't able to see much but there was some details she could make out. She had long black hair that was floating in a disorganised mess around her head, as if gravity had stopped working and there was a swirling wind. This was accompanied by brightly coloured yellow chains wrapped around both of her outstretched her arms that had been pulled taught up above her and towards the centre of the curtain.
Charlotte's eyes followed the path of the chains from the girl all the way up to a huge shadow, barely shorter than ceiling above, in the distorted shape of a person sat hunched forward. The chains wove their way into the fabric of the curtain, losing their physical shape in the process, and latching around where the hands and neck of the shadow giant would be.
The shadow was sluggishly lurching back and forth, in particular pulling at the chains holding its arms in place. And whilst the chains jerked, with a surprising ferocity, the shadow's captor barely reacted, only slightly adjusting her arms to pull against the shadow.
"It feels wrong to have a witch like that." Charlotte was fairly certain that this was the Witch that was holding the labyrinth open and the one that fit the description of captured. And yet, even with her deep set hatred of Witches, she couldn't help but feel a wave of disgust at the sight.
Victoria took a moment before responding, in that time pulling her hand with her ring close to her chest, as if hesitating on making a decision. "They still put 6 people to guard it, even if they look relaxed." Charlotte's attention was instantly drawn to the severe tone that Victoria spoke with. A tone that had normally signalled that Victoria was about to rush into a fight. Although Victoria held still, staring down at the stage whilst the light from her ring pulsed rapidly at her chest.
"Lets just get to a seat and see what happens." Charlotte quickly moved and wrapped her arm around Victoria's, moving her ring away from her chest and pulling her forward. Victoria followed along with Charlotte, although it took a few seconds before she looked away from the stage and to where Charlotte was directing her.
Charlotte did what she could to avoid the already seated groups, taking the two of them in a winding direction through aisles to their left, until they reached an empty block of seats at the end of the third row from the back. From here they could see that the ground floor was packed with people, that were strangely quiet, but Charlotte could only see 2 girls sitting on the floor above them.
As the two of them took their seats Victoria spoke quietly, the tone of voice no longer one that worried Charlotte. "And now we wait."
They had been sitting in near silence for near to 25 minutes, watching as more and more people entered the theatre, leaving almost no spare seats on any floor. In that time someone had sat next to Victoria and the seats in front and behind both of them had been filled. Very few people seemed inclined to talk and so they had been left with only the echoing sound of the grand piano.
Very little changed on the stage, with the shadow witch continuing to pull against the chains and finding no success. This was until the remaining five magical girls spread out from their groups and formed a formation in front of the curtain, each an equal distance apart and all standing in an alert position.
This movement caught everyone's attention, and Charlotte noticed a ripple across the crowd as people shifted in their seats. Similarly Charlotte pulled herself up straight in her chair and Victoria took in a deep breath and moved her arms around to make sure she was properly awake.
There was a few moments where nothing happened, but out from the left side of the stage came 3 girls at a fast pace. The shortest of the three, and now the only one on stage without a weapon, lead from the front and the other two were a few steps behind and on each of her flanks.
Even from how far away Charlotte was, she could tell that she was much shorter than most of the other girls on the stage and was most likely much younger than the rest. She had shoulder length hair that was a light shade of brown, pulled tight away from her face by a white headband. Other than her height, she stood out by the simplicity and lack of colour in her clothes. Wearing a black buttoned up blazer over a white shirt along with a light brown pleated skirt, leading down to black tights and shoes.
Charlotte also noticed that she couldn't see any kind of jewellery or gemstones on the girl's attire. Normal people could enter labyrinths, but Charlotte had never seen a normal person fully conscious or in control of their actions inside a labyrinth, always being controlled in some way by a Witch or a familiar. Meaning that, unless the girl was hiding her gemstone, there was some exceptional circumstances surrounding her.
Behind her and to her left was a girl with canary yellow hair that was tied off into two twin tails that reached all the way down to her waist. She was wearing an oversized, orange hoodie that reached all the way down to her knees, combining with florescent green ankle boots below. Around the neck of the jumper was a large red bow-tie ribbon, with the ends extending down to the girls stomach, with a bright yellow gemstone set in golden brooch in the centre of the bow-tie.
The girl held, what Charlotte presumed were weapons, in both of her hands. The girl held onto a shining silver handle with knife like blades that protruded from each side of the handle. In both hands the blade pointed forwards was coloured a dark red, with the rear blade coloured a bright blue.
And while this girl held an amount of importance, Charlotte could see her nervously fidgeting with her blades, flipping them back and forth. As the three of them walked she was also refusing to look forward towards the amassed crowd, only ever looking between the floor and the third girl to her right.
This last girl walked with confidence and was pointedly looking at the crowd ahead, slowly panning her head around as she walked. In her right hand she was carrying a longsword, that was still sheathed inside a shining black scabbard, with her hand holding where the middle of the blade would have been. Charlotte couldn't see the blade itself, but the handle and cross-guard seemed to have been made from jagged black rocks, capped off by a roughly cut grey stone pommel.
From the neck down, a non reflective material covered the girl's body like a bodysuit. The material was black all across except for a cyan blue glove that reached up her left hand and up to her elbow. Off of her shoulders, arms and back of her legs the black material protruded outwards in a way that looked like spikes or rock growing off from her body.
She had cyan coloured hair that fell to around her shoulders and whilst it was mostly straight, there was a visible number of curled strands of hair. On the left side of her chest a bright cyan gemstone was situated, surrounded by the black material's spikes pointing outwards from it, which pinned a blue sash that wrapped around her body multiple times and down her right leg where it was eventually pinned near her ankle by the protruding spikes.
The lead girl soon reached the lectern and got her self into position and adjusted the microphone down to her height. And although the third girl had come to a stop a few steps behind the lectern, she was joined by the girl with knives, who knelt to the side of the lectern. She then placed the red part of her left blade onto the wire trailing out of the lectern, followed by flipping over the blade in her right hand and placing the blue half of that blade further down the wire.
"Good afternoon everyone and thank you for coming." The girl at the lectern started speaking and it sounded as if her voice was emanating from only a short distance in front of Charlotte, rather than from the stage or any speakers above. She spoke in a clear voice although a bit awkward in delivery, with what Charlotte would consider a notably posh accent. "I've been assured by Rosalie here that my words are being translated as I speak." She gestured to the girl knelt by her side.
"I believe there's a significant German contingent we can rely on to confirm this, if they would be so kind?" She pointedly looked around the audience as she invited a reaction. It took a few seconds, but there was a few shouts from the crowd and she could see a group on the ground floor raising their hands in acknowledgement. "Wonderful, thank you."
"As for introductions. My name is Penelope Hannover, which you may recognise from the invitations sent to you all. To my left here is Rosalie and to my right is Calista, the lead of the local London Magical girl squads." Penelope gave a brief turn and nod to each of the girls as she mentioned them.
"With the blessing of Calista and her many protectors, I have invited you all here to give you forewarning and explanation as to how all of our lives shall soon change." Charlotte noticed a tone of reverence when Penelope spoke of Calista, as if she were referring to a deity.
Penelope waited a few moments, as if expecting an interruption or reaction from the crowd, but when none came she continued. "It was not long ago now that I met Calista when she rescued me from a fire caused by a Witch. In normal circumstances I would never have become aware of Calista's actions, nor would I have learnt of the magic that had both endangered and saved me that day."
"I have had the good fortune to be an exception to the normality of the secrecy that divides the mundane world from the magical. An unjust and self imposed solitude that denies Magical Girls the recognition and status that they deserve. It tears selfless girls from their families and friends, denies them any semblance of a normal life. Only allowing them to find solace with the small number of other Magical girls that they may be in direct competition against." Penelope continued her monologue with barely any pauses for breath.
"Yet the cause for this terrible state lies solely within the fear of retribution and persecution from the society around us all. The fear of being beaten and burnt at the stake. Fear of being imprisoned and forced into torturous mental institutions. Fear of being forever forced out from their homes. All carried out by adults and misguided teens who would label you as evil, without any idea of the truth."
Charlotte could hear a change in Penelope's voice as she spoke, getting less and less steady and with more emotion behind her words. Yet while she felt like Penelope had a strange focus and motive against the idea of them hiding their magic, whilst at the same time ignoring what Charlotte felt were much worse shared worries.
Penelope paused for a moment, once again scanning the audience and giving a quick glance to Calista to her side, who gave a slight nod, before continuing. "The only way to give you all the chance to live without hiding yourselves away would be to change society from its base. But such a change would require a miracle, act of god or a world shattering event. Perhaps even a wish granted."
It was a this point that Charlotte connected the contents of the invitation letter they had received and what Penelope had been saying. Penelope was aiming towards making a contract with Kyubey and making a wish, which explained why she in particular, as a normal girl, was giving this speech. It seemed that other people had also started to realise what was happening as a wave of whispers rose from all around the crowd.
"I believe with the correct wish to Kyubey that this can be changed and Magical Girls will no longer need to hide." Penelope's voice turned to that of a child giddy with excitement, as if they had figured out the solution to a problem they had been stuck on.
"This will entail completely removing adults from their position of power and authority. Whilst leaving everyone else reliant on Magical Girls' powers to survive." The excitement once again blended into what Charlotte thought of as almost a reverential daze. "I expect that this will have an immediate and long lasting effect."
"Part of why we have invited you all here today is to gather as many experienced and skilled Magical Girls in one place. So that when the time comes we will all be able work together to more effectively create an area where Magical Girls are in control of the situation. This would be led by Calista and her squads around London, with the hope that with enough support we can claim an area of control that reaches far outside of London."
Penelope stopped talking for a few seconds and the crowd quickly erupted with people talking, much louder than the previous whispers, with some shouts directed towards the stage. From the random amounts that Charlotte could hear, this outburst consisted of a mixture of anger, confusion, distress and a not so small amount of approval.
Even without Penelope specifically stating what she intended to wish for, it was clear to Charlotte that it was going to cause a horrible chaos. The suggestion that people would be forced to rely on magical girls had stood out in particular to Charlotte and she hated the sound of it. The only situation she could think of that would fit that goal would involve completely erasing adults from the world. And while Charlotte was well aware of Kyubey's ability to grant wishes that seemed like god sent miracles, she couldn't quite believe that Kyubey would or even could achieve something like this.
Charlotte glanced to her side at Victoria. Her eyes were locked forward, unblinking, onto the stage with a grim expression across her face. Charlotte assumed that she had come to a similar conclusion as her, but unlike her own growing worry Victoria looked as if she was preparing to do something. Her ring was once again glowing brightly and she was slowly leaning forward from her chair. Not completely sure whether she would actually stop Victoria or not yet, Charlotte moved her arm over and held onto Victoria's arm. But Victoria had already stopped and slowly leaned back into her chair.
A look back to the stage told Charlotte why Victoria had stopped. Calista had moved forward and had her sword partially drawn from its sheath, revealing a black blade. The Witch's guards behind them had also moved forward, all with their weapons moving to a ready position. More armed girls were making their way out from the sides of the stage, moving towards Penelope who had stepped back from the lectern slightly.
In the audience on the bottom floor Charlotte spotted multiple girls who had transformed and pulled out their own weapons. Most of them were standing and shouting towards the stage, whilst two of them had rushed from their seats and were currently standing in the gangways that lead up to the stage, the presence of so many opposing Magical girls deterring them from moving further.
Penelope had somewhat regained her composure and stood back up to the lectern to speak, "Please, we are only seeking to help. There is no simple or easy way to achieve such a monumental goal." The reverential excitement had been broken, replaced by exasperated pleading. "There will be some pain and difficulty associated, but nothing that as bad as what you Magical Girls live through already. And especially it will be much more manageable if you cooperate with us."
Charlotte's grip on Victoria's arm tightened and her focus moved solely back to Penelope. A girl who seemed many years younger than her, who hadn't lived a life of survival against Witches, making assertions about what their experiences had been like. And most of all she felt a wave of revulsion at the idea that, Penelope causing chaos and very likely tearing people from friends and family, was somehow going to be a lesser pain for all of them.
This time it was Victoria who twisted in her seat and placed her free hand over Charlotte's tightening grip. She leaned forward so that she was close enough for Charlotte to properly hear her over the growing shouts around the theatre, whilst also partly blocking Charlotte's view of the stage. "Let's just leave, we don't need to hear any more of this." Victoria made no attempt to hide the disgust and contempt in her voice.
Charlotte had heard Victoria but was still staring down at the stage, as if unable to look away from Penelope. This led to Victoria standing up and placing herself directly in front of Charlotte, whilst also pulling Charlotte's arm forward and up. Charlotte sat still for a moment, simply staring absently at Victoria's stomach that was now in her way before she looked up at Victoria.
Victoria had a clear look of annoyance, but she managed a small smile towards Charlotte. Penelope had started talking again, but for Charlotte it was now no more than just background noise amongst a loud crowd. Doing what she could to ignore what was being said, Charlotte let Victoria pull her up onto her feet and guide her out through the seats to the gangway they had first entered from.
Before they made their way to the exit doors at the rear, Charlotte looked back down towards the stage. It was now filled with armed Magical Girls formed up in front of Penelope, along with the Witch in the back heaving itself backwards and forwards at an increasing speed. The scene was a mixture of unsettling and sickening to Charlotte, the complete opposite feeling she should feel at seeing Magical Girls together. Yet Victoria was right, there was no way that either of them would go along with Penelope's plan and there didn't seem to be a safe way of stopping Penelope now, so it was best to simply leave.
Charlotte turned from the stage, and being led by Victoria in front of her, walked up the gangway to the doors at the rear of the seating and to the exit of the theatre.