Prose Magica: The Ballad of the Seventeenth Part 1

One thousand five hundred feet above the ground, Odette stared out over the city. It constantly amazed her how beautiful the city was at night, like her own private light show. Yellows, reds, blues - all of it melding together to form one perfect work of art. She always tried to find time to look at it, her little notepad clutched to her less than outstanding chest. The nightlife of the city had always fuelled her poetry in the past, so why had it been over a month since she had written anything?

Still, the sight set her at ease. Odette never got enough of watching the window lights and cars whizzing to and fro; she couldn't help but wonder about the lives of all the people she was silently watching over. Every single little dot was a person with a life of their own. How wonderful it might have been if she could still be among them.

The girl watched quietly, her one eye darting back and forth as different lights caught her attention. Most of the time, she preferred to remove her eyepatch while she was busy city-gazing. It made her more comfortable for some reason. Odette brushed a strand of her short, messy silvery-white hair from her face and let out a soft sigh as her small body pressed up against the railing. If only the sight could last forever.

A soft hiss broke the silence in the small chamber as the elevator slid open. Odette quietly fastened her eyepatch back in place before moving back from the windows.

The person inside giggled softly as she stepped out of the elevator. “Good evening, madam.”

Odette snorted as she turned to face her new companion. The other girl was tall, womanly and elegant, everything that Odette wasn't. Her long, straight blonde hair ran down the length of her back while two bright blue eyes peered out from under parted bangs.

“Gerty,” the small one-eyed girl greeted her. “What brings you here?”

The blonde girl smiled gently as she produced a large manila envelope from her pocket, a small heart sticker sealing it. "You have a new assignment. I was told you would appreciate it."

Odette snickered to herself. "I'm supposed to appreciate being allowed to do my job these days?"

"N-no, madam, it's just," Gerty looked down, searching for just the right words to make the best impression, "I was told this was something you were lobbying quite hard for. I-I meant no disrespe-"

"It's fine, it's fine," Odette reassured, raising a hand to silence the taller girl. "Is it about the disappearances?"

"I believe so, yes," the blonde said, trying her best not to stumble over her words.

"Good. Good," Odette replied as she stepped back up to the windows and leaned on the railing. "Expect a text from me in a few hours. I'll have work for you."

"Y-yes, thank you, madam," Gertrude said, giving a small curtsy as the elevator slid open. "I'll leave you to your business."

Odette thought for a moment, glancing down at her notepad quickly before looking back out over the city. The night was alive and here she was, cloistered away in a tiny little pod at the highest point in the city. Since when had this become routine? Hiding away from everyone but those few who she allowed herself to become close with? Years ago, Odette would have dreaded such an experience; being far and away from anyone she could speak to wasn't always her way.

Quietly, Odette turned back just as the other girl placed her first foot in the elevator. For the first time in as long as she could remember, Odette didn't want to be alone.

"Hey. Gerty," the one-eyed girl called back, her eyes cast slightly downward while trying her best to sound less pleading and more as though she were giving permission. "You don't have to go yet, if you don't want to."

Gertrude pulled her foot back and turned to the smaller girl, blinking several times as the thought ran through her mind. "M-madam?"

"Just, y'know," Odette shrugged slightly, turning her head away ever so slightly, "you can stick around for a bit. I don't really mind..."

Gertrude blinked several times before her eyes shot open and her face coloured bright red. "I-I would love to! I-if you would allow me, that is."

Odette nodded wordlessly as she turned back to the windows. The tall blonde took a spot beside her, leaning out over the railing and gazing out over the night. The two stood in silence for several minutes before either of them bothered speaking up.

"You're beginning to a get a reputation, you know," Gertrude said as she stared at the lights. "The great Odette. The shadow that watches over the city. No one ever sees you anymore. You're practically a myth among the newer girls."

Odette let out a short chuckle. "Funny, because half the time I'm the one scouting them out."

Gertrude nodded to herself. "Anyone who knows you well knows where to find you, anyways. It's not exactly a secret amongst the veterans."

"What can I say?" Odette smiled as she spoke. "I'm a creature of habit."

"I must ask, though," the blonde queried, "why is it that you keep my sister and I so close? Neither of us are particularly skilled or experienced..."

"Can't say. Guess I just like having lackeys," the shorter girl laughed. "I've heard they've started calling the two of you 'Odette's Hounds'. That true?"

"I-I hadn't heard that one," Gertrude mumbled, blushing.

Odette shrugged. "Might have just been some bullshit Lotte made up. How is Freddy, anyways?"

"My sister is... Well," Gertrude sighed, rolling her eyes, "she's about the same as usual. I can't say there's been anything too extraordinary going on with her."

"No news is good news, if you ask me," Odette replied.

Gertrude and Fredrica. Vindicare and Eversor. A rarity in the world of magical girls in that they were twins who had contracted together. While Gertrude could be called the model of a young lady, Fredrica was something else entirely. She was brash, crude and loud. It was always easy to pick her out in a crowd because of her black and blue hair and several facial piercings. Odette may have lost an eye, but she still shuddered at the thought of getting her lip or nose pierced. Total opposites the twins were. A perfect fighting force, each making up for the other's weaknesses.

A whirring came off from Gertrude's pocket just as the pair settled into a still silence. She pulled out her cellphone and skimmed through it hastily, brow furrowed as she read. "I'm terribly sorry, madam, but it appears my time is up."

"Ah, yeah," Odette responded, a hint of disappointment in her voice. "That's fine. I'll text you once I look over this."

Gertrude nodded as she stepped back from the window and tapped the elevator button. She thought in silence for a few moments before smiling to herself. "It was nice to talk to you, madam. Perhaps we could do this more often?"

"Yeah," Odette grinned, not turning away from the impressive view. "Yeah, I think that'd be nice."

"Until then, madam," the blonde girl replied as the elevator slid open.

Odette nodded. "Later, Gerty."

In a moment, the elevator closed and Odette was alone once again. She couldn't shake that feeling of loneliness, despite having chosen this self-imposed exile. Few close friends managed to stay in contact with her and fewer still ever stuck around long enough to have a meaningful conversation. After a long while of silence broken only by the occasional soft sigh, Odette tapped the button to call the elevator.

✱✱✱

Heidi Dalia. The Night Watcher of the Seventeenth. It was just past midnight as she stepped into the grimy, still alleyway. The pale girl let out a quiet breath as she leaned against a rough brick wall, pulling her long dark hair to her front. Heidi's pale skin practically glowed in the night light, tinted varying shades by the bright neon seeping into the corridor.

A second girl stood silently near the mouth of the alley. Freida Norton, a Callidus and well-known as one of the Officio's most beautiful, second only to one. Many had wondered if the beauty was faked, but one particular run-in with a Culexus proved that theory wrong. Her dirty blonde ponytail fluttered in the wind as cars soared down the busy street just outside the alley.

"You really want to take a break here?" Freida asked, holding herself as she shivered in the night air. "There's a Timmy's just down the street."

Heidi nodded, making a muffled noise of affirmation. The dark-haired girl fumbled around in the pockets of her black costume.

"Smells like hobo in here," the other girl commented, taking a few steps closer.

The quieter of the two searched her pockets for a few more moments before pulling out a small packaged wrapped in parchment paper.

"Is that- You made us lunch?" Freida asked incredulously.

Heidi nodded as she unravelled the package. A pair of plastic wrapped sandwiches. She wasn't terribly good at cooking, but sandwiches she could manage. Just as she removed the last of the paper, one of the two sandwiches fell from her grasp. With a quiet squeal of surprise, she bent down to pick it up amongst the dirty and grime of the alley floor. Dusting off the flecks of filth from the plastic, she held it a bit closer and handed the other to Freida.

But the other girl was nowhere to be found.

Heidi blinked several times before looking up and down the alley.

"F-Freida?" She asked the air.

Only the sound of traffic replied.

"A-are you there, Frieda?" She tried. "That's not funny!"

Nothing but the sound of cars and city life greeted her.

"Freida?"

✱✱✱

Odette sauntered down the busy streets, scowling. On the one night she just wanted to go home and drown her sorrows in sweets, they had to call her into the office. Even if it did pertain to her assignment, that night wasn't one she wanted to spend at work. She'd barely gotten a chance to look over the contents of the envelope. Worse yet, she'd forgotten where she'd parked.

It wasn't as though her car was generic looking or blended in easily. It couldn't be that hard to miss. Dark blue with chrome trimmings. Vanity plates that said 'SLPY SUE'. Eight wheels. Turret. Ten millimetres of armour. Fifty millimetre cannon on top. Kind of stood out in the big city.

Five minutes into her search, an idea struck Odette. She knew she was close, it was only a matter of figuring out the exact position of the car. With a jingle and a jangle, she pulled her keys from her pocket and pressed the lock button.

Bleep-bleep.

That high-pitched, delicate sound. Odette knew it well. It called to her. Sure enough, there it was, just as she rounded a street corner: ten tons of everything she loved about her job. Sleepy Sue, the Puma armoured car. Her pride and joy - and more often than not, her place to spend the night.

Odette hoisted herself up the metal bars running up to the turret and dropped down through the hatch. The inside of Sleepy Sue was always a surprise to those that had never been inside of her. The armoured car was entirely hollow, some might even say bigger on the inside than on the outside, and fairly well furnished to boot. On one end, near the back, was Odette's sleeping cot; the thin mattress seemed more suited to be a prison bed than anything permanent and some nights it sure felt like one. At the front end was her "desk", little more than a few planks of wood held up by some bricks, but it did its job.

In front of her desk, sitting on Odette's favourite beanbag chair, was an all-too-familiar young woman. Her hair was long, straight and blonde with uncut bangs framing her smiling face. Odette frowned at the other girl.

"Lotte," the one-eyed girl grumbled, "the hell are you doing in my car?"

"Just thought I'd stop by and visit my BFF!" The blonde grinned from ear to ear, face a bit red as she waved a bottle of Odette's good mead. "Saw ole Sue here and figured I'd invite myself in for a drink."

Odette scowled, taking a seat on her cot. "Not in the mood. Don't you have anything better to do? Politicians to assassinate? Candy to steal from babies?"

"Ah, come on, O!" Lotte laughed, slipping off the beanbag chair and crawling closer to Odette. "Why the grumps?"

"I don't have time to put up with your shit, Lotte," the one-eyed girl growled, her temper rising.

"Well that's just downright rude," Lotte said in mock offence, pushing herself up against Odette's side.

Odette bit her lip and closed her eyes, fists balling up as her anger simmered. Lotte had made sure all the right places were rubbing on her arm. The blonde wasn't entirely unappealing, Odette had to admit. Despite her forward personality, she had a body to die for; even Odette occasionally found herself staring with envy instead of... other emotions.

"You don't want me anymore?" Lotte whispered into Odette's ear, her breath slipping out like hot velvet. "After all the fun we had, you're just going to drop me like this?"

With a grunt, Odette got up and shoved the blonde off of her, moving to sit in her beanbag chair. She could never quite place her relationship with the other girl. Some nights she was a trusted confidante, the next a heated rival and a one-night fling the night after. Tonight, however, Odette simply wanted to finish her work and go home. She didn't like how her conversation with Gertrude had made her feel. It was alien and uncomfortable.

"Wha- Hey, O!" Lotte cried out. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was just foolin' around. Everything okay?"

Odette nodded as she pulled out the thick envelope. "'s fine. Just have work to do."

Sleepy Sue's engines roared to life as the silvery-haired girl began to mull over the envelope's contents. Reports, interrogation logs, evidence files, the works. It seemed as though the incubator had been busy with this investigation behind the scenes. At least he wasn't entirely as incompetent as he seemed.

"That fat bastard has you back at it again, huh?" Lotte sneered. "You know, the offer is still open."

"Told you a hundred times, no," Odette grumbled, flipping through paperwork. "I already made one deal with those cunts and that's a mistake I don't intend on repeating."

"It's not that bad," the blonde grinned, leaning back as she swirled the bottle of mead around. "Become warmaster again," Lotte paused and narrowed her eyes. “Get everything you need to bring down the Seventeenth. You're going to tell me that that doesn't sound appealing? After all he's done to you?"

Sure, it sounded appealing, Odette had to admit. Being stripped of her position as warmaster and left out of combat missions for two months and counting wasn't exactly something she enjoyed. Odette snorted out a laugh. "Aggressive, confrontational and conflict-mongering personality". There may have been one or two occasions where she almost got into a full-out brawl, sure. Like that one time with the warmaster of Russia. Or was it Japan? Even then, the two ended up having drinks right after. For a brief moment, Odette toyed with the idea of getting back in touch, but it seemed as though work was finally catching up.

"So you're just going to ignore me?" Lotte muttered as she took a swig from the bottle.

Odette nodded. "That was the plan, yeah."

"Cunt."

✱✱✱

It didn't take long at all before Sleepy Sue pulled up in front of the headquarters of the Seventeenth Officio. The perks of your usual haunt being only a few blocks away from your workplace, Odette supposed. The building was fairly busy, as it was most times of the day. What was unusual, however, was the amount of young girls entering and exiting. Usually one would see a magical girl head in or out once every ten minutes or so, but right now there seemed to be a constant flow of them.

Odette skimmed through the reports one final time before stuffing the envelope in her pocket and heaving herself up the ladder and out onto the curb. Lotte shortly followed suit, deftly climbing the ladder with one hand while holding the bottle of mead in the other. The one-eyed girl didn't bother questioning it as the blonde appeared. Some things were best left unknown.

"So, what did they call you in for?" Lotte asked, staring up at the massive skyscraper.

"Interrogation," Odette groaned. "Another went missing just an hour or two ago. Apparently, this girl was right beside her when she vanished. Name's Dalia."

"Dolly? Shit," Lotte sighed, shaking her head. "Heidi's a nice kid. Quiet, looks like she wants to tear out your guts, but that's just her natural face. Go easy on her."

The silver-haired girl nodded. "Yeah, I know her. Wouldn't hurt a fly."

Just as Lotte turned to leave, a thought crossed her mind. "Hey, O. You busy after this?"

"Why?" Odette asked, skeptical.

"You seem kinda down," the blonde shrugged, twirling the bottle around a bit. "Want me to stop by your apartment? Maybe I could cheer you up a bit."

Odette let out a long sigh. The offer was certainly better than what she had planned for the night. A warm bed was a few pegs above getting a cake and watching a movie alone.

The shorter girl shrugged in surrender. "Sure. Why not?"

Lotte returned a bright, sincere smile, beaming from ear to ear. She didn't look that genuinely pleased very often, but it was obvious when she did.

"Christ, you don't have to look so happy about it," Odette grumbled. "You perv."

"Whatever," Lotte waved Odette off as she turned to leave. "Spare key is taped above the hallway light, right?"

"I don't recall ever telling you that."

"Later, O! Have fun!" Lotte turned around to deliver a precision wink. "See you tonight!"

Odette muttered to herself as the blonde ran off. If only she didn't have to interrogate someone before she could go home. Especially someone who was likely terrified and traumatized by their ordeal. It wasn't often magical girls just went missing, if ever. As she wearily rubbed her eyes, Odette opened the doors to the First Canadian Place, headquarters of the Seventeenth Officio.