My First Discovery!

The strangely chained up girl D’claire-na stared past me at Fool’s Knight, it hadn’t immediately hit me that she had heard him and responded to him.
I look at Fool’s Knight and ask him in my mind to ask her how she can hear him. His helmet nods, then he calls over, “How is it you can hear me?”
D’Claire-na head rolls around on her shoulders as she seemingly picks her words. “I am able to understand the Spawn, it is my special little Magical Girl gift.”
“I am my lady’s loyal knight, I am no Spawn.” Knight argues, almost offended sounding.
“We are all cut from the same cloth. Both Spawn and Magical Girls originate from the flesh of man mutated via the cocoon sickness. We are just the accepted form of Spawn as we serve this world not theirs.”
“I want to know why she is chained up.” I say to Fool’s Knight. He repeats my question for me.
“It is a curse actually. I am unable to let either chain ever stop touching the ground, if either did I would immediately perish.” She holds an arm out shaking it side to side making the chain sway slightly between her and the ground.Fool’s Knight and I are synced in what we want to ask. “How do you know that?”
“I suppose I don’t. It’s something you feel rather than know. One moment they were just some girl’s weird chains, then next thing you know they’re on you and you feel it in your soul you’re about to die if you don’t make sure those chains are touching the ground.”
“You said “weird girl”?”
She smiles for the first time, “Yeah, sorry I can’t tell you her name, but she certainly is a prized pet of MGI, they brought her to meet me and place this curse on me. Why they did it I still don’t know, maybe I did something wrong, maybe they just wanted me locked down better so I could never be used against them.” Her smile slowly dropped back into a resting flatness. “If you were to want this curse all it would take is touching these chains, then we’d be chained here together until MGI says something.”
I instinctively take a step back. D’Claire-na makes a sound akin to a dusty chuckle. “Yeah, I don’t blame you there, I wouldn’t wish this paranoia on anyone.”
“Is there a way for us to help you?” We ask her hoping perhaps there is something we can do.
She just shakes her head, “Nothing at all. It was nice of you to stop by, but really you should get going before anyone notices you’ve wandered here somehow.”
 I still have questions, I don’t want to leave so soon! “Why has MGI brought you to our building just to hide you here?”
“They didn’t bring me here, this is just where I was when they had the curse placed on me. I’m from a previous Marrowvile occupancy.”
“There were previous teams here?”
“A couple attempts yeah, the people of this town need protection just like anyone else. They move girls around so much, teams end up moving towns a few times before they find their forever spot.”
I think of Tikki and how this wasn’t her first team, but I had thought of her situation more as an outlier than the average experience. I don’t know why I am surprised to think there were other teams here before us, I suppose it had just never crossed my mind that it could be a possibility. “And they just left you here? Wherever here is.”
“This is B3, kinda like a secret floor except all the staff know about it as an unofficial storage floor. And yeah, they left me, I can’t leave without letting my chains leave the floor.”“How long have you been down here?” We ask, nervous of how possibly long MGI would allow one of their talents to stand collecting dust.
She slowly raises a chained hand to her cheek, picking at it thinking. “Three years or maybe only two. That’s my guess.”
Has she really been here since near the beginning of MGI’s operations? That can’t be, being in the dark so long she must have felt like she’d been here far longer than she really has been.
I think about what else there is I can ask this strange girl. “Ask her if she stole my clothes, just to be sure.” Fool’s Knight doesn’t immediately do as I ask, staring at me silently as if to gauge if I am serious. After a moment of staring he repeats my question about my clothes.
D’Claire-na shakes her head, chains rattling. “I’m not the one who took them. I do know who did though.”
“How could you possibly know who did it?” Fool’s Knight asks for me.
She cracks that smile again, clearly amused to get to brag about what she knows. “The same way I know your name Sophia. Let’s just chalk it up to me being able to know the goings-on of everything inside this office building.”
“So…Who did it?” I await my culprit's identity.
“Are you sure you want that spoiler? Maybe it is better for you to figure it out on your own?” She teases me that she knows yet now tries to withhold that info.
“We are certain we want to know what is going on with my clothes getting stolen.”
D’Claire-na shrugs to the tune of chain sounds. “Doctor Kris took them. Well, she took them on behalf of the MGI team who want to test how you’ll deal with the situation.”
I was shocked to hear Doctor Kris was here!? I thought I might not ever see her again unless I went back to the Lab building. “What exactly are they hoping to see with this sort of test?”
“They want to see if you can let it go, as well as if you’ll turn on your teammates and not believe them when they said they didn’t do it.”
“I really liked that jumper skirt! How can I just fully let it go!?”
“As a Magical Girl you are bound to lose things you care about, that especially includes people. They want to make sure when that day comes you’ll be able to put on a brave face and keep fighting.”
Maybe learning this sucks more than just never knowing. “Thanks for letting me know…”
A clattering of chains sounded around the room as D’Claire-na clapped her hands together. “Well I’m afraid that’s all the time we can both afford. I am expecting someone and you are about to be requested for a special mission for tomorrow. Off you go Soapy! Get back to the elevator and we’ll make sure it takes you back to the dorm floor.”
I want to ask who she could possibly be expecting but I sense her severity and so just bow a thank you and take off back into the darkness. I followed along the wall I had come from, waiting to feel the turn to get back to the elevator. As I continue forward towards that turn in complete darkness, I can’t help hearing what sounds like something with multiple long legs cracking against the floor as it moves. The sound gets closer before it passes by me without a word heading towards D’Claire-na’s room. What that was is not something I want to really think about. My heart feels heavy as I think about D’Claire-na saying she was expecting someone. There couldn’t possibly be any…Spawn..in a Magical Girl’s office now could there?
I make it to the turn and follow along the next wall, my steps picking up pace as I want to get further away from that room and whoever was there to see D’Claire-na.
I see the slight glow of the elevator, and dash into its open doors. Once I’m inside the doors close and we begin moving upward. The doors eventually open after a moment and we are back on the dorm floor just as D’Claire-na said it would. How was she controlling the elevator? There truly seems to be deeper mysteries surrounding that girl. Perhaps I’ll visit her again sometime.
I walk out of the elevator and head down the hall to my room. I’m almost at the door when a voice from behind me calls my name. I turn around to see Miss Gretchen.
“Sophia, perfect I was just about to come get you. You and Marcia are going somewhere tomorrow, okay? Special sort of mission MGI is trusting you two with, good chance for you to show them your skills.”
I nod and give a thumbs up. I want to ask for more details but she begins to walk off towards Marcia’s room. Calling back to me, “I’ll take you two to your mission right after tomorrow’s morning meeting, so just get there in the morning and we’ll go from there!”
I keep walking down the hall and get into my room, flopping down on my bed once again. The day is barely halfway over and yet I feel so tired I don’t think I want to move at all. It feels like I’ve done a full day’s adventure despite it only taking till the afternoon. I end up falling asleep on the edge of my bed, napping until evening.
I awoke with a foggy recollection of throwing myself on the side of the bed and feeling tired, but I don’t remember actually falling asleep. I might as well leave my room and take a bath or something, I don’t really know what else I feel like doing.
So I do just that, I end up settling into a warm bath and chatting with Marcia and Clarice who were there as well. We don’t chat about anything all that interesting, but it did feel nice getting to just relax alongside my teammates.
Marcia and I did discuss what sort of mission we were going on tomorrow and why we thought Clarice was being excluded. Clarice and King seemed indifferent about being left out, they claimed they were still binging some tv show so they were happy to be given more free time. 
Once I felt I was done in the bath I got out and said my goodnights to Marcia who was still there. I headed back to my room and put on my pajamas and climbed into my cozy bed where I promptly passed out.