The place is beautiful.

Everything that can be ornamented is ornamented. The ceiling is dominated by an incredible chandelier, with strings of glass and pearl and lightbulbs extending away from the central medusa of the fixture in all directions and dangling halfway down the thirty-foot walls. The walls are full of stained glass windows depicting sunrises, waterfalls, snowy mountains, stormy seascapes, and other scenic backdrops with magical girls posed dramatically in the foreground. The pews are all different - some are wood, some are ivory, some are cast metal, some are nacre, some are glass, and every one of them is shaped like a cryptid, mostly long sinuous ones that can accommodate the seat they're oriented around. The floor is tile, mostly ivory and nacre with some brightly colored coral making stars and other geometric designs at irregular intervals. The bits of wall that aren't taken up by window are, as space permits, covered both in framed paintings and wall scrolls, and in a few places bulletin boards cluttered with the artwork of various people. Skill varies, but the bulletin boards themselves are composed nicely, with the best pieces placed to draw the eye.

Oh.

This is the most beautiful place in the world, probably. No wonder the unicorn wanted to come in. 

She falls back onto her knees and gapes around for a while. 

The unicorn trots over to a pew that has, tucked under the seat, a bowl of water and a bowl of what looks like bean salad. It drinks some water and munches some bean salad.

That makes sense. 

She follows it over and lies down on the pew. 

The pew doesn't have a cushion on it; it's shaped to be comfortable for sitting, not lying. But it's long enough to accommodate her.

It's still better than a roof. 

She falls asleep without quite meaning to. 

When she wakes up again, there's a crazy quilt in jewel tones draped over her and a magical girl with wings in flame colors peering at her over the back of the pew in front of hers. The unicorn is nowhere to be seen.

She eeps and scrambles away from the grownup. 

"Hey there," says the grownup. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Yes ma'am."

"I'm Veronica."

"Hello Veronica."

"Welcome to my church."

"This is a church?"

"Yup. First Church of Thaumatology in Reuterville."

"I've never seen a church this pretty before."

"Thaumatologist churches are always as pretty as we can get them. God loves beauty."

"I've never heard anything about that. I've never been to a Thaumatologist church though."

"Did you just get your magic recently?"

Nod. 

"Did you go out for a fly and get lost?"

"No."

"No?"

"Don't make me go back."

"Do you live somewhere bad, kiddo?"