The next day, Maria received a summons from the ministry.
They came during the middle of morning classes, interrupting alchemy to tell her that they would need to escort her to the Ministry. She recognized one of them as the Light Magic wielder that had seen to Lady Claes' intravenous infusions. The other two she could not recognize, for they wore the full-plate black armor of the Royal Guard, which she thought was an absurd armor choice, especially on a clear, warm day. The only thing that distinguished them was that one carried a sword, while the other carried an axe.
They were very polite but very firm that she accompany them. Fortunately they agreed to let her inform another member of the student council so that they would take charge of council matters should this take longer than anticipated.
Everyone was surprised and intrigued when Lord Ascart, admired by many women, some men and a non-negligible number of small, cute, fluffy animals, was called out from the middle of Engineering class. Even Professor Mishtal, a middle-aged woman of nearly thirty, paused in her lesson as he (utterly failed to) discretely stepped out. When the rest of the class huddled at the doors and interior windows to watch was going on, she made no complaint except to use her status to get a good spot.
What they saw was Shocking! And Scandalous! And Shockingly Scandalous!
Maria Campbell. A rare wielder of Light Magic and a commoner to boot! At least one person in the class had gotten a bone broken before she had severely emphasized that assault on a member of the student council with magic, no matter how noble or highly ranked the assailant, would not be tolerated. Slightly better renown as one of the few people who was completely immune to the charms of the wonderful and virtuous saint, Katarina Claes (sigh). She was the one who had called out Lord Ascart (sigh, swoon), the man that other men were no gay to want since he was so pretty? How DARE she?!
(Not that they'd say that to her face, she might break their arm)
They couldn't hear what was said but words were exchanged. And then…
Everyone gasped! Shock! Surprise! Astonishment! Envy! They watched as Maria Campbell the scary commoner bowed and handed Lord Ascart a basket covered with a cloth… WHICH HE ACCEPTED?! Lord Ascart never accepted gifts! Were they… close? Intimate?! Scandalous!
They watched as Lord Ascart accepted the basket. Thy seemed to look deep into each other's eyes (according to later retellings), before Campbell bowed, Lord Ascart bowed, and Campbell walked off, while Lord Ascart… began to return to class!
Everyone, even professor Mishtal, tove for their desks.
"And that is why such and such is so and so!" Professor Mishtal said loudly, as everyone mimed studiously paying attention to class. The door opened, and Lord Ascart, carrying the basket, (utterly failed to) discretely stepped back inside, returning to his desk. His face was utterly unhelpful at giving anyone any sort of clue as what that had been all about.
And so begins the spread of rumor…
"Katarina, Miss Campbell said she might not be able to come to the student council room today," Nicol said, brandishing the basket in his hands, "so she asked me to give you your sweets as long as you promise to only eat them in the student council room."
Mary, Keith, and Sophia sighed. Even when she wasn't around, Campbell was a slave driver! They almost missed the days she didn't seem to like Katarina!
Responsibilities dispensed, Maria accompanied her escort to the Magic Ministry building. It looked different in the daylight. Less brooding and reminiscent of Yharnam. They entered, not an enormous pair of double doors at the top of at least three flights of stairs, but a smaller, more reasonable pair of double doors that looked like they were designed less to impress than to get large objects like desks and tables through easily. The sound of them closing behind her was not an ominous boom but a matter-of-fact rap of wood on wood, with a little creaking from hinges that needed a drop or two of oil due to heavy use.
Maria expected to be poked and prodded by doctors, academics and come out of this with surgical incisions and possibly a trepanning scar.
However, she was both pleasantly and unpleasantly surprised.
After a six hour interview in which she had to relate the same fifteen minutes of her life seemingly a hundred different times in as many different ways, as well as probing questions that verged on disrespectfully personal, Maria Campbell was officially put on probation as a non-malicious wielder of Dark Magic who would be watched by the Ministry and would have to report to them once a month.
She had never craved blood more. She'd even settle for alcohol at this point.
It wasn't all bad, however. When they finally let her go, it was without escort of guards. Only the Light Magic wielder accompanied her, who was no longer there in an official capacity but wanted to trade notes about their experiences with Light and Dark Magic at some future date and help her navigate to the door. As they passed an open atrium with a skylight at the top to let in light, Maria caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye. Pausing, she looked up.
Rafael Walt stared down at her. He started as their eyes met, then shyly waved. Maria waved back. Unnoticed by either, the Third Prince next to Rafael and the Light Magic wielder next to Maria exchanged looks and rolled their eyes.
Perhaps blood wasn't such a pressing need after all.
Several months passed, and several things happened during those months.
For one, the inane rumor that she had declared her love for Lord Ascart and they were planning to run away to Drang to get married at the shores of their famous lake somehow spread. It ended when a group of Lord Ascart's more addled, lust-mad and ardent admirers came to Maria, crossed a line and ended up getting their arms broken.
The student council was kept busy by the upcoming graduation ceremony. Maria discovered there was an unfortunate limit to how long she could get Lady Claes to stay in the student council room with sweets when all her friends were busy. Still, she did her best, making sure the girl wore a hat when going out to practice her strange agricultural hobby.
That day's snacks were forfeit, however, and Maria was pleased that while they were not as effective as they were on Lady Claes, the sweets were sufficient to mostly get the rest of the council to work.
She also tried making the blood cookies. And blood jelly cookies. And blood frosting cookies. And, in final desperation, bloodjelly cupcakes. Sadly, the strange properties of blood in this life meant they did not endure the baking process well, drying to a strange consistency that was completely unappealing. Her attempts to replicate blood cocktails were also put on hold.
Her experiments with alchemy to replicate gunpowder progressed rather well, however. Unfortunately, all experiments to create Blood Bullets failed utterly, as the thinness of the blood prevented them from being useable, or in fact even forming. Quicksilver bullets were completely out of the question, as the thinness of the blood resulted in there being no benefit to the process at all. Now, all she needed was to somehow attain enough money to commission a crude pistol for demonstration purposes, and she would be able to sell this idea to a backer for a source of revenue.
She also sent that letter to Duke and Duchess Claes care of Anne, who warned her she would not be able to keep Maria's identity secret should they insist. Maria debated not going through with it, but in the end relented. Lady Claes' well-being was at risk, and her parents should be warned of her circumstances if they were not already. She got the feeling Anne approved of this. Every little advantage helped. Never underestimate the influence of a trusted servant.
"Hey, guess who I ran into yesterday?" Lady Claes reported cheerfully as she entered the student council room. Everyone looked up at her approach, even Maria. "Rafael was here!"
Maria did not twitch. Obviously not. She was a hunter of beasts, and trained as a noble of Cainhurst, she was above such obvious physical tells.
"Hmm…" she onomatopoeiad disinterestedly.
"I asked him if he was going to be enrolling back to school but he said he'd be working at the Ministry from now on," Lady Claes continued. "And it turns out, Rafael was actually a Light Magic wielder! Just like Maria! Isn't that wonderful?"
It spoke of a strange correlation between noble bastards and Light Magic wielders to Maria's mind. Though did that mean it was possible to have Light Magic bleed true if– !
"I hope he comes to visit, I've really been missing his tea!"
Maria shook her head at such thoughts. Lady Claes' pursuers were clearly being a bad influence, she would never had such base thoughts otherwise…!
"Ooh, I hope he visits soon, I really want to try see what his tea and Ma– Miss Campbell's cookies taste like together!" Lady Claes continued to gush. And it was a gush, like an unending stream of arterial blood rushing forth because of the strong pressure behind it. "I had him taste one, and he seemed to really enjoy it."
What was that snapping sound? No matter. "He… enjoyed the cookie?" Maria said nonchalantly.
Prince Alan, why are you snickering? Is something amusing going on she was missing?
"Oh, yes," Lady Claes said, grinning widely at Maria. "Especially when I told him you made it, Miss Campbell. Really tried to taste very crumb."
Hmm, it just occurred to Maria how small her cookies were. Maybe she should make them bigger, so people wouldn't have to be so frugal while eating them? "Oh. That's nice."
And she went back to doing student council paperwork, because she was a diligent, responsible person and there were things that needed to get done before the end of the year. That was it! No other reason!
Would it be possible to turn blood into a bakeable jelly if she mixed it in with tea? Surely the water would prevent it from drying out and let it retain its flavor…
Why were people snickering? Was someone joking around? The student council was a place for serious work, stop snickering!