The butler Rufus– if that was even his name– shamelessly threw his master under the large swinging log covered in spikes, telling Maria about how his master, the Marquess David Mason, a member of Prince Jeffery's faction, had concocted a plan to remove the Second and Third princes from the succession by having them remove themselves from consideration for the throne through scandal and blackmail. Poor Prince Alan wasn't even mentioned at all.
It was refreshingly familiar ground.
As such, Maria didn't believe a word of it.
"EH?" Katarina said. "But that wouldn't work at all! I'm just a stand-in fiancée to keep marriage proposals away until the prince finds someone he really loves. He wouldn't give up the throne for me."
Rufus, Lana, and Lady Berg stared at her like snakes had just exploded from the stump of her decapitated neck.
Maria herself sighed. "The reality of the situation doesn't matter, only what people believe to be the truth," she said. Oh, if she ever found the person deliberately misinforming Katarina about these things… "This Marquess Mason believes otherwise, and so concocted this plan under that assumption. Unless we are being lied to…"
"I'm not lying!" Rufus cried shrilly. "Do I look like I want to be a cripple for the rest of my life?"
"It might depend on how long you think the rest of your life will be," Maria said coolly. "I find it curious you would betray your conspirators so easily."
"Just because I work for him doesn't mean I like him," Rufus said. "The man is scum. If I'm going down, he deserves to go down even more."
"And how do I know you haven't used your… gifts… to alter his memories to make him think all this, diverting the blame from you?" Maria said, sword hovering over his knee. "That he is not simply a distraction to make your crimes seem lesser?"
"Maria, stop bullying him!" Katarina said. "I know he's a suspicious, girly-looking pretty-boy type, but you've hurt him already! I'm pretty sure knights aren't supposed to be bullies, it's gotta be written down somewhere!"
Maria… paused. For a very long moment, she stood very, very still.
Slowly, she straightened. "You are right, Lady Claes. I have been acting shamefully. I apologize."
"Don't say sorry to me," Katarina said. "I'm not the one you've been bullying."
Maria nodded. "I apologize for calling your word into question, Lady Berg. I meant only that, given circumstances you might be ignorant about, you are likely to have been deliberately misinformed and misled about the truth of the current situation. Specifically, as you have just heard, the plan to kidnap Lady Claes did not originate from you, as I suspected when I made my needlessly cruel and insufficiently precise statement. Again, I offer my apologies, though I understand if you do not accept them. In this I have wronged you, and am in your debt until it can be made right." Maria bowed formally, hand to heart.
Rufus' uninjured leg moved slightly. In a flash, the wood sword was raised threateningly over his injured knee. The leg moved back into place slowly.
The lady in question, still being held in Katarina's arms in a way that would have had anyone in Katarina's retinue burning with envy, stared at Maria. "I accept your apology and your debt, Lady Campbell," she stammered. She looked uncertainly towards Katarina, who nodded to her with a smile.
As Maria straightened, Katarina said, "Ahem!" and pointed at the maid and the butler. "You're not finished. Apologize to them too."
"Provided he wasn't lying, he just admitted to being part of a treasonous conspiracy to kidnap you and push the blame upon this lady," Maria said.
"That was no reason for you to bully him like that and hurt him," Katarina said with a glare.
"He threw knives at me," Maria reminded her.
"And you threw Lana at him! She'd bigger than a knife, she probably hurt more. AND you threw a knife at him too, and you didn't miss," Katarina said. "So you're even. But you were bullying him when you kept threatening to do horrible things to his leg, which must really hurt right now. That's not knightly. So apologize."
Maria frowned, and opened her mouth to protest. Then she sighed.
With a completely bland face, she turned towards the maid and the butler. "I apologize for any undue distress I may have caused you," Maria said, too tired to keep arguing about this. "Cooperate and there will be no more undue suffering on your part." Then she gently touched Rufus knee and called forth eldritch light.
Rufus let out a rapturous, almost indecent moan of relief and release from agony as his knee was healed. The blood flowing down from his hand ceased, though the knife remained lodged in it.
Maria stood and stepped back, "Stand," she said.
The two did so, moving slowly. Rufus was hampered by still having a knife stuck through the palm of his hand but the flesh seemed to have healed around it, and as long as he moved carefully to not jar it, it didn't hurt… much.
"Now…" Maria said, giving the maid an intent look. "Explain yourself."
"M-my name is Lana. I was hired yesterday–" she cut off, leaping back with surprising alacrity for a maid as Maria's sword swung where one of her knees had been, barely missing. "H-hey! You said you wouldn't hurt us!"
"I said there will be no more undue suffering. You were lying, and I made clear what I would do when lied to," Maria said. "This suffering would not be undue." Maria stepped forward…
"My name is Larna Smith and I'm a member of the Ministry!" she said in a rush. "We learned of a plot by David Mason and I infiltrated it in the guise of a maid! My job was to protect Katarina Claes until the evidence to arrest Mason was gathered!"
Katarina frowned. "Wait… the ministry knew I might get kidnapped? And you didn't do anything about it?"
"Um, they sent me?" Lana, supposedly Larna Smith, said.
Maria glared.
The room was filled with a growl like a bloodstarved beast.
"Lady Berg, we'd hate to impose, but as I assume this is your manor, could you please take Katarina downstairs to have breakfast?" Maria said, her gaze not leaving the admitted member of the Ministry. "She has already missed dinner, and she must be famished."
Another growl echoed.
"Please, Lady Berg?" Maria said softly.
Despite the woman's timidity so far, she could clearly read the mood very well. "L-let us go down stairs, Lady Claes," Lady Berg said, seemingly reluctant to leave Katarina's embrace but sliding off the bed and getting up in any case. Maria hoped this wasn't another one.
A chagrinned-looking Katarina got up as well, trying to straighten up her clothes and her hair, but immediately giving up. She was still frowning at Lana-maybe-Larna a little. "You won't hurt them?'
"I give you my word we will all come down in the state you see us now," Maria said.
Kataraina seemed to accept that, and she took hold of Lady Berg's arm and with a smile left the room with her, asking her enthusiastically about whether the lady had tasted a certain sandwich made in a certain café.
The door closed behind them.
Maria locked it.
"I am annoyed, Lady Smith, if that is indeed your real name," Maria said. "First an innocent young girl, innocent in every way the word could mean, was taken in the night. Then I find it was done by the influence of a wielder of Dark Magic to accuse another relatively innocent woman. And then I find that this was all done with the knowledge of the Ministry. Who opted to let it happen."
Maria did not glare, her face did not change expression, but as one the fake-butler and fake-maid took a step back, bumping against the wall.
"I suppose you were only following orders as well?" Maria said. "Or are you lying to me?"
Rufus took a step sideways to put some distance between him and the fake-maid. The fake-maid had the nerve to look betrayed.
"I once swore to that girl's mother that I would watch over her. That I would ensure no harm or dishonor befalls her. And that my blade would feed on the blood of any who dare," Maria said. "But that girl is kind. She's more worried about you than she was for herself. So I shall ask one last time. And you shall tell me everything. Or else I might be forced to do something that will break that child's heart."
"I really am a member of the Ministry!" the fake-maid said, sounding a bit shrill. "W-we're on the same side!"
"Convince me."