A Third Prince Interlude

Finally, a free day! Lady Maria had been as good as her word in informing them, as she always was when you could pin her down. True, she'd also told the usual suspects– and Alan– but unfortunately his good friend Nicol couldn't make it, which… all right, he missed Nicol, but honestly, he was so pretty even his precious Katarina stared, so that was fine.

Maria was dueling his dear Katarina's cousin, who seemed to irrationally dislike him for some reason. It wasn't that she was like Keith. In fact, Matthew was a lot like Maria in her interactions with his darling Katarina, seeing her as someone to care for and protect, which… all right, he couldn't really argue. But it seemed the purple knight bore him some sort of personal enmity. He was fairly certain he'd never done anything to deserve such. He was always careful of the repercussions of his actions, and he knew nothing he had done had ever adversely impact his cute Katarina's distant family in Hasard duchy, or any of their relations or friends. Had Keith somehow poisoned her against him?

Well, time to think about that later. Right now he enjoyed basking in his sweet Katarina's presence, watching as she handed out the iced cream to the children. All right, he might have begged some too, but it was delicious!

At least he didn't have to worry about Mary parrying him. She was doting on Shana, calling her the best little wonderful student, and the little girl looked very happy being praised by her teacher after her mother in all but name, AND having iced cream to eat.

Somewhere behind him, the duel– they both said it was a friendly spar, but they clearly wanted to fight a little bit more seriously than just a spar– between Maria and his smiling Katarina's cousin was happening. He probably should have been watching, but he'd had enough of Maria's face for a while, especially since he finally had hisfiancée Katarina in front of him. He, of course, rooted for Maria in spirit. She was his friend after all, her complete lack of comprehension of the wonderfulness of his wonderful Katarina aside, and while she sometimes kept him from her, it wasn't personal. After speaking to some knights and officers, he realized she was just being really strict with her interpretations of squireship. At least she hadn't made his delectable Katarina cut her hair short like a boy's, which… all right, he had to admit, a part of him sort of wanted to see that…He was sure she'd do fine, so why watch? It wasn't like he was missing anything more interesting and captivating than the sight of HISradiant Katarina before him…

Adjusting his legs, his back to the spar like everyone else except Alan and his darling Katarina, who looked vaguely interested in the proceedings, he made himself comfortable, imagining what this would be like when it was just him and his Katarina taking care of his children, and he had won over everyone else and she would finally be his, all his, and his alone…

Dame Matthew might have only had a single shield, but she wielded it like a club, sword, mace and portable battering ram. She spun a lot, obviously needing to wind up, and while most people would be vulnerable doing this, because there was an opening, Dame Matthew obviously knew how to protect this opening. In truth, Maria could understand why she chose to wield it. It massed much more than most weapons Maria had seen, and it was a shield. One generally doesn't learn how to parry a shield, since shields were what you parry with.

Despite what she had taught Katarina at the Academy, and which she had enthusiastically made her own, Maria had never been a parry person. Maria darted back as Dame Matthew's shield slammed down from above, only to stumble as the other knight used the still upright shield as a pivot to kick at Maria with both feet, knocking her back. As the shield finally started to tip over, Dame Matthew planted her feet and twisted her hips, transferring the energy of her swinign motion back to her shield and swinging it edge-first at Maria. The edges were not sharp, nor did they contain spikes or even bumps for concentrating the force of the impact. But then, they didn't need to.

Maria rolled her whole body lengthwise like she was trying to put out a fire on her person, narrowly managing to fit under the swinging shield, then punched the ground with one hand to launch herself up and get her feet back under her. She spun too, her newly reforged twinblade twirling to gain momentum before stabbing at Dame Matthews now-exposed side. At the last moment, the other knight wrenched her shield one way, causing her body to pivot the other, and the blade skidded past on the outside of Matthew's armor.

They both moved at the same time, kicking to knock the other down, their legs crossing and deflecting each other. Matthew rolled forward, somehow twisting her arm to bring her shield to guard her back before resetting to face Maria, shield now before her. Maria, rather than do the same, charged at the shield, Rakuyo beginning to go through the motions of a weapon art that would sweep it upward to knock the shield up and leave Matthew vulnerable.

They both moved at the same time, Matthew grounding and angling her shield in a way that would have such a sweep deflected to the side just as Maria wrenched and the weapon split again, one blade sweeping upward to be deflected, the other swinging down. The struck the upper edge of the shield, and with a flick of her wrist Maria used it as a hook to vault herself upwards and over the barrier, her deflected sword rising up into a position to deliver an overhand blow.

Matthew raised her shield and kept raising it, causing Maria to overshoot and flip over Katarina's cousin, sending her slamming toward the ground face first. She pushed off the shield itself at the last moment, turning a plunge into a roll and evading having the shield narrowly slam a foot to the side of where her head would have been. Maria rolled for distance even as she joined her blades again in the same motion, turning to face Matthew, who was already raising her shield up again while sprinting, readying for an uppercut blow that could potentially shatter any bone that was unfortunate enough to be hit.

Maria might just have to change her mind about shields. They were surprisingly dangerous!

Well, danger had never deterred her. She was a hunter, after all.

They both moved at the same time, charging head on, grins of delight on their faces.

In the end, as the sun kept getting higher and lunch approached, they had to call it a draw. Both, to themselves, thought that they could of course have won if they had fought to seriously horribly maim or kill… but this was a friendly spar, so naturally they had to pull their blows, which had given the other the window to bring this to a draw. After all, neither were truly undead, to be so casual with killing blows, in the knowledge that the other would simply recover after a few hours of being a corpse on the ground.

Truthfully, it was the bell warning of the guard shift change just before lunch that had made them decide to stop. Both were panting, and only then realized how very hot they were. Each felt they could continue on, but Matthew saw Maria had on such a hot and heavy coat and leather half-cape, and Maria saw Matthew had no hat, and they both declared a draw. Purely for the benefit of the other, of course.

Still, there was a heartening round of applause from the members of the Royal Guard who had stopped pretending they weren't an audience, as well as the wards watching from the windows and the children on the picnic blankets. Many had sticky faces, the I Scream long run out, but they cheered and clapped hands.

Katarina's retinue turned from staring at her and, seemingly realizing it was all over, clapped politely. Well, at least they seemed to have been enjoying themselves while Maria was… immensely enjoying herself.

"A fine spar, Dame Matthew," Maria said, breathing heavily, her shirt soaked all the way through. Sadako was suddenly at her side so fast it was like she had simply risen out of the ground, holding a towel out to Maria, who accepted it gladly. It appeared Sadako had learned a lot from Miss Shelley.

Matthew's smiling, redheaded maid was also at the knight's side, offering a towel as well. Well, not so much offering as using it to vigorously wipe the sweat from Matthew's face and head while Matthew had the look of a long-suffering noble wondering why they let their retainer do this but resigned to it. "Yes, it was very invigorating, Dame Maria," Matthew said cheerfully after the towel was no longer being applied to her face. She didn't even blink as her maid slid a pair of glass over her eyes. "So few people are willing to really spar with me, I've forgotten just how energizing it is."

"More fool them," Maria said. "Shall we do this again, say next week?"

Dame Matthew's eyes sparkled. "Oh yes! I'll look forward to it!"

"As will I," Maria said. "We're still on for our regular spar in two days, though?"

"Oh yes, of course," Matthew said as she slung her shield over her back with one hand, the shield somehow locking onto some sort of cleverly designed mechanism that allowed her to carry it on her back. "Ah, Dame Maria, may I ask a favor of you?"

"Ask, if you will," Maria invited, disassembling her new Rakuyo and sheathing both blades at her waist.

"I was wondering, when I come over, could I perhaps spar briefly with Katarina?" Matthew said. "It's not that I doubt your teachings, but I just want to see how my cousin is doing."

"I believe we can arrange that," Maria said thoughtfully. "Actually, on consideration, I was wondering if I may beg a favor of you."

Lilac eyes blinked. "A favor?"

Maria nodded as they began walking back towards the children, intending to head towards the courtyard bathhouse as was their custom after a spar. "I must humbly as you to assist me in teaching Katarina how to parry with a shield," she said, voice pitched low. "I… must admit it's a skill I never learned. Never had to, you see."

"You'd be surprised how many knights are terribly out of practice at it," Matthew said with a smirk. "But I would be glad to. In fact… I never got Katarina anything for her squireship, did I?" she said, as if to herself. "I'll bring a shield for her too. It'll be her first one. She probably doesn't need it–" they've both sparred with Katarina enough to know the truth of that, "– but she might as well have one. you know, in case she has to hide from arrows, or something."

The two chuckled at the image as the subject of their conversation ran up to them.

"That was awesome!" Katarina declared, her eyes shining. "Maria was all 'swish-swish-wham'! And Matthew was all 'vroom, clang, bang'! And then Maria was all 'whum-vrung, wooom'! And then you both moved at the same time and…" Katarina kept making more sound effects as the two exchanged bemused looks and a shared shrug. Katarina was Katarina, after all. Still, they allowed themselves to both preen internally as Katarina apparently proceeded to reenact their totally friendly spar with increasing more nonsensical sound effects as the children all nodded agreement and mimed wielding swords and shields…

They left behind Prince Alan, who remained where he sat, still staring wide-eyed at the field the spar had taken place at. There were craters from shield strikes, long furrows literally cut by swords, a weird circle where Maria and Matthew had briefly linked arms and run around leaning into each other while fencing over their heads with their absurdly oversized weapons.

He thought back to some of the things Katarina and Mary had said to describe Maria's fight with Rafael during their first year.

"Wow, she really liked him even back then, huh?" he said to himself. "It's the only way he could have survived."

Pushing off to stand on shaky legs, he took one last look at the impact crater made when Maria had leapt ridiculously high only to slam down both weapons, and actually driving Matthew back from the force. Alan shook his head and wondered if his father knew exactly what his knight was capable of.

"Yeah, I better tell him," he muttered. "Ignoring powerful knights like this is how you get trouble in the myths…"

Moving on still slightly unsteady legs, Alan moved to join everyone in getting cleaned up for lunch.

+10 Insight

Sir Maulle of House Park sat in an inconsolable ball of despair. His Red Iron Twinblade stood propped next to him, seeming to share in his gloomy air.

"I've wasted my life," he said, sounding like a man who's realized he has nothing to live for. "All this time I thought I was a master, but I'm just a rank amateur! Swinging around a hunk of iron and telling myself I was good at it. I'M IN DESPAIR! MY PATHETIC TWINBLADE TECHNIQUE HAS LEFT ME IN DESPAIR!"

"Oh, shut up, Maulle," Sir James said, his deep, booming voice making him sound like a great lion. Standing taller than most men, clad in his black armor and wielding his trusty saber with its special crimson Titanite blade that burned at a touch, even his breathing sounded intimidating. "So there's someone better than you, so what? It's not the fading of the flame. Just stand up like you've got a pair of legs and practice until you git gud, as the ancients say."

A young man in the lighter, black leather practice armor they used passed by, his own saber with a green Titanite blade in hand. "Sir James, you ready?"

"Coming, Sir Mark," the taller man said. "Sorry about the hand."

"It's fine, Dame Maria healed it," the smaller knight said, raising his right hand to demonstrate. The two moved out to the practice grounds, totally not feeling insecure about a woman not even in her twenties yet being better than they were with a saber. Nope, not at all. Not even a little. That totally wasn't why they and all the other knights who wielded swords were suddenly pairing off and sparring so assiduously…

A/N: So, my Pat-reon is up now at P.A.T.R.E.O.N.C.O.M -/-SCM2814. If you want to support this fic, that would be great, but no pressure. But if you do, you'll also get advanced access to my new original fiction series about a wizard on the frontier, her dungeon, and the idiots around her...