When Katarina Claes left her mother's room, Maria was there waiting for her.
Her squire… didn't look well. She was unharmed, but her eyes were downcast, her face was pensive, her shoulders bowed down as if carrying several sacks of manure. Her usual energy seemed dampened, as if she had finally used up all her stamina and was waiting for it to recover. When Katarina looked up and saw her, Maria half-expected her squire's anger, her accusations, her blame. Instead, there was only an uncharacteristic downtrodden sadness.
"I messed up," her squire said.
"I'm sorry," Maria said.
"Ah, it's not your fault, Lady Maria," Katarina said with a wan smile. "I know you were only doing what you thought was right. I'm the one that messed up."
With every word, Maria flinched a bit inside. She'd expected some heat from her squire, something along the lines of 'why did you tell mother? I thought we were friends', but this easy absolving of her involvement… how is this making Maria feel worse?
She guiltily set aside the scolding she also had planned to give—it seemed needlessly cruel now—and gingerly reached out and patted Katarina on the shoulder. "There, there," she said awkwardly. "Why don't we go to our room, and have Anne and Lasciel bring us snacks from the kitchen? You probably didn't get to eat much during the tea party."
"I'm not hungry," Katarina said, then blinked as Maria instantly slapped one hand on her forehead and another on her stomach. Maria's hands glowed with the invisible, eldritch glow of Light Magic.
"There, are you feeling better now?" Maria asked once she was reasonably certain her magic had taken care of whatever illness had beset her squire. Was this cause for concern? Had Katarina gotten some sort of exotic airborne disease from those in the tea party?
"Uh… my back is a little itchy? But don't worry, I won't scratch it, I know a lady isn't supposed to do that…" Katarina smiled wanly.
"So… do you feel like eating snacks now?"
"Uh, no? I already told you I wasn't hungry."
Still no appetite, even though she should now be completely healthy?-!-? Great Oedon, this was worse than Maria had thought! Argh, she'd only been trying to do the responsible thing and correct her squire's behavior! She hadn't realized it would impact her squire this deeply! Frantically, Maria wondered what she should do. "Do you want some cookies?" That had always worked with Katarina before!
"Ah, no thank you Lady Maria, I don't want to ruin my appetite for dinner…"
…
"Are you feeling well enough for some light training, then?" Maria asked.
Katarina blinked. "Uh…" She obviously had to consider it, rolling her shoulder back and forth. Maria hoped she imagined the sounds of pebbles tumbling in an empty container. "Yeah, I think so. Where are we going to train?"
Maria nodded. "Go ahead of me to our rooms and get dressed. You will need your sword. Not your practice sword, your real sword. I will meet you there as soon as I can make the arrangements."
Katarina blinked, some life and curiosity returning to her eyes. "Eh? Are we going to spar, Dame Campbell?" Was that a good sign?
"Something like that," Maria said.
Now, she just had to find Dame Matthew…
A Matthew Interlude
Matthew gave her otherwise good friend Maria Campbell a flat stare.
"Please stop looking at me like that, it's making me uncomfortable for some reason," Maria said.
"As her cousin, I am well within my rights to beat the red estus out of you," she said evenly. "You made my cousin sad."
"I know," Maria said.
"It's only the fact you're coming to me to help her feel better that I'm not taking my shield and squashing you under it."
"Your restraint and understanding is greatly appreciated."
"Whether this works on not, we are going to spar later and I will make you suffer."
"That's fair."
Matthew nodded decisively. She liked Maria, she really did. The woman was almost parodical in her dedication to her duties, and knightly behavior, except she genuinely seemed to mean it, and she was in general a good person.
But she'd made Katarina sad, so she needed to be slapped around a little to learn the error of her ways!
"All right then," Matthew said, nodding decisively. "What do you need from me?"
Maria let out a sigh of relief. "Do you know if a fight club is currently in progress?"
Matthew gave her otherwise good friend Maria Campbell a flat stare.
"What?"
"You're idea of making my cousin feel better is to have her participate in a fight club? Katarina Claes? The girl who literally has a blunt, unsharpened, round-tipped sword because she doesn't want her sword to hurt anyone." Matthew reached behind her for her shield. "Maybe I need to slap you around right now…"
"Wait, wait, I have a good reason for it!"
Matthew didn't stop equipping her shield. "Then start explaining."
Maria did.
Matthew tilted her head thoughtfully as she considered the proposal. "Hmm… that might actually work. Not the sort of plan I'd have expected, though."
"I am reasonably certain it will work," Maria said. "It's certainly better than what her entourage would come up with. They'd simply suggest food and romance novels."
A third flat look came into being. "Food didn't work, did it."
"And I have no romance novels," Maria admitted. "Like Nicol Ascarts, I've never seen the appeal."
"Uh, where are we going?" Katarina asked. She'd changed into her practice armor, with her sword belted on her hip. To Maria's practiced eye, while her squire's voice was a bit more lively, and probably sounded normal most people, her shoulders were still bowed and her movements were still mildly lethargic in comparison to her usual alacrity. To her squire's despair, she'd been told to bring her shield, but had looked relieved when told she only had to use it at her own discretion.
"Something I am told every knight and squire should probably experience at least once," Maria said, walking beside her. "I have not, because of the circumstances of my elevation, so this will also be a first for myself."
Matthew looked over her shoulder and past her usual cross-shaped colossal shield, and there was none of the mildly worrying and guilt-inducing stare she'd subjected Maria too. "We're going to a fight club," she said with a wide, cheerful smile.
"A… fight club?" Katarina said, looking ambivalent. It was another new expression on her squire's face. In Maria's experience, when encountering something new, Katarina's expression ranged from curiosity to enthusiastic curiosity. Maria was finding she didn't like it. "That… doesn't sound fun. It sounds painful."
"Oh, don't worry," Matthew said. "You don't have to join in if you don't want to. A lot of people just like to watch because it's fun to see the interesting match ups. I was there yesterday and everyone wanted me to fight because they've never seen someone use a shield as big as I do."
"And that's… fun?" Katarina said dubiously.
"Well, we all enjoyed it. And I had fun seeing how well I did against other people's weapons. There was this one person with a scythe who gave me trouble because he was able to throw off my balance by pulling my shield out of alignment. I still won, though!" Matthew assured them.
"Why don't you just watch and root for Matthew?" Maria suggested. "She and I will probably try our luck a few times." Personally, she wanted to see how Xiarmen knights fought with their fists and how they dealt with swords, if only so she could learn to avoid it herself.
"Well, I guess…" Katarina said.
"Perhaps some of your new friends will be there," she continued. "This would be a good opportunity for you to meet with them without the formality of a tea party in the way."
Katarina blinked, and a small smile appeared on her face. Her shoulders unbent slightly. "Ooh, you're right! Ah, maybe Siegadme will be there. I didn't see her at all earlier…"
Maria sighed internally in relief.
The three of them walked down to where the fight clubs were being—unofficially—held.