Despite her gratitude, at first glance Maria had to admit that the magic tool dubbed 'Alexander' appeared a bit doubtful and didn't look like a magic tool at all. The Choir had developed several strange weapons during their research, and though she had never used them herself, they had shown them to her and asked her opinion of them and their viability as hunter tools. All had required blood to activate, in her experience.
"Um… Lady Maria? What's up with that toy?" Katarina asked.
"I was informed it's a magic tool that could be used to find my mother," Maria said.
"That ugly bear?" Katarina said, looking more confused. "A magic tool for… finding your mother?"
In Maria's hands, the plush representation of a massive land predator raised its head and turned to face Katarina.
"E-eh?" Katarina cried, before rubbing her eyes as if trying to clear them even as Maria dropped the thing and took two steps back, drawing her saber and pointing it straight at the thing. "D-did that plush bear just move?!"
Rafale nudged Larna Smith, who was still lying on the ground, with the toe of his shoe. "Newbie, get over losing your first kiss and explain this, will you?" he said sounding annoyed.
"Uh? H-hey, I'll have you know that wasn't my first kiss," Larna Smith protested weakly even as she started getting to her feet. "What do you take me for?"
"As your boss, I'm not allowed to say," Rafael said. He pointed at the bear on the floor, which was clumsily sitting upright after being dropped. "Explain. You didn't find a way to stuff a soul into this thing, did you?"
"What? No! I haven't figured out how to do that yet!"
"Yet, she says," Lady Berg muttered darkly.
"It's moving because it's a tool to locate people with," Larna Smith said, standing up and dusting herself off. "What good would it be if it couldn't move and lead the way?"
"But… why is it a bear?" Katarina said. "I mean, why not a dog or a wolf? Those are tracking animals, right?"
"Ah, I found it at a gift shop in town, you see. It was love at first sight," Larna said, smiling happily.
Maria pursed her lips, but sheathed her sword and walked back towards the magic tool, picking it up. "How does it work?" she asked.
"Oh, you need to present Alexander something that's of great value to the person you're looking for, and he'll show you where the person has gone," Larna Smith said confidently.
"Helpful, but not what I mean," Maria said. "How does it work?"
"Ah, well, I'm afraid I can't tell you, Lady Maria," Larna Smith said. "It's still something of a Ministry secret, after all."
"Lady Campbell," Maria corrected. "We're not nearly close enough for me to allow you to use my first name."
"Generally, when you stick your tongue in someone's mouth, you are," Larna Smith said cheerfully.
Maria's eyebrow twitched, and she had to remind herself that she was grateful to this woman for providing a means of finding her mother.
"That was merely showing you the same gratitude I showed Rafael," Maria said. She squeezed the plush experimentally, felling some sort of thin metal armature inside. "It was nothing personal." There was something inside its torso, a cylinder of some kind. Maria vaguely felt… sloshing?
It felt strangely familiar…
"I'm curious as well," the Third Prince said. "How exactly is this tool supposed to find someone? If magic could do that, you'd think I'd have heard of it."
"How do you even give a tool magic?" Prince Alan asked. "I mean, yeah, the ancient myths have a lot of magic things we don't have anymore, and they have weapons that seem to have magic of its own, but don't you need a powerful soul from someone you've killed to make weapons like that? Not just any soul will do, right? The only thing we have these days that's even like it at all is the Moonlight weapons, and those can only be made once someone manages to kill the paledake when it comes back and stuffs its soul into a greatsword or something."
"Well, to be honest, I did study the methods used to turn the paledrake's souls into Moonlight weapons," Larna Smith said as Maria shook the bear next to her ear. There was something familiar… "But no, the methods used to create magic tools don't involve imbuing things with souls. I'm not the Scholar of the First Sin, I'm not crazy. Notice the lack of a big hat on my head."
"Hah!" Lady Berg scoffed.
Larna Smith pouted. "Oh, Lady Berg, your lack of faith in me is making me very sad."
"Good," Lady Berg said bluntly.
Maria turned the magic tool upside down at an angle, trying to get a sense of what she was feeling moving inside. The liquid– and it clearly felt like a liquid– felt heavy yet not viscous, like…
"Still, what sort of magic is this?" Lord Ascart said, giving the magic tool an intrigued (but expressionless) look.
"Dark Magic, of course," Maria said idly, still shaking the magic tool.
Everybody blinked at her. Larna Smith gave her a wide-eyed look.
"It's obvious," Maria said. "Dark Magic is the magic that affects memories and emotions, and she just told us the magic tool needs something of great value to the person. That is, something they feel strongly about. The tool somehow uses emotion to connect to the person being sought. Hence, Dark Magic."
"You made a Dark Magic tool?!" Prince Alan said shrilly, backing away from the thing in Maria's hands. "Are you insane?"
Rafael nodded.
"You work in the ministry too," Larna Smith said.
"Only from a lack of options, prospects and skills," Rafael said.
"Well, where would you work if you could?" Larna Smith said.
Rafael tilted his head thoughtfully. "Honestly? When I was younger, I wanted to be a lumberjack. You know, cutting and leaping from tree to tree in the deep woods, fending off ogres with a wood axe… why did I used think that was fun?"
"Everyone had a lumberjack phase," Lord Ascart reassured him.
"Can we go back to this person making a Dark Magic tool," Prince Alan said. Quite reasonably, in Maria's opinion.
"It's not that mad," Larna Smith said in her defense. "The output of magic tools, by their nature, cannot come close to the raw strength of a magic wielder. What little strength they can produce can only be deployed towards a specific end. And your concerns of a Dark Magic tool are baseless. Why, a magic tool can't even cause unconsciousness, let alone memory alteration and emotional manipulation!"
"In case you're wondering, yes, she did test if it could do it," Rafael said flatly. "It was in the paperwork."
"I can't manifest the most basic form of Dark Magic but it can locate my mother?" Maria said dubiously. Perhaps the kiss had been a little premature…
"Look, if you want, I can demonstrate it!" Larna Smith declared grandly. She pointed dramatically at the Third Prince. "Your highness! Hide somewhere in the house and we'll use Alexander to locate you! That will prove it!"
The Third Prince raised an eyebrow. "Why me?" he said.
"And to prove how simple and foolproof it is, we'll have Lady Katarina use the tool to look for you," Larna Smith said.
There was a beat.
"Not upstairs, it might upset my older wards. Somewhere on the grounds will work better. Given the described mechanics of the magic tool, I suppose that would work," Maria said blandly. "Though how will you get it to point to the Third Prince specifically, given likely… shall we say, alternate targets?"
"Huh?" Katarina said, tilting her head, not seeming to understand.
"Fine-tuning!" Larna Smith said proudly.
"It's…a reasonable plan…" Lord Ascart said slowly.
"Objection!" Lady Hunt cried. "Why is HE the only one who gets to be found by Lady Katarina! I want to be found by Lady Katarina too!"
"We'll call that test 2," Rafael said.
"Oh. Okay then," Lady Hunt said, withdrawing her objections.
"Would anyone want to be test 3?" Rafael asked, throwing pointed looks at Prince Alan and Lord Ascart.
"Well, if we need a third test, I suppose…" Prince Alan trailed off into incoherent mumbling as he averted his gaze sullenly.
"I don't really understand…" Katarina said.
"You're going to be playing hide and seek using this magic tool to prove it works," Prince Alan said bluntly.
"Oh! Why didn't you say so!" Katarina said cheerfully. "Sure, I'd love to play! I could use a rest after working on my fields all day! Do we start now?"
Everyone looked at each other, then at Larna Smith.
"I don't see why not," she said.
"Please don't hide in the Nightflower Manufactory," Maria said. "People are working there."
"Noted," the Third Prince said. He swished his cape dramatically and left the room. His brothers both rolled their eyes, then exchanged looks of mutual commiseration.
"Okay, I'll start counting to fifty," Katarina said, sitting down and covering her eyes. "One… two… three…"
By lunch, Katarina had found the Third Prince, Lady Hunt and Prince Alan in turn, with the magic tool managing to point to each target unerringly.
"Still not comfortable with how that thing uses Dark Magic," Prince Alan grumbled as they all walked back for lunch. "How did you even get a magic tool to use Dark Magic in the first place?"
"Like I said, Prince Alan, that's a ministry secret," Larna MSith said coyly.
"Blood," Maria said.
Everyone blinked at stared at her. Larna's Smith's stare was the most surprised and intent.
"Blood can be used as a medium to hold the power of the Dark Soul," Maria said. "It's what linked the Abyss Watchers into a single Lord of Cinder, their shared blood of the wolf, and why the Blood of the Dark Soul was used as a pigment for the Last Painting. Magic is a manifestation of the usurped powers that lie within the Dark Soul. Clearly, she used the blood of a Dark Magic wielder, likely the one called Sora, as a power source to allow this Magic Tool access to Dark Magic."
"Umbasa…!" Larna Smith exclaimed, then coughed. "Er, I cannot confirm a matter that is a Ministry secret."
"That can't be, or else every sword used to stab a magic wielder would become a magic tool," Prince Alan said, completely ignoring her.
"The blood is likely mixed with quicksilver to act as a medium to channel the power," Maria explained, having long placed the sensation of the liquid inside the magic tool. "Quicksilver is magically reactive, and is believed to be a component of what in the time of myths was called Aromatic Ooze, which allowed a weapon to temporarily channel the magical strength of its wilder as if it were a crystal titanite alloy. It also explains why this magic tool is ambulatory. The power of the Dark Soul acts as a pseudo-soul, animating the tool as they once used souls to animate golems in ancient Drangleic and Eleum Loyce."
"I cannot confirm a matter that is a Ministry secret," Larna Smith said, sounding both strangled and aroused. "On a completely unrelated note, Lady Maria, have you considered working for the Ministry? Perhaps a research or laboratory position?"
"No. I like my sanity the way it is," Maria said.
"Not even a little bit?" Larna Smith wheedled. "Maybe even just a consultant?"
"No," Maria said.
"At least think about it?" Larna Smith whined. "I mean, aren't you really, really grateful for the person locator magic tool?"
For some reason, the Third Prince sighed heavily.
Maria slowed, looking conflicted.
"Speaking as someone you seemed to be grateful to as well, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't think about it," Rafael said.
Maria blinked, then smiled widely at him. "If that is what you wish, then I cannot in good conscience deny your request," she said.
"Rafael, why must you make me cry?" Larna Smith sobbed.
"I'm not going to let you make Maria do something she doesn't want to do, even if she might be good at it," Rafael said.
Maria had never wanted to marry Rafael more.
Core of a Person Locator Magic Tool
Container of blood and quicksilver serving as the core of Alexander, soft plush representation of a large mammalian land predator, and Magic Tool that locates missing persons.
Originally commissioned by a certain weirdo who would like to know where the ones he loves the most are at all times. Maria Campbell often worries for this country of Sorcier, she really does, and things like this are part of the reason why.