Maria's mother roused again in the carriage the next day. As Miss Shelley had described, while only disoriented from being confused as to her surroundings, she seemed listless, seemingly detached from everything, and soon fell asleep again. At least Maria and Miss Shelley had been able to coax her to drink some water and eat some bread, even if she passed out midway through a bite. Maria used Light Magic on her again, but at this point there was nothing to heal.

While a vast improvement on continued unconsciousness and injuries, this was worrying. Maria hoped this was simply a lack of energy from lack of food, and prepared a mixture of honeyed tea for her mother to drink next time she awoke to at least try and mitigate it if that was so.

Maria was fairly certain that without Miss Shelley, she'd have tried to stay up all night watching over her mother. The maid would not allow it however, being demurely insistent that they watch over her mother in shifts. Maria, it was pointed out, as the one capable of combat, so she needed to be in the 'day shift' while they were traveling, lest there be more highwaypersons intent of making fools of themselves.

Maria found herself reluctantly going along with the older woman's very humble, very proper suggestions. She supposed that after years of being Katarina Claes's maid, the woman had a will like a titanite slab and knew how to deal with a noble insistent on doing something that, in hindsight, admittedly foolish.

So Maria slept next to her mother a tonight while Miss Shelley watched over them, and Miss Shelley slept during the day, sitting next to Maria's mother to hold her in place. She had to admire the woman's devotion to her duty. Maria would have to remember to offer effusive thanks to Katarina later for her maid's help. Maria's mother would be in good hands during her recovery.

If she recovered…

It stopped raining the day before they entered Maria's lands, the shining sun making the air muggy and humid. Summer was on its way.

They had to open windows, as it was uncomfortably warm in the carriage, making Maria's mother sweat. Maria almost missed Yharnam. It NEVER got this hot there.

When they returned to Maria's Manor, they received a great welcome. Sophia, looking immensely relieved and tired, was the first to greet them, hugging Maria in a nearly Katarina-like inappropriate manner.

"You're back!" Sophia wailed. "Oh, praise the sun, you're back! Does this mean i can rest now?"

Maria closed her eyes. Ah, yes. Just because she had been busy did not mean other things hadn't continued. She still had other duties to attend to.

"I'm sorry for burdening you with this, Lady Sophia," Maria said, patting the small girl awkwardly on the back, and subtly using Light Magic on her to combat any harm lack of rest might have caused. "Perhaps you should go home for today?"

"NO!" Sophia cried. "We have a nightflower commission tomorrow! It needs to be ready! Argh! I shouldn't have accepted so many on my own!"

Maria winced. She hoped she wouldn't have to face a workers revolt as well. "Let me get my mother inside and I'll see what I can do."

Sophia's eyes shot open, and she straightened suddenly. "Your mother! Is she all right?"

"She lives, and we've healed what we could," Maria said, trying to keep the despair from her voice. "Only time will tell."

Sophia stared at her. Then, as if with great effort on her part, she sighed, then straightened. "Go, take care of your mother. I'll handle this. What's a few more days, right?"

Maria nodded guiltily. "Thank you."

"The manufactory for the weapons is ready, at least," Sophia said. "Well, the building is standing and roofed. I got Keith to help make walls for the guard barracks and dormitories, so all we had to do was roof it and poke out windows, so we're ahead there."

"That's… well," Maria said, surprised. "I'm surprised her was willing."

"Keith screwed up, and this is how I made him apologize," Sophia said cryptically. "Get going, make sure your mother's all right, set up whatever deathtraps you feel you need to so she's safe. I can give you two more days, counting today. Then we switch for a while, I need to curl up and rest."

"Thank you Sophia," Maria said. Then, because she knew how setups happened, she asked, "Are there any outstanding nightflower commissions I should know about?"

"In ten days," Sophia said breezily. "I'll be back by then, so just make sure we have enough stuff to launch. We should really space these things out more. Er, we're running low on the stuff."

"I'll see it done," Maria said.

If she can't have peace of mind with her mother secured in the heart of her power, surrounded by her armsmen and servants… well, then there was a basement Maria could fortify to hide her mother in while she was of running errands.

She'd need to teach Miss Shelley how to use a six-shot to brutally murder anyone who tried to get at mother while Maria was gone. Hopefully teaching her wouldn't take too long.

Miss Shelley was a pleasantly quick study.

Admittedly, she wouldn't be hitting any moving targets at long range, but anyone trying to force their way into Maria's room– which had finally gotten the bed installed– to get at her mother would be in for an unpleasant surprise. She wasn't trained in cleaning or reloading the cylinders with new shot and powder, but Maria figured if she wouldn't have time when it came down to it.

That done, Maria set about seeing to her house's order.

No one had tried to commit suicide while she was gone, and although one woman had gone over the balcony and struck her head, witnesses all agreed it had been an accident, and that Shana had gotten to her and used Light Magic to heal her before it was too late.

Thankfully, a worker's revolt was not likely to rise up any time soon. Despite the rains, work had managed to continue. Sophia had solved the problem of light by setting up a shed opposite the manufactory's main door and, through the use of a brightly polished sheet of steel and limelights, had reflected extremely bright light into the manufactory, dispersing it around the space using other sheets to act as mirrors. After patching the roof's leaks, and everyone moving the workstations away from direct light so as to not be blinded, it had actually managed to serve as a functional solution. For now.

The children were glad to see her back, and she had allowed herself an hour or so away from her mother to assure them she was fine and that her mother had been saved from the bad people who had taken her. She declined a recitation of the 'epic quest' that had happened though. The parts that didn't have to be concealed due to containing details of Dark Magic were dreadfully boring, involving sitting in a carriage while it rained. So, of course, by morning the children had made up their own stories, many involving dragons or sea monsters or, in one case, a giant cursed plant of some kind.

It occurred to her that with the summer break ending, she would need to arrange for schooling for her many wards. Something she'd need to speak to the mayor about…

Ghirareli also oblique suggested they needed to hire more maids to tend to the manor, as the extended time without maintenance the building had been subjected to had led to, a mother other things, leaks from the rains, and the maids they had were getting overwhelmed keeping people from slipping on the floors while still doing their duties. She authorized another period of hiring, advising him to try and recruit form the other villages in her territory, to try and cut down on spies.

Then she had to order the grooms to tend the horses, since for some reason they seemed to think the carriage was haunted and the horses were cursed. She had no idea why. Where did people get such silly notions?

Still… it was good to be home.