Maria nodded in satisfaction as Selena's carriage was allowed through the gates and up into the castle. It was nice when a plan came together and wasn't interrupted by an ambush, beasts or a sudden but inevitable betrayal.
Still, it was very concerning that getting into the royal castle was this simple. She should probably talk to her liege the king about that…
"Sorry for the delay," Lady Selena said apologetically, "but since you're technically my guests, they can't just have you going off without me. We'll just see my prince quickly and he'll give you the authorization to at least knock on the Third Prince's door."
"Eh, it's better than running around trying to find keys and switches to activate ladders and rotating staircases," Sophia said.
"Why do people still build rotating staircases?" Lady Hunt said. "What's the point?"
"It's a distinguishing element of mythic architecture, like platforms and stairs with no railings, or unenclosed elevators," Lady Selena said.
"Well, it's stupidly unsafe!" Sophia said, to which Mari could only nod along.
"That's what makes it mythic, I think," Lady Selena said
"How did people not all die from stupidity during the time of myth?" Lady Hunt asked as the carriage would its way up.
"The undead curse?" Sophia suggested. "That seems the only reasonable explanation, considering the architecture seems to be actively designed to kill people."
"Which begs the question," Maria mused. "Are our ancestors the ones smart enough to avoid the deathtraps… or just the ones too stupid to die until the Chosen Lord restored to us our Dark Souls?"
"Maybe it's both?" Lady Hunt suggested.
"Mary, no one ever likes the smartculet who suggests it's both," Sophia said, rolling her eyes. "It's not looking for a reasonable compromise, it's being too lazy to make a choice and justify it."
"Well, which one do you think it is?" Lady Hunt challenged.
"Our ancestors were busy partying in the land of the Catarina, naturally," Sophia said.
"Now look who's too lazy to make a choice," Lady Hunt snarked.
Further bickering was interrupted as they arrived at the front door, and they stepped down one by one. The knights glanced at Maria, but did not ask her to surrender her weapons. A butler came forward to lead them to their destination, despite the fact Selena could probably find her way to Prince Ian's room blindfolded. She did, in fact, walk at such a pace that the butler had to either move quickly or be trampled, while Maria and the others followed after them, Sophia and Mary occasionally needing a moment to catch their breath and wait for their stamina to return. So unfit, these two. Why, Maria had to run much faster to start tiring herself out and needing to rest to restore her stamina.
Eventually, however, they reached Prince Ian's offices, and Selena barely waited to be announced before barging her way in. Maria, Sophia, and Lady Hunt followed after her, only stop dead just past the threshold of the door, staring. From her meetings and talks with Prince Ian, Maria felt she'd gotten a good sense of his personality. He seemed a serious, dependable person, with the sort of reliability you could use to set your clock, and the solidness to let you use him to anchor a ship. She expected her private offices to be staid, reserved and understated, with only the bare minimum of furniture that was stylish from their simplicity and functionality.
She did NOT expect every inch of the walls of his office to be filled with portraits of Lady Selena, all in various styles and sizes and, fortunately, different but very becoming dresses rather than anything so crass as nudi– no, wait, she spoke too soon, that was definitely a portrait of Lady Selena painted as if she were the Fair Lady of Izalith, with a bare torso barely concealed by her clasped hands and a waist that fused to a giant spider. There were other portraits depicting Lady Selena in fashion souls, an ancient term that meant something like 'garbed as another', dressed like the ancient beauties of myth and legend. There was a portrait of Lady Selena in the apparel of the black-clad Betrayed-Goddess. There a long portrait depicting her lounging on her side like the goddess Gwyndolin. Another had her in the raiment of the First Lorelei, Juna Canaria, and there was a matched set of portraits depicting her both in the garb of Yuri the Vile and as Duchess Iris the Chocolatier. There were also sculptures. Lots of sculptures. Some were perfectly ordinary sculptures depicting Lady Selena. A few were in fashion souls, such as one depicting her as garbed as Nashandra of Drangleic and Alsanna of Eleum Loyce. Some were bare stone, while others had been painted to be almost life-like.
"Oh, this is a bit too much," she heard Lady Hunt say in a low voice, and considering it was her saying it, then it was definitely too much. "Far, far too much…"
The prince in question was sitting at desk that, on a closer look, had been decorated with carvings of Lady Selena. He rose on her entrance, seemingly having no eyes for anyone else as she crossed the room and they fell into each other's embrace, their lips meeting.
The first thirty seconds was awkward. After five minutes, there was some astonishment that they were still going at it. After a quarter hour, Maria was getting impatient, Sophia had sat down on a couch and was reading a book, and Lady Hunt was going around looking at the portraits for lack of anything better to do. The servants in the room didn't seem surprised and waited patiently as the two seemingly tried to impregnate one another with just their mouths and tongues alone.
Eventually, however, they parted.
"My Selena," the prince said, in a tone disturbing like the Third Prince talking about Katarina.
"My Ian," Selena breathed, in an equally disturbing tone.
Their lips crept towards each other again…
Sophia let out a loud, throaty, lungy cough.
"Are you all right, Lady Sophia?" Maria said, perhaps a tad loudly. "Do you need Light Magic?"
"Oh no, I'm fine, Lady Maria, just a little gag reflex!" Sophia said.
The two affianced finally seemed to notice them, Prince Ian blinking in confusion at seeing other people in his office, while Lady Selena at least had the grace for a mildly embarrassed look at remembering her guests. "Ah, right," she muttered. "My prince, you remember Lady Maria, Lady Mary and Lady Sophia?"
"Yes, of course," the prince said, looking completely unruffled after that initial confusion. "Good day, ladies. I apologize for not greeting you sooner."
"It's all right, you were busy," Lady Hunt said blandly.
"They are here with me because they are here to see your younger brother," Lady Selena explained. "Apparently, they're worried he is unwell."
Prince Ian frowned. "Unwell? I just saw him at dinner two day ago. He seemed well enough."
"Lady Katarina has been on a free break for the past week, and he hasn't so much as sent her flowers," Maria said simply. "I informed him of her free period as soon as it began."
"Umbasa, my younger brother is clearly delirious with sickness!" Prince Ian said, his impassive face for a moment taking on a countenance of great shock and concern. He glanced at the paperwork on his desk briefly, then at Selena for significantly longer, but shook himself. "Come, let us go together. Something is clearly wrong with my younger brother!" He turned to a nearby servant. "Inform my brother I will be seeing him, and tell him I will not take 'no' for an answer."
Prince Ian led the way through the halls, though he moved at a slower pace than Selena had, the servant darting ahead of them to inform the Third Prince they were coming. Servants, officials and knights moved out of there way, bowing respectfully as they moved through the halls of power. Maria kept her eyes open for dark smoke or other malign Dark Magic, but save for that one hallway that apparently lead down to the royal crypt, she saw nothing that indicated Dark Magic was at work.
Eventually, they reached the doors that led into the Third Prince's personal offices. Maria wasn't sure what to make of the disappointment she felt upon seeing the doors weren't writhing with flame-like Dark Magic. Had she been hoping for a simple solution she could simply force her way through? Maybe. It was the circumstance with the easiest solution, after all.
Prince's Ian's servant was outside the door, and opened it as his prince drew close, granting them entry to the Third Prince's personal offices.
Maria was honestly expecting an inordinate number of portraits and statues of Katarina. It was something of a relief there were only eight of them. The youngest depicted Katarina as a child at young age, livid scar on her forehead. Each protract gradually depicted her as taller and older, in different dresses, but each portrait showed her with the same wide, careless smile. There were also no statues, clothed or otherwise.
From the lack of comment on Lady Hunt's part, this was apparently a perfectly ordinary number of disturbing portraits to have.
To her surprise, the Third Prince wasn't alone in his office. Prince Alan was there as well, doing paperwork in what was clearly the room's coffee table. Both looked up with frowns when the door opened.
"Brother?" the Third Prince said. "Why are you–!"
"You!"
He was dramatically interrupted.
Prince Alan raised an eyebrow pointing at himself. "Me?"
"Yes, you!" his fiancée cried, pointing accusingly. "You knew he was sick all this time and didn't say anything?"
Alan blinked in confusion. "Who's sick?"
"He is!" Lady Hunt declared, her homing siege crossbow of a finger pointing at the blonder of the twins. "If you knew he was sick, why didn't you say anything?"
"Because I didn't know he was sick…?" Prince Alan said.
"As refreshingly varied as everyone's company is, I must ask you all what you're doing in my office," The Third Prince said, sounding mildly irritable.
Sophia and Lady Hunt both started talking at once, both pointing at him. It was a sudden rush of words, filled with emotion and accusation and eventually he raised a hand to forestall them.
"I didn't understand a word of that," he said blandly. "Lady Maria, could you perhaps be more coherent?"
Maria had been inspecting him all this time, and had not found even the smallest wisp of streamer of dark smoke. Reluctantly, she spoke. "Your highness, I am here to inform you that Lady Katarina Claes, your fiancée, has two more days free before she is to return to her studies and duties as a squire."
He frowned. "Yes, I know. I received your message. Both of them. I don't see why you had to come here to tell me yourself."
"We thought you'd been Dark Magicked, you ungrateful ass!" Sophia said exasperatedly.
Both Prince Alan and his twin blinked in confusion. "Why would you think that?" the Third Prince said.
"Because you didn't show up three days later or any of the subsequent days since to be in Lady Katarina's company," Maria said slowly, as if speaking to a concussed, slow, not very attentive child.
"Why are you talking to me like you're explaining something to Katarina?" the Third Prince said.
"Because if it's not Dark Magic, it must clearly be brain damage of some sort," Maria said. "Did you happen to hit your head recently? Have you been out in the sun without a hat?"
"No and no," he said curtly. "I am not brain damaged."
Maria's face became grim. "Ah. I was afraid of this," she said. She turned to the others. "He's clearly gone insane, possibly from all that genius and talent mixing with education. We shall have to inform his majesty the Third Prince is no longer a suitable heir." She frowned. "Prince Alan, why are you laughing? This is a very serious matter. I'm not sure even Light Magic can heal what ails your brother now."
If anything, Prince Alan only laughed harder.