A Royal Interlude

His Royal Majesty Artorias Stuart warily stepped back as his knight went still from the touch of the Lord Presider of La Sable, even as the rotund man stumbled and fell heavily on his knees onto the hard marble floor in a way that would have engendered sympathy under normal circumstances. Thankfully, Dame Finlay moved to stand between him and Dame Maria and the Lord Presider as Miquella gestured for him to join them. The other king's face, which usually harbored a small mischievous smile, was set in a serious expression, and he had a golden dagger in his hands. It was no doubt made from his secretive Unalloyed Gold, and possibly a magic tool as well.

Dame Maria had gone still as the Lord Presider gripped her ankle, even as the man groaned and rubbed at his knees with his free hand. "Fuck, that hurts… uh, Mwahaha! Behold, the power of the secret magic that I wield! Your knights are mine! Your people are mine! Your magic will be mine!" Another groan. "Oh, dead gods… help me up, woman!"

Face completely blank. Dame Maria reached gripped the back of the Lord Presider's collar, and pulled him up as instructed, even as the man started making choking sounds from having his collar suddenly pressing against his windpipe. "Ack! Ack! I can't breathe! Put me down, wo—!" There was a thump as Dame Maria let go, and the Lord Presider fell on his rear and then tumbled onto his back as a result. "Gah! Hex it, woman! What is wrong with you?!"

Dame Maria said nothing, her face blank even as her arm remained raised, hand open.

"Having difficulties, Donnar?" Lady Zandra Ri said with a smirk. "Trouble controlling minds with more Int than your own?

Artorias only kept part of his attention of the vociferous swearing and imprecations about Lady Ri's lineage as the Lord Presider got to his feet. Instead, he watched Dame Maria, looking for some sign of… anything. Yet she stood perfectly still, her arm raised and unmoving, face expressionless…

He shook his head, turning his attention back towards Lord Presider of La Sable, who had finally managed to get back to his feet. "Exactly what is the plan, Donnar?" Artorias said. "Using this 'secret magic' of yours on my knight, revealing your new magic here among us… what is it you intend, exactly?"

The Lord Presider sneered. "Heh… do you think my plans are so small, girlyboy? With this power, La Sable can finally take its rightful place as the most powerful nation in the world! Once I'm done with all of you, you'll be giving me everything that you've been keeping from us! Weapons! Wealth! Magic!"

"And then?" Artorias pressed.

The Lord presider gave him a smug look. "Weren't you listening? That's it."

"What, you're not even going to try and force us to sign some sham treaty to make our countries part of La Sable?"

The silence that followed went on a little too long. "O-of course that's part of the plan!" the Lord Presider declared triumphantly. "W-with my power, your countries will all become vassal states of La Sable, until you can be done away with, and all the continent will contain only La Sable! There will no longer be Sorcierers or Xiarmese, only La Sablicans!"

"So… this is war, then?" Princ Cezar said, his hand dropping to his sword.

The Lord Presider's sneer only became more smug. "Why should be there a war? It's not like you can resist my power!"

Silences descended upon the room, broken only by the screams and battle cries that were starting to rise up from below. It seemed that this wasn't the only point of attack.

"All right," Miquella said, "everyone body pay up."

With a groan, Lady Ivanovna, Queen Mylene, Prince Cezar, and Queen Siegmidala reached into their pockets and drew out some coins, the souls going into the hands of Lady Ri, Queen Sung Xiulan and Miquella. Artorias held out his hand, keeping his gaze on the Lord Presider, and the other king placed his share of the bet into it.

"Hex it!" Lady Ivanovna lamented. "I was so sure he wouldn't actually do something this stupid!"

"You overestimated his reason," Queen Xiulan said with a vicious smirk. The bodyguards were also looking triumphant or victorious, having made their own bets, but they did not relax their readiness. "We, on the other hand, know how his mind works. We have been dealing with so-called banditry and slave raids from La Sable ever since the Lord Presider rose to power, bandits that always seem to ride from the direction of their military's forts and camps."

"Hah ha! You fools actually believed that?" the Lord Presider sneered. "Well, I suppose you ignorant barbarians would fall for such a simple ruse! Those bandits were proud soldiers of La Sable, taking what was rightfully ours!"

There was another silence, followed by sighs.

Then more souls changed hands, most finding its way to Queen Xiulan, who was looking smug.

"May I ask a question, Donnar?" Artorias asked as this was happening.

"Oh? What is it, girlyboy? Was there some part of my perfect, genius plan you were too stupid to understand?" the Lord Presider said smugly.

"You intend to use your… 'secret magic' to control our minds and finish this plan of yours, do you not?"

"Of course!"

"How?"

An expression came slowly over the Lord Presider's face, shoving the smugness aside with difficulty. It was the same confused, 'I don't' understand what you're talking about' expression Artorias had occasionally seen come over the face of Katarina Claes. It was quickly shoved aside by anger. "Are you mocking me?-!"

"Not at all Donnar," Artorias said in his most reasonable voice, which he knew would drive the man into an even greater rage. "It's just… from what you did to my knight, your magic seems to require you to touch the person in question to affect them, correct?"

"Of course, you fool! You saw me do it, are you saying you actually need such a simple thing explained to you?"

"So… how do you plan to get close enough to us to use it," Artorias said, his tone still reasonable. "After all… I'm sure you can count. There are more of us than there are of you, and while you have taken my knight, she is not the only knight, and they all have swords longer than your arms.."

For a brief moment, a wide-eyed, panicked look came over the Lord Presider, but before Artorias could even dare hope that this blatantly obvious flaw would cause the La Sablican to change his mind, rage came over the man's face as he pointed at Artorias. "You think you're so smart, don't you, girlyboy? But I'm smarter! You, woman! Bring him to me! Knight, keep anyone else from stopping her!"

The Lord Presider's knight in the gaudy golden armor—which was more likely to be polished brass, since it shined better than gold—and Dame Maria both moved… and walked into each other. There was an awkward crash as both tried to keep walking, pushing and shoving at each other, and then a louder clash as the golden armored knight fell over on their side, Dame Maria falling on top of them.

Low chuckles and tittering rose around the room, even as Artorias winced as Dame Maria fell.

"Idiots!" the Lord Presider cried, his face becoming crimson with rage. "Can't you do anything right?-! Get up!"

There were more loud crashes as the two knights both tried to rise to their feet as ordered, only to get in each other's way. Dame Maria kept putting her hand on the gilded knights' chest or knee, fouling their efforts to rise and sending them both tumbling back to the ground.

With a strangled cry of anger over the snickers happening in the room, the Lord Presider reached into the tangle and grabbed a handful of Dame Maria's coat, trying to pull her off and nearly falling over himself as her weigh unbalanced him. Undeterred, he pulled her roughly away from the gilded knight, letting her drop to the ground when she was far enough away that she would no longer tangle with the La Sablican knight, who finally got to his feet.

"Well, what are you waiting for?-!" the Lord Presider roared, pointing at Artorias. "Get him and bring him to me!"

The gilded knight straightened, his helm turning until he faced Artorias, With an odd motion, everything from the knight's shoulders and downward twisted to align with his helm. The knight stepped forward, one gauntleted hand reaching towards Artorias, who stepped back, hand rising as he began to call on his Fire Magic—

There was a cry of surprise and indignation that drew the attention of everyone in the room and made the gilded knight pause, helmed head turning.

Dame Maria stood at her full height, one arm around the Lord Presider's neck in an unorthodox grab attack, her forearm pressing against the front of her throat. In her other hand was her curved sword, its titanite-alloyed blade faintly glowing blue.

"Step back from my king, knight," Dame Maria said. "Else the Lord Presider will come to harm."

"Let me go, woman!" the Lord Presider roared, his hands futilely trying to pull her arm away from his neck. "I command you! Submit! Submit to my power! Why aren't you submitting?-!"

"Do you expect me to exposit for you?" Dame Maria said. "I would be a fool then. Order your knight to stand down and surrender, or I will maim you."

That seemed to rouse the Lord Presider into a rage—or a tantrum, which the man probably considered the same thing—as he roared, stomping his feet and redoubling his efforts to try and pull at Dame Maria's arm that was holding him in place. If he was trying to stomp at her feet, he missed completely, the movements being more enthusiasm than aim, and Dame Maria's arm remained immovable. "Don't just stand there, knight!" the Lord Presider cried. "Kill her!"

The gilded knight's shoulders and body once more rotated to face the same direction as his helm, one gilded gauntlet reaching over his shoulder to draw the long, weighty claymore sheathed on his back. It was a large weapon, its blade wider than a man's head in the Hylian style. The blade was, of course, gilded to look like it was made of gold, which made it reflect the light as the La Sablican knight strode implacably towards Dame Maria.

"Your orders, my liege? Do I slay the Lord Presider?" Dame Maria said calmly as she slowly walked backwards, drawing the gilded knight away from Artorias.

Artorias really, really wanted to say yes. However… "No," he said, ignoring the disappointed sighs all around the room. "He might still prove useful."

"And this knight? He is under the influence of Dark Magic. I am reluctant to fatally strike down one in such a state."

Artorias hesitated, even as the knight drew closer to his knight, who had almost reached the far wall. "I leave that to your discretion."

For a brief moment, he saw a relieved smile on his knight's face. "As you command, my liege."

The Lord Presider let out a high-pitched scream of surprise as Dame Maria lifted him over her head with both hands and threw him bodily at the gilded knight. The gilded knight stumbled as his armor rang with the impact of the Lord Presider striking him, even as he caught the man.

"Against the walls, if you all please" Artorias said, barely remembering to remain diplomatic as he suited actions to words, moving back to put his back to the wall. "Move to the elevator."

"Shouldn't we all move in to gank him at once?" Prince Cezar said, even as everyone's bodyguards began to urge them towards the elevator platform. It hadn't been deactivated, and the platform remained there waiting for passengers as the Lord Presider swore breathlessly and struggled to his feet.

"I believe my knight intends to take the knight alive," Artorias said. "Let us give her the opportunity, shall we? We have our own people to see to."

Queen Siegmidala grimaced, turning towards the open balcony. "He's right. There's fighting down—dead gods!"

Everyone turned towards her at the exclamation. Artorias felt dread fill him.

Walls of fog had begun to rise over the balcony that looked out onto the dance floor below. Even as they watched, and the elevator that was the only entrance up and down from the balcony they were own vanished behind its own fog wall.

"Kill that bitch!" the Lord Presider roared from next to his knight as Dame Maria drew both of her swords.

The Gilded Slave Knight
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Dame Maria Campbell, the Blade of Artorias
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Gilded Royal Claymore
Replica of the two-handed swords issued by the royals of Hylia to their immediate guard detail. It's powerful strikes are said to crush an opponent's body and resolve alike.

It is said that in the land of Hylia, there has only ever been one hero, reborn again and again in their darkest hour. The silent warrior has faced all evil in their path, leaving broken hearts behind. Armed with sword and shield, he—Don't ignore me! Hey! Listen!