Under normal circumstances, besieging the castle of Morfae Londo would have been a blood-drenched affair. Any foe would have needed to cross the breadth of all of Sorcier to reach the city, needing to do battle against many lesser castles and fortresses, and crossing bridges ready to be set on fire by dragons. Once the city was reached, its wall would need to be besieged and broken, and then battle would be done through the city's winding streets, where many intersections were inconvenient for carriages under normal circumstances and murderous killzones with only a few barricades. Thousands would die before the enemy would even reach the castle's walls, which would stall any invader for weeks or months. Though they manage to break through the walls, the mythic architecture of the castle would ensure every step gained would be paid for in a flood of blood… which would make any entry difficult, as lubricating the ramps leading upward would make an already murderous pathway suicidal.
Nearly all of these defenses were subverted, at the low, low price of La Sable making an enemy of yet another kingdom. After all, what was one more?
"They intruded on the tunnels of The King Below?" King Artorias said, his tone was not so much horrified as morbidly fascinated, like he was watching Katarina eating her weight in food.
"Yes, my king," the member of the Royal Guard—who Maria's squire had identified with a cheerful, "Hello, Tancella!" despite the knight's armor being completely undifferentiated from their fellows—said. "We don't know how many tunnels they intruded on, but that's their problem. We have been fighting a holding tactic to hold them in place so that The King Below's Royal Vanguard can take them from behind, but we're being pushed back. They've brought armored boars, and their using them like heavily armored knights to act as the vanguard down hallways."
"No knights in heavy armor?" someone exclaimed, causing confused mutters from the knights present. While using armored boars was not unheard of, it was usually a move of desperation, since the things were violent, temperamental, and would eat small children and some adults if given the chance. Those they didn't eat, they gored to death.
"This makes no sense," The First Queen of the Sword said. "Even though the Lord Presider is a complete fool, the La Sable's armies are full of competent knights and officers. They'd be using heavily armored knights for that sort of tactic, not boars. Is it some kind of distraction? Are their powerful knights elsewhere?"
"Well, we won't be finding out here," King Miquella said grimly, looking about at all the fallen La Sablicans. "None of these fools surrendered, so it's not like there's anyone we can interrogate."
Maria coughed. "While it is true none surrendered, we did manage to take some of them prisoner, your majesty."
Everyone turned to look at her. "We did?" Prince Cezar exclaimed.
Maria nodded. "My squire was able to subdue several of the La Sablicans without killing them. With a little Light Magic, they should be in a fit state to interrogate."
"She… did?" King Artorias said, surprised.
"Yes, my king. Shall I have some of them retrieved?"
Fortunately, Katarina was able to remember where she'd left the people she'd knocked out, and men with broken noses—and more importantly, were still breathing—were pulled out of the pile of bodies. They were disarmed—that is, their weapons were taken from them—and improvised bonds were made from nearby table cloths, as no one had any convenient chains and ropes on their person.
"Katarina subdued all these men?" the Third Prince said as more and more unconscious men were retrieved from various piles, with the watching knights looking impressed. A few had additional injuries from being trampled.
"Yes," Maria confirmed.
"Katarina Claes?" Prince Alan said. "About this tall, eats like a hole in the ground, is friendly with everyone she meets, literally doesn't realize when people are being mean to her?"
"If you know of someone else of that description, Duchess Claes would like to know, as she has been looking for a fake Katarina."
"… How?" Lord Nicol said.
"Lord Ascart, are you doubting my ability to teach my squire?"
"We're not doubting your ability, I'm trying to reconcile history with what you just told me!" Prince Alan exclaimed.
"That seems like a problem of comprehension," Maria said.
The unconscious La Sablicans had no identifying marks on them to denote rank, and no one recognized any of them as a notable personage, which was puzzling. Still, it meant that any of them was as good as anyone else to interrogate…
One of the La Sablicans was bound hand and foot before being given to some of the King's Blades for a hasty interrogation. In the meantime, the knights and lords present rested quickly to recover their stamina. Maria took the time to reload her cylinders, quickly cleaning out the chambers and barrel before refilling them with black powder and bullets.
It was during this time that the remaining members of the La Sablican delegation who weren't lying dead and wounded made themselves known and surrendered. There were a lot of dark mutterings as one of the more recognizable La Sablicans stepped forward, bracketed on both sides by armed knights.
"Hi, Mircalla!"
The mood struck its foot on a rock and stumbled as Katarina called out cheerfully, one hand waving with friendly enthusiasm, even as Lord Keith tried to pull it down. Lady Karnstein actually smiled, nodding towards Maria's squire, even as she turned towards the king and bowed. A series of hisses, moans and groans came from the undead woman's throat.
There was a moment's silence, before the king turned to where Lord Keith was whispering at Katarina to not butt in. "Squire Claes, I could I call upon you to translate?"
"Su—I mean, yes, your Majesty!" Katarina said cheerfully. Next to her, Lord Keith looked horrified. "Mircalla says that she has been chosen by the remaining La Sable delegation as their representative to offer their surrender." More hissing and moaning. "She says she didn't know what the Lord Presider was planning, only that they were ordered to bring the men with them as their dates."
"Didn't you find that suspicious?" King Artorias said.
The snort from Lady Karnstein made needed no translation.
Katarina started patting at her formal armor. "Ah, I think I have a handkerchief here somewhere… Oh, you don't need it? Ah, Mircalla says that they didn't find it weird, they just thought that the Lord Presider wanted to make sure they had dates pretty enough to make La Sable look good."
"So you deny any knowledge of what the Lord Presider had planned?" King Artorias said.
Lady Karnstein gestured towards where some of the fallen still lay. Despite the blood, they dresses they wore were tight and bared their shoulders, and Maria recognized the style as being from La Sable. The moons and hisses were spoken through gritted teeth.
"She says that if they knew what would happen, they'd have known to run away," Katarina said, voice slightly subdued. "Um, she also says that to her knowledge, none of the armed men that came with the delegation are part of La Sable's knights. She says that as far as she knows, they were all mercenaries personally hired and armed by the Lord Presider. Uh, including these people we fought here."
At those words, Prince Cezar swore and drew a knife, calling for one of the bodies of the fallen La Sablicans. He bent down and tore open the man's left sleeve, revealing a tattoo that was indistinct to Maria at the distance she was in. One of the Xiarmen near the prince swore when he saw the mark, obviously recognizing it.
"These men are part of the Golden Horn mercenaries," Prince Cezar said. "I've fought them before. They're usually hired by La Sablican nobility as deniable bandits that they send into Xiarmah to raid for slaves."
There were several growls, and many of the Xiarmen spat, their aim unerringly on one of the fallen mercenaries.
"Cousin, I must respectfully request you allow us to dismember these animals," Queen Xiulan said, voice cold. "To ensure they don't rise up at our backs as a threat."
"A moment, cousin," King Artorias said, turning back to Lady Karnstein. "I accept your surrender, Lady Karnstein. Dame Dustiness, see to it that the surviving La Sable delegation is placed in custody. A small guard should suffice… for their own protection."
Dame Lalatina bowed. "As you command, your majesty!"
Blood continued to flow for the rest of the night. Because of the La Sablicans' method of entry into the castle, the gates and walls were still controlled by the Royal Guard, allowing them to keep the invaders contained within the castle. The mythic architecture was turned towards its murderous purpose as overlooking ledges became perches for archers, crossbowmen and what members of the Royal Guard were armed with gehrmans. The invading La Sablicans took refuge in the enclosed side hallways, only to be pursued by the castle's guards. The fighting spilled out into the gardens surrounding the castle, and men and women had fallen among the shadows. The armored boars quickly went out of control, which was both blessing and curse. Hallways were abandoned as the blood-maddened beasts roamed, attacking anything that moved. Hasty barricades allowed the defenders to secure those hallways, but it also meant they were cut off from the invaders.
With the ballroom secured, servants, clerks, maids, and other non-combatants were evacuated there to keep them safe. Maria was relieved when she saw Anne, Shana and Sadako among them, looking unhurt. The Duchess Claes and the other ladies took charge of organizing the ballroom, directing the recovery of the fallen and laying them out in hopes they would revive. Servants were able to retrieve mops and rags to clean portions of the floor, and table cloths were laid out to give people some place to rest.
Groups were sent out, Wind Magic users accompanied by knights, so they could use their magic to relay messages and allow for better coordination as knights, lords and ladies were sent down to do battle by their king. With the battle now taking place in the castle, the King remained in the ballroom, using it was a command center to coordinate the fighting. Maria remained at the king's side, eyes constantly watchful. After all, the La Sablican's had already found two ways to get their men into the castle. She needed to be ready in case there was a third.
Near dawn, the retaliation that they had been awaiting finally happened. From the deep basements and sewers of the castle, squeezing out from insignificant seeming cracks in forgotten tunnels, came the rats. They swarmed upward like a black flood, rats the size of dogs, rats the size of ogres, rats the size of houses. They swarmed the from behind, tearing at their legs and backs and heads. The La Sablicans fought back, of course, but there were always more rats, and they carried with them deadly toxins and ill health. Men who had been fighting fiercely suddenly fell over dead where they stood, having ignored the deadly symptoms that the rats had infected them with.
Those were the lucky ones.
Others were dragged back down, down into the basements, the sewers, into the cracks in the walls. They were dragged down into the dark of hidden tunnels hewn through stone by rats' teeth, down into the dark depths far below the ground.
One did not trespass on the realm of the King Below uninvited.
When dawn broke, the rats and all their victims were gone, carried down into abyssal depths far beneath the earth.