A Katarina Interlude

Katarina Claes was not a morning person. The only thing that got her to way up well before the sun rose was stubbornness. She'd have said she was back in highschool again, but there was MUCH less math, thank goodness.

She got up and got dressed, putting on the extra weights on her armor and around her forearms. Katarina had tried to put weights on her practice sword and told Maria it was for strength training, but her knight had heavy-attacked that harshly, saying it would ruin her muscle memory, so Katarina had needed to settle for weights on her armor, and putting the weights she'd gotten for her sword on her hoe when she went farming in the afternoon.

She was putting on weights like some sort of shounen battle manga character! Hopefully this didn't make her grow huge pecks and become an idiot who was only interested in eating and be completely oblivious to romance, despite somehow managing to get married and have a kid in the time skip.

Stifling a sneeze so she didn't wake her roommates up—they were all probably a little awake now, since everyone slept lightly, but if she wasn't too noisy they'd be able to get back to sleep—Katarina took her practice weapon from the rack next to her bed and headed outside to practice.


At last, the day had come.

Trees and hedges dug up from random spots in the countryside and all laboriously taken to her estate with the help of Lord Keith and offers of cake now lined the side of the driveway to her manor. They had been grown and sculpted by gardeners from the village who had used to work at the Dieke estate and hadn't been convicted with helping that woman hide the bodies, obscuring the view of her manufactories, farmlands and ricefields.

Another area had been leveled, seeded with grass, defined by hedges and decorated with… well, Maria had wanted several statues, but for now she had made do with a wooden sculpture of a gazebo, looking bleached as if its rage was up, and facing two stone statues that she had managed to sculpt. It wasn't her best work, in any life, and even more so since her expertise was flowing clothes and the naked human form, but they were identifiable as their intended subject, so it was… mostly fine. One was of Artorias of the Abyss, because she had a lot of references to work with, and the other was Bearer of the Curse, wearing one of the Crowns of Immortality, because she could cheat and not make the face because no one remembered what s/he had looked like. Both faced the dread gazebo with heroic resolve, weapons raised. Again, to cheat, she just had the Bearer with their hand up as if casting ancient sorceries or hexes.

In future, she wanted more sculptures, so that it would look like a proper battle, but for now she made do.

"You realize they didn't have gazebos in the time of Anor Londo, right?" Sophia commented when she'd seen the statues. "They only came much later, so they're probably creations of the Vile Pontiff or one of the paledrakes that came afterwards. And I'm pretty sure they're not normally that big."

"Artistic license," Maria said. "And the gazebo is a good place to put the buffet."

"And that's now how they cast sorceries or hexes, those needed some kind of staff to work! And Artorias' helmet didn't look like—"

"Do you still want to be the subject of my next sculpture or not?"

"They look absolutely fine, great work Maria!"

Her manor was ready…just. She had an appropriate location and decorations! Maria had even managed to get a hobby back in the process! She wouldn't be able to fill her estate with naked statuary any time soon, not by herself, but that had always seemed excessive, anyway.

Back in her office, her Workshop paperwork done, Maria took a deep breath and started writing invitations.

It was time for her to host a party.


Lady President of the Student Counil Diana Cavendish looked down at the envelope that had been delivered to her. It was… plain, all thing considered, the envelope sealed with a simple blob of wax instead of a seal. The handwriting, however, was recognizable.

Lady Heady Clerk Diana Cavendish, it read, you are cordially invited to my housewarming party…

Typically, Academy students didn't much receive party invitations, and it was understood that they could refuse if they did, since their studies were important, but they weren't actually forbidden from attending. The invitation said the event was on a Sar, when there were no classes.

"What's that?" Lady Carmilla said curiously as half of the student council—the older half—read their own invitations.

"We're being invited to a party," Lord Nigel said absently, the redhead still perusing his own invitation. "Ooh, she says she'll be making the cake!"

"And the cookies," Lord Harold said.

"She said Lady Katarina would be there!" Lady Ginger said excitedly.

"Who?" Lady Vita said with a frown.

"Lady Katarina Claes! The Saintess!"

"Can't be, we don't have religion anymore," Lady Margaret said.

"Hmm…" Lady Vice-President Fray hummed thoughtfully. "Well, it looks like we need to get more work done this week so you underclassmen can handle the paperwork on Sar."

Lady Evangeline raised an eyebrow. "Wat, you're going? I thought Academy students didn't go to parties?"

"No actually rule against it," Lady Fate said. "It's just inadvisable because it interferes with studies. Are we going, Lady Head Clerk?"

Diana looked up from her end of her invitation, where Maria was saying she'd understand if Diana was unable to attend and she would have food like that served at the party sent to the student council so that could still appreciate it. "I leave this to your own decision," she said.

"But you're going?" Lady Fray said, a smile on her face.

Of course she was.


To Your Grace, the Duchess Millidiana Claes, it read.

"Dearest, Keith, Matthew," Mili said, as she read that Katarina's formal armor had arrived, "clear all your plans for this Sar."

"Sorry mother, I can't," Keith said.

Mili looked up in shock at her son. Ah, was this the so-called rebellious age? Was he about to start going off and cavorting, spending his time with loose women, gambling and indulging in hedonistic pleasures of the wealthy? She and her husband had been setting aside money for this, and truthfully she thought they'd be needing to give that money to Keith sooner, but for it to come now…!

"Maria is inviting me to a party on that day," Keith said, looking completely innocent as he held up his own invitation.

Matthew nodded, face solemn, but she was an Adeth. As such, she not only smiled with her eyes, she had a huge grin. "Alas, I'm afraid my Sar is already spoken for, auntie," she said, holding up her own invitation.

Mili raised an eyebrow, but found herself smiling as well.


Rafael thought ruefully to himself that it had been some time since he'd had to go around the ministry delivering mail. Fortunately, the Medicinal Magic department was in a centralized location since it double as the Ministry's infirmary, the little prison infirmary annex notwithstanding,

Ever since Maria discovered the 8 types of blood, the Medicinal Magic department had been… well, the best he could describe it was they were going through a fad. All sorts of blood-related research had come up, like testing if blood from a Fire Magic wielder reacted to a Water Magic wielder despite being both the same type and tinge, whether you can test blood to be able to identify what sort of magic someone has and therefore predict what sort of magic a child will manifest…

Or at least, that was what many people would like to do. Sadly, there were always budget allocations and always ways to inadvertently piss of the budget allocator. No one accosted him as he entered the department, all busy with their own problems. In the corner, someone was getting Light Magic for their back while they swore at whoever had ordered so many bandages, and were sworn back at for not using a magic tool.

Lady Palin Dahl was in her office doing paperwork when he came in, and she looked up with an annoyed look when he knocked on the door. "Director Rafael," she said, ostensibly because adding the 'vice' was too hard, "will this take long?"

"Not really," he said, handing her an invitation. "I was just asked to give this to you."

The tall woman barely glanced at it as her eyes lit up. "Ah, mail? Good, then I need you to—"

"I'm sorry, we're the Magic Tool Laboratory, not the mail room," Rafael said smoothly, and she slumped. "That's personal mail. Just send your reply back to me if you have one?"

The other Light Magic wielder glanced down at the envelope and blinked. "Huh. What are you doing delivering party invitations?"

"Being a good fiancé," Rafael said. "Please let us know as soon as possible."

The woman nodded absently as she opened Maria's invitation and began to read…


"Excuse me my lady, but you have received an invitation," Anne said, handing Katarina an envelope.

"Eh?" Katarina said. "I party invitation? I thought Dame Campbell said I wasn't allowed to go to parties she hasn't approved."

"You will find she approved this one, my lady," Anne said.

Katarina opened the invitation, read it and gasped. "Oh! Maria's throwing a housewarming party!" She paused. "Why didn't she just tell me? We just saw each other?"

"I have no idea, my lady," Anne said. "Will you be sending her a reply?"

"Yeah, I'll tell her tomorrow," Katarina said.

"My lady…" Anne said neutrally.

"Hmm?"

"Have you thought of what this would do to little Shana?"

Katarina gave Anne a horrified look. "She wouldn't…"

"I'm sure you'd know best, my lady," Anne said, the age-old approved way of saying lady didn't know best..

Katarina groaned. "Ugh… okay, wait a little, I'll write out my reply… Maria, why do you have to be so weird?-!"

"You were the one who asked to squire with her, newbie," one of the other knights in the room said, to general laughter.

Okay, Katarina had to admit, they had a point.

The next day, there was a stack of invitations with their morning cookies.

By afternoon, there were frantic letters asking for family and servants to send people their formal armors.


"Wait, I got an invitation?" Larna Smith said in surprise.

"Maria considers you a friend," Rafael said. "Jumping from a window and breaking your leg to save her mother does that, apparently."

"Huh…" Larna said, looking gladdened for some reason. "I'll have to put on something nice… wait, is Selena Burg invited too?"

"Probably," Rafael said. "They are friends."

"Oooh… that's awkward. She hates me," Larna said.

"Well, you did let her get Dark Magicked, and use her without her permission," Rafael said.

"Sora did the actual Dark Magicking!" Larna said, pouting and pointing in the general direction of his desk.

"Yeah, I have to assume she's not too fond of him either," Rafael admitted. "But Sora's never shown his face to Selena ever again, AND he's not the one who was supposed to be protecting her." He tilted his head. "Actual, Duchess Claes will probably be there, so Selena might be the least of your problems."

"Maybe I shouldn't go…" Larna said, even as she opened the invitation and began to quickly read it. "It'll probably be really awk—Ooh, she's going to be using that Magic Tool you asked me to build? Oh, I DEFINITELY need to be there now!"

"Won't it be awkward?" Rafael smirked.

"Hey, I need to know! You two were so specific about what the magic tool should be I practically had a design diagram!" Larna said. "I want to see what it does!"

"You know what it does, you built it."

"Yes, but I want to know what I built it FOR!"

"Even with the people who might hate you being there?"

"I'm not the one who actually used Dark Magic on a duke's daughter, you shouldn't be so smug," Larna said.

"That wasn't me," Rafael said virtuously. "That was my unfortunate half-brother Sirius Dieke, who sadly has passed on."

"Damn it! I wish I had a dead half-brother I could blame for all my mistakes too!"

"I would advise you against it," Rafael said. "The ten years before were the bed of chaos."

Larna tapped her lips. "Maybe I can fake my death and go back to working here under a new identity…"

"Get back to work, Larna."