A Katararina Interlude
"It's a magic tool, right?" Auntie Leona said, frantically examining Maria's carriage.
Katarina glanced at Maria, who had remained seated inside the carriage to allow Katarina an uninterrupted reunion with her relatives. The super OP main character shook her head, obviously confused. "Uh, no it's a carriage," Katarina said. It was, after all. She'd seen it back when it was just an old piece of junk in disrepair in Maria's estate, and even after Maria had become friends with Larna Smith. "It's like a room on wheels?"
"I know that! But it has some kind of magic tool in it, right?"
"Uh, no? It has nice heavy curtains, and really comfy benches, and there's lots of space for storage, though."
"Are these trained horses, then?" Cousin Marie said. Unlike Auntie Leona, she was examining the horses, who were standing patiently now that they'd brought the carriage in front of the Claes Manor's front door. "Have they been taught to follow verbal orders?"
Katarina glanced at Maria, who seemed even more confused by the question, so that was probably a no. "Uh, I don't think so? They're just good horses. And they make good fertilizer." Katarina glanced towards Keith and Matthew for help, but they both seemed to have eaten something that didn't agree with them, since they were hunched over with shaking shoulders, each with a hand over their mouth as if trying not to be sick. She hoped they were all right. Well, Maria was here, maybe she could Light Magic them better.
"Katarina, are you being obtuse on purpose?" Auntie Leona demanded.
"Uh, no? I don't even know what the means!" Really, why was auntie acting so weird? It was like she'd never seen a carriage before.
"I'm weird? You just rode in on a carriage with no driver!"
Katarina stared blankly at her aunt, who had just read her mind. "Why would it need a driver? Wait, did you read my mind?"
Oh dear, Keith and Mashu have eaten something really bad! There were both doubled over and panting like they couldn't breathe! Oh no, maybe it was more than bad food? Had they perhaps gotten some sort of terrible respiratory disease? Hopefully they would be all right.
Katarina saw her mother blink and shook her head, then stepped forward. "Hello, Katarina dear," Mother said simply. "Welcome home." Mother enfolded her in a hug. "Leona, Marie, stop being silly and help me welcome Katarina home properly. She only has five days free from her squireship, stop wasting time."
Auntie Leona glanced up, looking torn between Katarina and whatever it was she found so strangely interesting about Maria's carriage. "But.. but… carriage! Horses! Magic Tool!"
"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for why Lady Maria's carriage behaves the way it does," Mother said dismissively. "Now come over here and tell your niece you missed her."
Auntie Leona pouted, but stood from where she'd been bent over looking under the carriage as if she would find some sort of Magic Tool hidden there. "Hello Katarina!" she said with a wide smile as she pounced on Katarina, grabbing her and her mother in a hug. "It's so nice to see you again! Do you want to go back with us to Hasard and live there from now on so that Mili knows what it's like to have her eldest daughter leave her all alone without any daughterite to sustain her?"
"She went to the Academy for two years," Mother said pointedly.
"That fact you know what it's like and did it anyway makes you a terrible person!"
Mother ignored auntie as Marie stopped her examination of the horses and hugged Katarina too. "Hello cousin!" Marie greeted, giving her a peck on both cheeks. "I missed you!"
That seemed the signal for everyone to stop staring at Maria's perfectly ordinary carriage and start greeting Katarina properly, Uncle Salmon—Solman? No, something else… Saloman!—Uncle Saloman staying behind to make sure that whatever Keith and Mashu had eaten wasn't too bad. Katarina said hi to Cousin Adella and Iosefka and Watson, and Uncle Henryk and Aunt Sheryl and Henriette and Eileen and Viola and Cousin Olga was very last because she was tsundere and Katarina had to go to her but that was all right.
After weeks of training and etiquette lessons and not being allowed any romance novels, seeing all her cousins was a wonderful treat!
Maria stayed in the carriage as Katarina was greeted by her surprisingly extensive family. In their midst, much about her squire suddenly made sense, in as much as Katarina ever did. Many of her eccentricities were clearly in her blood, including her tendency towards lacking formality.
Across from her in the carriage, Anne sat impassively, face calm and expressionless. At least, most people would have assumed she was expressionless.
"Well," Maria said quietly as the extended greetings continued, "I suppose this is where we must part for now. I will see you both back in five days, Anne."
Anne bowed deeply. "Very well, Lady Maria," she said, turning to open the door on the opposite side of the carriage so she could begin helping unload Katarina's luggage.
Maria reached out and grabbed the door, holding it closed. Anne paused, glancing at her. "Anne…" Maria said hesitantly. She felt an urge to close her eyes, to give herself room to think, but she remained resolved. "I wish you and mother the best. Truly. Please come back home quickly."
Anne met her eyes. For a moment, they just sat there in silence, gazes locked. Then Anne nodded. "Nothing will stop me, Lady Maria."
Maria grimaced. "And… a personal request?"
Anne sat there, waiting.
"Could you… address to me as simply Maria from now on?"
The barest hint of a curve appeared on the edge of Anne's mouth. "Is it not improper for the common maid to address a woman of nobility in such a way?"
"When I went to save my mother, you were there," Maria said. "You faced the ogres that barred our path. You helped me carry her out of that pit we found her in. It was you who allowed Larna's Magic Tool to let us find her. As far as I am concerned, this is long overdue. Thank you for loving my mother, Anne Shelley. Thank you for bringing the light into her life that I could not. Even if you two shall part, you shall always have my gratitude for that. And if you stay, I would be glad to call you stepmother."
This time, Anne blushed. "That's… that's a bit forward, don't you think? We haven't even talked about it…" She paused, then glanced at Maria.
"I am most certainly not threatening you to marry my mother or else," Maria said placidly. "If you part, then you part. I promise not to use Dark Magic most foul to cleanse such an abominable thought from your mind and make you see the folly of you ways. You need not fear."
"It's hard when you phrase it like that," Anne said. "You were always formidable… Maria." Her face also became placid. "Well, I'm glad you won't do such a thing. If you did, then I'd have to ask Lady Katarina for a little help, and she is sure to go to her friends. All of her friends."
They sat in silence as outside some young woman started yelling that someone let her go, and they heard Katarina say something about 'sunderay' or something.
"But I won't have to, because you won't have to," Anne said quietly, and something seemed to leak out of the air. "I will be with Alice for as long as she'll have me. And if we should part, I will always hold her dear in my heart." Suddenly she reached up and flicked Maria on the forehead. "Now, stop threatening me or I shall tell your mother and your squire. They'll cry. Do you want to make them cry?"
A smile broke the placid, doll-like façade on Maria's face. "No, stepmother," she said.
That made a blush lightly tinge Anne's face, but she nodded in satisfaction, opened the door, and stepped out.
As the door closed, Maria slipped the throwing knives she had drawn and almost thrown at the sudden movement back into her belt, nodding in satisfaction, her daughterly duty done.
…
She really hoped Anne didn't tell her mother about this. Mother was sure to be very cross with Maria if she found out!
Outside, she heard the sounds of the gathering moving away from the carriage as Katarina and her relatives moved indoors. Eventually, there was a knock on the door.
Maria opened the carriage and stepped down, bowing towards her grace, Duchess Millidiana Claes of Morpork. "Your Grace."
"Lady Maria," Duchess Claes said, nodding in acknowledgement. "Thank you for allowing my daughter the time to come here."
It was… not nothing, but Maria didn't want to say that. "There was time before the international Assembly," she said instead. "I will pick her up in five days, and then we shall be attending your gathering after that."
The Duchess nodded. "Are you sure you will not come inside? Everyone would be most glad to meet you."
Maria hesitated. "I had intended to accept such an invitation… But to be honest, that woman who seemed so strangely enamored of my carriage disturbs me."
The Duchess let out a heavy sigh. "That… is understandable. Then how about tea, tomorrow? She should have calmed down by then."
Maria considered, then nodded. "I would be honored to attend, your grace. "
"Then we shall see you then, Lady Maria."
The two exchanged formal goodbyes, and Maria stepped back into her carriage.
"Lady Maria."
Maria paused in the act of closing the door. "Yes, your grace?"
"Why doesn't your carriage have a driver?"
Maria blinked. "It… doesn't need it?" After all, what else could she say.
Her grace glanced at the horses, then shook her head. "Well, I shall not keep you any longer, Lady Maria. Until tomorrow, then."
Maria nodded. "Until tomorrow." She closed the door.
As the carriage began to move, heading back for her manor, Maria kept herself from any unseemly displays of childish giggles. It was Sar, Rafael was at home, and she had no Katarina to teach! Humming to herself, Maria looked forward to the rest of the day spent in her room being ravished violently by her fiancé, with only brief breaks for lunch, dinner, and telling the children a bedtime story. It was, she felt, something she deserved.
She headed home.
