Unfortunately, sending Sadako out was a mistake.

No sooner had the door closed behind the maid, the door opened again, and Katarina stuck her head in once more. "Are you awake now?" she whispered loudly.

"Yes, Lady Mary woke me up," Maria said, sitting up in bed. Rafael had moved as far as he could to the other side of the bed in an attempt at propriety, but Katarina only glanced at him and grinned, giving Maria an approving gesture. With the door opened, more light entered the room, and she could hear the voices from the next room more clearly. "This is not our room. Where are we?"

"Oh, this is one of the rooms near mother and father's room," Katarina said cheerfully. "It was Marquis Cayenne and his wife's, but they ran away as soon as they could, so it was free. It was closer than your room, so mother told Anne to bring you back here. And since you were here, Anne brought Sadako and Shana too, and I brought Rafael when I found him. " Ah. So that's why Katarina wasn't surprised Rafael was in the bed with her. "Anne and Sadako brought up your clothes from your room, so you can get dressed if you want. Nicol said the king is going to want to talk to you in the morning." Still smiling widely, she turned towards Rafael. "Rafael, Sora brought up some of your clothes too, since your robes had blood on them. They're over there." She pointed at a bag that Maria recognized as one that Rafael had taken with him to the Ministry.

Rafael, who'd pulled the blanket over his head, said, "Thank you, Lady Katarina."

"You're welcome! Join us out here when you're ready! It'll be just like when we were at school."

Rafael coughed. "I was never at school with you, Lady Katarina. You're thinking of my poor, unfortunately dead half-brother, Sirius Dieke."

"Eh? No, you were the—"

"Nope, that's definitely my dead half-brother, Sirius Dieke and not me!"


By the clock, it was so far past midnight it was morning, but they still had hours until dawn. Despite this, most of the people in the sitting room outside their door were still awake, though their clothes were mildly disheveled. The twin princes were there, and for once the Third Prince wasn't making a nuisance of himself. Instead, the two had dragged a pair of overstuffed chairs that from the trails on the floor had been on either side of the fireplace, and both looked like they really didn't want to move despite seeming wide awake. Prince Alan's feet were soaking in a tub of water, his boots and socks discarded next to his chair.

Sophia was sitting on one of the sofas, a book on her lap open but unread. In addition to a leather belt that allowed her to carry her revolvers on either hip, the scaleless woman had a wide leather belt slung diagonally across her chest. On the belt were loops that carried loaded cylinders to reload her weapons. Her brother sat next to her, his face perfectly pretty and impassive as usual, although that could mean anything from him being in perfect health or on the edge of unconsciousness.

Lord Keith sat in the other sofa, heavily armed. That was the only way to interpret the human-sized dirt doll made of stone—a stone doll, then?—standing behind him. Considering Maria had dressed in full hunter's garb, her firearms reloaded and throwing knives refilled and her blades at her sides, she couldn't blame them.

"Yay!" Katarina said from next to Keith as Maria and Rafael stepped out of the room, both fully dressed now, although Rafael wasn't wearing his Ministry robe. Her squire was still wearing her formal armor, and there were spots of dried blood in places, none of it Katarina's. Her sword was sheathed at her side, and she seemed to be patting the pouch where she carried her lead throwing shot absently. "We're all finally back together! It's been so long!"

The low table in the middle of the sitting room was filled with plates containing cuts of cold meat, half-eaten loaves of bread, and small bowls of jam. It was a positively indecorous arrangement of food, so it was probably Katarina's idea of a repast. Maria's squire seemed oblivious to the smirks everyone was directing towards them, or how Rafael was blushing and pointedly looking up at the ceiling to avoid the looks.

"And whose fault was that again?" Mary said, as she directed a pointed look towards Maria.

"Well, I'm sorry, but I have a job in the Minstry," Rafael said smoothly. "As much as I'd like to see you all more often, I'm not like the rest of you. I have to work for a living."

"Hey! So do I, you know!" Sophia protested. "I'm a working adult!"

"The three of us have work in the castle," Alan said. Nicol and the Third Prince both nodded.

"I help father with running the duchy," Keith said.

"I'm a squire, I train every day," Katarina said proudly.

There was a pause. It lengthened like Rafael's paperwork in the evenings.

Everyone turned to look towards Mary Hunt.

"What?" she asked.

"Mary… what exactly do you do all day?" Sophia asked pointedly.

"I'm a noble lady and a fourth daughter," Mary said airily. " I'm not even inheriting. We're not expected to work."

"So… you're saying you have free time every day?" Keith said, looking like he'd bitten into something sour.

"And don't have to do paperwork?"

"Or wake up early just to get to work on time?"

"Wait, why is everyone angry at me?"

Rafael caught Maria's eye and winked, and Maria suppressed a chuckle as the two of them sat on the remaining sofa. Rafael reached over to help himself to one of the pieces of bread, cutting some slices with a knife on one of the plates. "Thanks," he said as Katarina handed him one of the bowls of jam—red currant—which he passed to Maria. The two began spreading jam on the slices to sweeten the no-longer-fresh bread. Maria ate sparingly, as she was waiting for Sadako to return with food, and she didn't want to fill her stomach before her maid returned. She wasn't Katarina, who could just keep eating without consequence, after all.

Speaking of which… "Lady Katarina, where is Anne? Is she resting?"

"Oh, she went with Sadako to help her get to the kitchen," Katarina said cheerfully as she steadfastly ignored—or simply didn't comprehend, which was just as likely—the way everyone all as coming together to decry Mary Hunt's Marchioness-like lack of occupation. Her squire seemed to misinterpret Maria's frown of concern. "Don't worry, they won't get lost. Anne knows how to get around—wait. You're calling me 'Lady Katarina' again, not 'squire'…!"

Maria shrugged, trying and slightly failing to be affected by the bright, happy smile on Katarina's face. "Given the situation, place and occasion, I see no reason to stand on formality," she most definitely did not mumble.

"Yay! We can talk like friends again!" Katarina cheered, and Maria suddenly found herself being hugged.

"Armor! Armor!" Maria cried as the breastplate of Katarina's formal armor pressed against her. Even through her shirt, vest and coat, the armor was really hard!

"Oh, sorry!" Katarina said, letting go and backing away, but not before everyone was glaring at Maria again.

She just gave them a flat look in return, then leaned sideways to press against Rafael. He glanced towards her, then followed her gaze. Maria felt his arm go around her shoulders, pulling her close and rolling his eyes.

"Ah, by the way, Rafael…" Katarina said, "could I ask you to do me a favor?"

"As long as it doesn't involve paperwork or Light Magic," Rafael said instantly.

Katarina smiled happily and go up, dashing out of a room so fast that if Maria was acting as her knight it would have prompted a scolding. But she wasn't right now, so it didn't. She came back pushing a tea tray with a pot. "Um… could you make us tea?" she said, hands clasped pleadingly. "Please? I haven't had your tea in ages!"

Next to Sophia, Nicol suddenly sat up straight, his gaze focused intently at Rafael. Maria gave the Ascart a pointed look, putting a possessive arm around Rafael's shoulders.

Rafael looked at the tea pot and rolled his eyes, but said, "Fine, fine. I was getting thirsty anyway." He made no move to get up. "You're going to have to move that pot closer."

It took great effort to not move or let go of Rafael as he made the tea, testing the temperature of the water, and then doing all sort of incomprehensible things to the leaves and so on. While Maria could enjoy drinking tea—it was the blood of leaves, after all—she would be the first to admit she couldn't understand a single thing about how Rafael made the beverage.

Eventually, the familiar smell of Rafael's tea filled the sitting room as he began to pour it into cups, offering Maria the first. As soon as Maria accepted it, Katarina and, surprisingly, Nicol's hands darted forward, each grabbing a cup for themselves. Everyone else was far more sedate, and Mary looked relieved to no longer be the center of everyone's attention.

There was a brief silence as they all sipped the tea, broken only by Katarina making happy eating sounds.

"Ah," the Third Prince finally said. "This is just like old times…"

There were mutters of ascent, and another silence as they all had another sip of tea.

Later, she would probably be brought before the other rulers so that King Artorias could explain her abilities and why she was not to be a cause of war, and that Sorcier wasn't dabbling in Dark Magic. After that, she would probably have to find time alone with her squire and speak to her about her first battle, find out how—or maybe just if—her squire's mind had been scarred by the experience. She would probably have to face the fact that Sorcier was almost certainly going to war with La Sable, and that her responsibilities would require her to raise levies, prepare her lands for her absence and the loss of many of its men and women.

"So… Mary, I think it's time we talked about the issue we've all been pretending isn't there," Prince Alan said. Everyone but Mary and Katarina—who as usual looked like she had no idea what was going on—nodded in agreement.

"Oh? And what issue is that, Alan?" Mary said.

"Mary…" the Third Prince said. "We can't keep pretending anymore. It's plainly obvious that you… are basically a Marchioness."

"You take that back, Stuart!" Mary cried indignantly, looking offended.

"Mary, you just hang around at home tending your garden, attend parties and not actually help run your family estate," Sophia said. "That's definitely Marchioness behavior right there."

"Look, just because I don't push papers around all day like the rest of you—! Besides, that's not all I do! I'm teaching Shana proper etiquette and conduct!"

"Mary, in my experience teaching a commoner child with Light Magic how to act like a noble is definitely Marchioness behavior," Rafael said.

Later, Maria would do all those things.

But for now, however… Maria sat with her friends, and could pretend they were all still callow youths attending the Academy.