Night had fallen like someone who had been stabbed in the back, and had for some time when Maria had finally nudged Katarina awake. "My squire, wake up. We have arrived."

"Five more minutes, Anne…" Katarina moaned, her voice echoing slightly from inside her helmet.

Maria gave her a flat look, and drew out her short sword.

After using the helmet as a drum for a few moments, Katarina was now very awake. "I think I've gone deaf!" Katarina cried, then winced. "Ah! Don't yell in the helmet! No, don't yell! Don't yell! Katarina, stop yelling!"

"Uh, cousin, if you want to not yell, just stop talking," Dame Matthew said, looking like she was trying very hard not to find amusement in her cousin's suffering and failing miserably.

Katarina abruptly went silent. "… Yay, that worked! Thanks, Cousin Mashu, ARGH! It stopped working! Why did it stop working?-!"

Maria rolled her eyes and left her squire to figure out the intricacies of not going deaf inside one's own helmet by herself. Not because it was funny, but because it was something she was perfectly capable of learning without assistance.

….

Eventually.

….

Maybe.

…

Maria stepped out of the carriage, looking around at the abandoned farm and glad she had told her wards to remain inside. With the deaths of the slavers that had used to farmstead as their base of operations and its landowner the once-Marquise David Mason now imprisoned for treason, the land had been allowed to lie untended as his properties were still unmanaged. It had been a good spot for all the knights she had recruited to gather before they set off for the border between Sorcier and La Sable.

It was also where they were meeting with their contact.

Already, the farm was full of dark shapes that resolved into horses burdened with equipment, and other carriages. Now that she was closer, she could see that there was a hint of firelight coming from behind the farmhouse, blocked from sight from the road by walls raised up by Earth Magic. There were only a few knights standing out in the dark, either speaking in small groups or simply walking to keep themselves limber. Many glanced towards them at the sound of Katarina's confused cries, although it was difficult to discern what they were thinking between the gloom and the armor.

People were also pointing at her carriage for some reason, although she couldn't think why.

Amidst all the dark shapes, one wearing a robe immediately stepped forward with an enthusiastic step. "Ah, Lady Maria! I see your carriage is as distinctive as ever," the cheerful voice of Larna Smith said. "Looks like we're riding off together again!" There was a pause. "Um, that maid isn't with you this time, is she?"

"No, Anne is not accompanying us, Larna Smith," Maria said, slightly bemused as the woman sighed in relief.

"Ah, that's great! Uh, not that I didn't enjoy her company last time, ha ha!"

"As you say…" Maria said. "Do you know where Dame Lalatina is?"

"Here, Dame Maria," a voice said, and the knight in question stepped out of the gloom. She was clad in the heavy, stone armor of the Rocks of Havel, although instead of a Greatclub or a large chunk of stone and metal shaped like a dragon's tooth, she only carried a longsword. "Nearly everyone is here save for the Catarina contingent, and are ready to set out in the morning. They should be arriving with the provisions for everyone—ah, there they are."

Maria turned to see three carriages approaching. It probably said something of her view of the Catarini that she had expected their carriages to also have a resemblance to a white onion. In contrast to her assumption these were high boxy things, each pulled by a massive bull the size of her carriage and looked like small, elongated houses on massive wheels. It was hardly subtle means of conveyance, but as they planned to move faster than rumor could get ahead of them, that would hopefully not be relevant. More importantly, each carriage could carry a significant amount of provisions, once things like beds, chests and other travelling luxuries were removed.

The original intention had been for each knight to carry their own provisions, but that had quickly been declared unfeasible. The Catarini had volunteered to handle the provisions, stating the size of their carriages. While they could not be fully laden—even the bulls had limits—with the right ingredients and Water Magic, some provisions can be stretched a long way.

Also, everyone agreed Catarini were usually the best when it came to cooking on the field. Maria was willing to take the word of seasoned veterans.

Maria cast her gaze among the various carriages and horses as the Catarini carriages approached. They were going to make a strange procession moving towards the border, but most would be unremarkable enough to look like knights on the move to join the forces being mustered.

That would only last until they made he detour towards the wilds where the smuggling routes were, though.

Maria turned back to Lalatina and Larna Smith. "Larna Smith, do you have accommodations?"

"Nope!" the woman said with nearly Katarina-like cheer. "I hitched a ride here after I got my orders to accompany you, but they just dropped me off and left. Same with Sora."

The hunter frowned at the reminder of the Dark Magic wielder. "Where is he?" she asked, glancing around.

Larna pointed towards the farmhouse. "As soon as he found out we need to wait, he decided to take a nap. Which given how we're not likely to be going anywhere was probably a good idea on his part. Just found a corner that didn't stink, wrapped himself in his cloak, put his head on his arm and passed out." She made a face. "Do you know what happened in that barn? It smells like a sewer.."

"It's where slavers kept people imprisoned in conditions not unlike a sewer," Maria said.

In the dim ambient light, she saw Larna Smith blink. "Oh. Wait, this is that farm?"

Maria nodded.

Larna Smith shuddered. "Suddenly, I don't want to sleep in the farmhouse."

"Best you don't," Maria agreed. She was certainly going to have her wards sleeping in the carriage. It had just occurred to her they might not react well to seeing where they were. She turned to Lalatina. "Is everyone well?"

"As well as people getting ready to campaign could be, I think," Lalatina said, looking slightly uncertain. "Everyone is getting to know each other, and things are polite so far. A few are nervous, since they've never fought beyond the bounds of Sorcier before. Just nerves, I think."

Maria doubted it. She suspected people were feeling each other out, establishing relative amounts of experience. Even people on the same side always if they just met. Hopefully, people would be mature enough to not let such things impede what they had to do.

But she knew better than to rely on hope.

"I'll deal with it," she assured the other knight, who she'd asked to keep an eye on things if Maria was delayed, which she was. "They are here at my behest, so I must see to them."

So saying, she turned and went to get her squire so she could be thrown in the face of any arising social problems.

If it worked, why change it?

Things turned out very well, in Maria's opinion. Katarina had drawn a lot of attention by virtue of… well, being Katarina. She'd gone in, reminded everyone they were her friends, and by association they were each other's friends, all while bouncing around like a little girl trying to show off a new dress but not wanting to be obvious about it. It was actually rather cute, and Dame Matthew was obviously memorizing every detail so she could retell events at some future time.

Maria only saw it in glimpses. After cautioning her wards not to leave the carriage and making sure that the window would not face the barn or the house should they look outside, she found herself busy. Thankfully everyone had already eaten, though the Catarini were setting up a pot of Estus Soup in case anyone was feeling like having a snack. Thankfully, she didn't have to make a speech again. Instead, Maria spoke to the leaders of the knights from the various countries, seeing if they needed anything, then going to speak to the various Sorcieri knights. A few words to make sure that they had comfortable sleeping arrangements, since not everyone had decided to bring their carriage.

Apparently, many wanted to sleep around the bonfire that had been set up behind the house. The bonfire had been set up in a a shallow, bowl-like pit, to further hide it from view of those on the road. It was something of an idealization of the time of myth, where the bonfires were the only truly safe place for those who had not gone hollow.

"Ooh, can I try it too, Dame Maria?" Katarina had asked as soon as she'd heard.

Maria had exchanged glances with Dame Matthew and Dame Lalatina, who had both nodded. The other knights didn't even bother to hide the gesture, well-used to Katarina not noticing things like that.

She made sure her squire brought her scythe with her. It made Katarina extremely irritable—which was almost cute, since it was Katarina—which would hopefully be deterrent enough.

Her ward stayed in the carriage, sleeping on the benches and floor, while Maria sat on the ground next to it, her back to one of the wheels as she forced herself to sleep and not worry about whether they would be able to sneak all these knights across the border, whether they'd be able to find the smuggler's paths at all, whether they could cross most of La Sable without being detected…

Sleep didn't come as easily as she'd hoped.

To Maria's surprise, nothing got in their way as the group of knights made their way towards the border. They traveled from just before dawn to about an hour after dusk until they could no longer see the road, the formation of carriages and horsemen managing to clear a path for itself through the normal traffic of wagons and other carriages. At midday, thought would briefly stop to serve whatever food the Catarina had prepared, served hot by the judicious use of someone's Fire Magic to warm the large pot. Most of the time the food served was some kind of hearty soup, with vegetables and greens thrown in. Everyone ate quickly, Water magic wielder filling a barrel from which everyone could refill their various water skins and flasks to prevent dehydration.

After five days of travel, they found themselves near the border between Sorcier and La Sable. Once the town of Noir came into sight on the horizon, Maria ordered a halt as she consulted with her wards and Sora the Dark Magic wielder where they should go next. Separately, of course, as the women were still uncomfortable around most males. Yes, Sadako had acclimated to Rafael's presence, but she was the exception rather than the rule.

Once the lunch that the Catarini had produced was consumed—a simple soup of meat, fat, water and sound wild berries that had been found—the whole procession left the highway, turned west down a track that was less a path and more a space between the trees that was conveniently the right width to let a wagon—or carriage— through. The horsemen scouted ahead, watchful for ogres, giant crabs, and wild basilisks. Maria wasn't the only one standing atop her carriage and watchful of the latter.

The first sign that they were on the right course was when they found a tracks of wagons, patches of ground where the undergrowth had been trampled and cleared regularly. The signs were close enough that even a casual observation allowed one to discern a path that pointed in the general direction of La Sable. It wasn't anything that Maria's wards or Sora recognized, but it seemed a promising direction, so the procession followed it.

The second sign that they were on the right course was when they saw a small group of wagons coming towards them from the direction of the border. Besides the wagon driver, each wagon was accompanied by between four and six men armed with swords, clubs and other simple weapons. The wind shifted, and from the wagons Maria smelled sweat and unwashed flesh… as well as the very quiet sound of someone crying, each intake of breath hiccup-like and stifled…

As Maria leapt off the roof of her carriage and drew her swords, she made a note to inform His Majesty that they had found an active smuggling route…