Even though the group of foreign knights—with ex-slave wards—were now effectively invisible as they passed themselves off as a group of mercenaries, as long as they made their way around the roads exploitive toll fees. This did not mean there weren't any problems. While some of the towns and villages they passed were perfectly friendly and welcoming as long as they didn't outstay their welcome or actually stay within the premises of the settlement, many were reticent and suspicious. Of the latter, many of them had an intense look she had seen in blood-drunk hunters, staring at them as if they wanted nothing more than to rip the blood from their veins to consume and sate their desires.

It probably meant something that regardless of which kind of settlement they camped next to at night, they'd get isolated attempts to steal their wagons, horses and supplies. None succeeded—they were knights, and while Maria had yet to do it herself, her companions were well-used to keeping watch at night for exactly these sorts of raids from far more malicious people—but after that they tried to stay a far away from villages and towns as possible. It hadn't happened all the time, but best not to take chances.

Such measures also prevented the knights with her from doing something… foolishly heroic. More than a few had taken offense when they'd seen a knight, with insignia that indicated he was a Blue Sentinel, obviously extorting souls from someone. In one town, knights of the Warriors of the Sun wore gleaming golden armor and walked around like bullyboys, people cringing in their presence. Even Katarina was aghast at some of the things they saw.

"That much souls for these vegetables?" she said, looking livid as she regarded the pitiful greens and root vegetables that the Catarini had managed to bring back from their latest foray to the markets. "That was a scam! These greens are obviously wilted, and these potatoes are starting to turn green! I mean, we can plant them, but if we try to eat them we'll be poisoned! What kind of self-respecting farmer sells produce like this?-! Who sold this to you? I'm going to give them a piece of my mind!"

It took a surprisingly long time to get Katarina to calm down, and even after she was muttering about how it made sense La Sablicans kept importing food since they were obviously garbage at doing it themselves.

This wasn't all that Katarina did, of course. True to her promise, she kept introducing—or rather, re-introducing—Maria to the various knights they were traveling with, because she was taking her statement that she was helping Maria make friends very seriously. Dame Millicent and her sisters Dame Pollyanna, Dame Maureen, Dame Amy and Dame Mary—whom Maria learned actually did posses a strange resemblance to Mary Hunt, albeit with smaller blood vials and vivid crimson hair—were all agreeable young women, and Maria had found herself drawn into conversation with them after Katarina's forced introduction.

Katarina hadn't even given Dame Mary the same looks she kept giving Dame Vardan for the scythe the Hallig knight was wielding. Perhaps because the appearance was sufficiently un-scythe-like that she didn't see it as such.

Her squire introduced and reintroduced her to people every day, and it was only by using her Dark Magic to keep refreshing the vividness of her memories did Maria manage to not embarrass herself by forgetting someone's name. She had to wonder how Katarina managed it. Was her head so filled with names there was no room for anything else?

…

That was actually quite plausible.

Beyond the occasional random attempt at theft when near a town, their journey towards La Sable's Capitol was relatively peaceful. Within the county itself, there were no indications that there was an upcoming war with Sorcier and its allies. Towns seems fully populated, so it seemed unlikely that anyone had been conscripted to be soldiers. Despite the relatively poor quality of the produce available, there seemed to be no shortage of it. Some careful questioning revealed that that people didn't even know there was a war on, or that anything had happened that might be cause for one. The closest was the admission they knew that the Lord Presider had travelled to 'some barbaric foreign country to show the banner and try to show the backwards people there how they could be as great as La Sable', which…

Well, suffice to say, while the soldiery along its borders seemed to know what the state of affairs with Sorcier was, the rest of La Sable was woefully ignorant.

Despite this, Maria kept expecting something to happen. A patrol confronting them, being ambushed in the night, some corrupt knights trying to extort souls from them as well, even just a random attack by pack of dogs! The lack of things going wrong, while something to be thankful for, was making her increasingly nervous. Surely something should have happened by now?

These thoughts accompanied her even as the city of Vanwakhan, the Capitol of La Sable, came into sight. Or rather, the lands around Vanwakhan.

There tended to be a sprawl around cities and the very large towns that were essentially small cities. She'd seen in in Morfae Londo, the royal seat of Sorcier; she'd seen it with Cleeseton where all major business occurred for the Morpork Duchy; and she'd even seen it in Noir, because of all the commerce that occurred there and all the knights that were garrisoned. Around the cities were houses, inns, taverns, and other establishments that couldn't afford premises within the city. From there, the sprawl slowly grew sparse as it gave way to poultry farms, factories, slaughterhouses, and then beyond that into small farms and then large farms.

The land around the city of Vanwakhan followed a similar pattern, except…

There were no trees. Even in the sprawl around cities, there were trees, for shade, for fruit, and as landmarks and meeting points. In this city… there wasn't. As far as she could see, there were no immediately obvious trees. All she could see were the gray tones of old wood and a few isolated buildings of stone. And that was another thing. There didn't seem to be much color in the outskirts. No whitewash, no bright paint… it all seemed to blend into sun-bleached gray.

In the center of all that sprawl was the city itself. Surrounded by a circular wall that encompassed the identifiable parts of the city, it had a river flowing through it. From the smoke rising in the air, the river was on fire. From the lectures that had prepared her for the international Assembly, seemingly so long ago but barely a couple of week past, this was an oddity known to happen to the Auhanta river, as the river was less a water source and more of a man-made urban swamp. Depending on the time of year, giant mosquitoes, dragonflies or leeches would rise out of the waters. The smoke from the river fire itself was merely another source for the haze that seemed to shroud the city, which seemed surrounded by a thick veil.

The actual city behind that veil wasn't anything impressive. While it reminded her oh Yharnam, it did not have that place's propensity to build tall, towering structures. Instead, the city's structure's seemed to mostly consist of cube-shaped, fortress-like buildings, the upper floors decorated with stained glass windows. At least that's what they were supposed to be. Through the binoculars Maria was using, the windows were covered in soot and dust, making them seem as plain gray as the stone around them.

Between the distance they still had to travel and what looked like long lines at the gates of the city—lines that didn't seem to be getting shorter any time soon—Maria estimated it would take them a day to actually get inside the city. It appeared that all the security measures and preparations that La Sable had been making for the war had been restricted to the city. No doubt that there were patrols and inspections that were the cause of the congestion at their gates. At this stage they would need to be even more careful, lest they be caught literally at their enemy's gates.

Lowering the binoculars and temporarily stashing it in a pocket of her coat, Maria very carefully climbed down from the tree she was on. At this height, the fall could very well be fatal, and even if it wasn't, it would have been painful.

"Set up camp," she told the knight's awaiting her once she reached ground level. "Make it seem that our 'mercenary company' is pausing to restock our provisions and give our people some leisure. My squire and I will approach the city to assess what measures they've taken to protect themselves from spies and sappers, and scout for ways to circumvent it so that we can sneak everyone into the city."

There were frowns at this, which made Maria wonder what they disliked about the plan.

"Maria…" Dame Matthew said slowly. "Are you sure it's a good idea to bring Katarina into this? I mean…"

"If someone asked if she was spying, she'd probably tell them," Dame Lalatina said with absolutely no delicacy, and many people nodded, looking rueful or exasperated. "Katarina's a good friend, but everyone knows Int isn't something she's leveled to the soft-cap."

Ah.

Maria nodded. "I am well aware, Dame Lalatina. However, as long as we have managed to keep our quest secret, should an issue arise that hinders us from progressing that need not be solved by violence, throwing Katarina at someone would be the quickest way to reach a resolution."

That caused a range reactions from amused to resigned as people found that logic undeniable. Dame Matthew looked like she wanted to be offended on behalf of her cousin, but even she couldn't deny that. Instead, she sighed and said, "Please don't bring your carriage. It would draw far too much attention. Just take the hors—" She cut off, and a horrified look came over her face. "Just walk. Cousin Katarina doesn't know how to ride a horse."

Maria stared. Katarina… didn't know how to… "I see. Thank you for informing me. I will need to rectify that and add it to her training when we return." Really, though? Riding a horse was simple! Just sit on the saddle and the horse would take you where you wanted to go! It was as simple as riding a carriage. "We should return tomorrow, at which point we will begin planning ways to circumvent their security measures—"

A hundred souls poorer, Maria just stood there, staring with unseeing eyes at the city in front of her. Behind her, she could hear the toll takers barking that the fee was a hundred souls per person, keep the line moving, they only accepted exact change—!

"Yay!" Katarina exclaimed happily. "We're inside! Ooh, a sausage in a bun stand! Maria, Maria—!"

Maria opened her mouth to reflexively to correct her squire, only to recall that they were in disguise as… well, not a knight and her squire, and awkwardly changed what she was going to say. "Y-yes, I'm Maria."

"—can we try out a sausage in a bun? Ooh, and chicken skewers!"

"Katarina, you'll make yourself sick eating that food."

"But it's cooked, so it should be fine, right?"

"No, Katarina."

There had been no guards posted at the gates, no inspections… perhaps there were armed men sitting in the nearby guard house, but that wasn't at the gate, keeping order. If something occurred, like a dozen knights drawing weapons and forcing their way into the city, they wouldn't be able to respond before several people were dead, and the guard house's narrow door would mean any guards would step out and quickly die one at a time…

They could do this. They could make this city fall. They could make it burn. And it didn't seem like it would be very har—

No, wait. This was the gate, the poorer district. Surely there would be better measures among the manses of the nobility and the wealthy, and around the premises of the important government buildings!

Nodding to herself, Maria turned to her squire and—

"No, Katarina. No sausages in a bun."

"Aaaaw!"