Maria had never attended a party outside of the Academy and being knighted before. Fortunately, all the etiquette was the same, and she'd had new formal suits made, with a special, extra-shiny black leather tricorne hat to accompany it. She wore her sword belted on this time, in case someone got kidnapped again, and had one of the grooms standing by outside the estate guardhouse with a horse for riding. Sophia had been amused at the request for her groom to stay at the guard house, but had been agreeable to it.
Maria had overseen their workers setting up the lofting tubes at the edge of the estate, covered in tarps and plugs in case of either rain or flame butterflies (a bit late in the year for them, but better safe than sorry). They were now enjoying a day off with minor bonus pay and food (as opposed to a whole day's work with cut pay) with a promise of nightflowers at the end. She would probably need to have an established team for setting up the fireworks in future, rather than having their regular workers interrupt production to do it, but that was a consideration for later.
She'd been introduced to their host and de facto client earlier, before the party had begun, in their station as Earl Dan Ascart, rather than Prime Minister Ascart, and his with Countess Radea Ascart. The nightflowers were meant to be a surprise for the honored lady, who seemed genuinely ignorant anything was in store for her. Maria was introduced as a school friend.
"Oh? How do you know Sophia, Lady Campbell?" Countess Ascart asked.
"We work together in the student council, your ladyship," Maria said.
"Oh, are you the Maria whom Nicol spoke of?" Countess Ascart said. "Ah, I'm glad to put a face to the name."
"Good things, I hope?" Maria said.
"He said you spoke to him like he was a completely unremarkable person," the Countess said. "He enjoyed your company immensely, though as a mother I have to ask if you happen to be hard of seeing."
"Not at all, countess," Maria said. "Nicol is a very visually aesthetically-pleasing person. I was simply unattracted to him."
"'Visually aesthetically-pleasing'? My, I've never heard Nicol described like that before. Ah, I can see why he likes you so much," the countess said. "Be welcome to my home, Lady Campbell. All of my children's friends are welcome here."
"I thank you for your hospitality, countess," Maria said with a bow.
"You were right," Radea Ascart said to her husband, chuckling. "She's a female Nicol! And almost as pretty!"
"A pity they're not interested in each other," Dan said, smiling. "Their children might reach a level of aesthetically-pleasing never before reached by mankind!"
The two shared a quickly laugh in the lull before the first guests arrived. They just stood there, enjoying each other's presence and looking into each other's eyes lovingly.
There was a beat.
Hand-in-hand, they both turned and casually raced for the nearest private room.
Nearby servant sighed and, with well-practiced movements, went to get their masters some perfume to cover up the coming odor, and possibly a new dress and pant if needed.
Maria was not uncomfortable at parties. She was of the blood of Cainhurst (in a previous life) and though Cainhurst parties quickly devolved into hedonistic affairs of blood, decadence, blood, dominance, blood, debauchery, blood, déshabillé, blood and bloody déshabillé, they were nobility and so in the beginnings of the affairs, certain forms of propriety were followed, even if only to be discarded as the party wore on. But only after the Queen left, of course. There would be no baseness before the Queen.
Maria had eventually learned to cope. The fact she was unlikely to be cast to the ground to be rav– … the fact she wouldn't have to kill anyone for trying once the guest of honor retired was very relaxing.
She casually hid the glass that had cracked in her hands and stepped casually away from it as she banished memories of when she'd been presented to all Cainhurst when the woman who'd borne her decided she was ready. That life was a death and a death behind her…
Still, she found herself slightly adrift in this party. Most of the guests were older nobles she was unfamiliar with. She probably knew their names, but knew them not by sight, even the obvious knights who towered over those with weaker souls. Some wore swords and actually seemed to know how to use them. Teenagers were fewer, and she was completely unfamiliar with most of them. She recognized a few who had graduated the year before, probably here accompanying parents or escorting lone sisters or aunts. Maria had nothing to do, as she had no need to go around and seeing that everything was in order.
So she stayed by Sophia's side, helping the scaleless young woman avoid the others of their generation until Katarina Claes and her retinue arrived. She wasn't much help, as she was barely taller than Sophia and not much help at seeing over the crowd, but apparently she made a convenient piece of mobile cover to hide behind.
Even so, Sophia didn't truly relax until Katarina came to the party. Were she not watching for it, Katarina's arrival would still have been obvious from the loud 'Happy Birthday Auntie Radea!' she let out on meeting the guest of honor. But that was Katarina.
After clasping hands and getting significantly more time talking to the guest of honor than anyone else previously, Katarina happily turned to Nicol and Sophia, who had somehow moved across the room at a speed to rival quickening to be with her brother and Katarina, leaving Maria faintly bemused and amused as she followed more sedately. Her new pistol was a comforting weight at her side, as were the twenty cartridges and paper twists of priming powder in her pockets.
She exchanged nods with Lord Claes and, to his confusion, with Duchess Claes. They didn't share openly conspiratorial looks, as they weren't Katarina, and this wasn't some cheap play or bad novel, or else they'd have started all sorts of absurd rumors.
"Duchess Claes," Maria said. "It's good to see you again. How are things with you?"
"Most excellent, Lady Campbell," the Duchess said. "I've recently entered into a most rewarding correspondence. It was quite long overdue."
"I am happy for you," Maria said. "Is his grace not in attendance?"
The Duchess did not roll her eyes while simultaneously giving the impression of doing so. "Some short butler dragged him off somewhere."
It took a while for Maria to process that, and she blinked when it did. "Oh? The butler and his lady are here? Despite the Princes being in attendance?"
"If the king were to attend Countess Radea's birthday party, he would take the focus off the quest of honor," the Duchess said. "So he did not attend."
Maria nodded as Lord Claes looked back and forth between them, confused. "Ah. So I see."
"Um, could you explain mother?" Lord Claes said. "Because I don't see."
Duchess Claes suddenly smile, proud and warm and it made the child and the lady in Maria envious all over. "I'll explain at home Keith," she said, smiling fondly at him.
Maria and the Duchess exchanged last polite nods before going their separate ways. As a confused Lord Claes followed his mother, Maria went to get herself a new drink.
As the party went on, Maria met many new nobles, mostly because she stayed with Sophia, who stayed with Katarina, who everyone spun around like the nexus of a wide, lustful constellation. Maria felt vaguely annoyed, in a philosophical sort of way. Hadn't she once stayed away from Katarina to prevent exactly this sort of situation? Well, perhaps not exactly this. In her imagined scenario, there was more debauchery involved.
Still, as the newest person there, the Third Prince, Lady Hunt, Lord Claes and even Lord Ascart kept going 'Haaave you met Lady Campbell?' directing the latest person who'd walked up to them for some reason or other (and thus cut into their Katarina time) towards her. Surprisingly, some actually wanted to, congratulating her and Katarina on their swordplay at the Academy's festival, mentioning her 'alchemical presentation' and implying they wished to speak to her about it, lauded her on the defeat of 'that vile slaver' and, most foolishly, implied they wanted to buy some of the foreign women in her care.
A quick consultation with the Third Prince informed her that, no, she was NOT allowed to break anyone's anything for such disgusting implications. He told her to remember them and point them out to him and he would destroy them himself. Maria found this agreeable, and the visions of some slimy, lecherous, make-up caked woman woman having the full black-hearted imagination of the Third Prince directed against her was just barely able to overcome Maria's urge to rip her heart out when she implied she 'understood Maria's Ashina fetish'.
Most of her conversations were not so morally repugnant as to drive her to the edge of murder, however. Most nobles were polite, bland, inquisitive, educated… basically, perfectly normal nobles of the sort she could find anywhere. None looked at her like they wondered what her blood tasted, which she was always grateful for. There were the usual probing questions trying to learn her political inclinations, implying they could better her lot if she swore herself to them as her liege, trying to sleep with her, the usual. The offers of all sorts seemed perfunctory, spoken more in the once in a million hope of a straight answer rather than the expectation of one.
As the party wore on and neared its end, Maria, on a signal from Sophia, excused herself to begin the final preparation for the nightflowers.
The nightflowers were launched. None of the tubes misfired or exploded violently. No one was hurt. There was much rejoicing.
When Maria returned to the party, all were abuzz with excited talk, while Sophia spoke, in a voice pitched to carry, of how the display was arranged, "At great expense and time!" by the Nightflower Workshop, and how they had also already been commissioned to put forth another display at the Academy Graduation Ceremony.
For some irritating reason, most people seemed to assume the Nightflower Workshop was some creation of the Third Prince's, as people seemed to remember his name from the announcement board at the Academy.
Quite sensibly, in Maria's opinion, the prince was quick to direct them to her, and she spent the rest of the party putting her wit and charm to work as she explained about the Nightflower Workshop and how they would be free to commission more displays… after the graduation. That didn't stop people from trying to commission a display for the very next night after graduation, and Maria had to gently refuse them, asserting they needed at least two weeks to prepare for any particular display. Still, their eagerness and enthusiasm to give her their souls made her increase her profit margin even more, if only to discourage every noble present trying to commission her for every night of the week.
Still, it was a happy problem for any new business. Tonight's display hadn't even taken a twentieth of their new powder stores, and with a core of experienced workers, Maria could slowly begin ramping up production. So she smiled her courtier's smile and remembered names and faces as tomorrow looked to be filled with her, as her verse during the tavern song during the school festival had gone, 'surrounded by enormous piles of money'. It probably wouldn't be on an island that she owned, though.
As long as Rafael and her mother were with her, she was fine with that.