A Millidiana Interlude

"You are not in trouble daughter," Duchess Millidiana Claes said, even as she made an effort to keep her expression mild. It wouldn't do to make her daughter think she was being scolded, after all. "I simply need you to tell me about the gala."

"Eh? But weren't you there too, mother?"

"Yes, but I wasn't able to mingle much. Tell me, how did you find the gala?"

"I… followed you and Keith? We all came together, remember?"

Calm, calm. Katarina tended to misunderstand, but once she did, she would be very enthusiastic and helpful. "I mean, did you enjoy the gala?"

Katarina brightened. "Oh, it was really fun! I thought it would be boring and just be a bunch of people who'd be fake smiling at each other while being mean, but people were really nice!"

Ah, this should do. "Oh, how nice. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. Why don't you tell me all about it, Katarina? What did you do after we separated?"

"Well, Keith and I started to mingle, and that's how we met Hitomi-chan—"

"—and then we properly made our good byes to the nice ladies and that one who might not have been a lady but looked like one," Katarina related enthusiastically. Mili was amused to see her daughter was actually smug as she leaned forward in a whisper that wasn't a quiet as she thought it was. "They were all hitting on Keith, and he didn't even notice! Honestly, he's a good boy, but maybe he's too innocent? We should probably teach him about this before he accidentally embarrasses himself."

Behind her, Keith looked mortified as his cousins smirked at him, their political allies snickering slightly at his expense.

Mili herself had to fight to keep her face set at merely a genuinely interested smile as she nodded to her daughter's words. Inside, she was torn between exasperation, glee, pride, and agreement, but she couldn't show that. for one, it would confuse her dear daughter, and she might have lost track of her story. For another, it would damage her dignity. Unlike her daughter, she didn't have a reputation for being free with her emotions. She was poised and dignified.

But inside, she wanted to grin.

"It sounds like you had fun," Mili said instead, allowing her smile to widen the slightest bit.

"Yes, it was! I hope they'll let me translate tomorrow, I want to see Mircalla again! Ah, sorry, Lady Mircalla!"

"We should know soon," Mili said. She was still unsure how they would be able to turn this to Sorcier's advantage during the negotiations, but however they could… it would not involve telling Katarina what it was. While Lady Maria had worked miracles in teaching Katarina etiquette and actually getting her to use it, deception did not come naturally to her daughter. Katarina tended to say exactly what she thought… sometimes without realizing it. While she might sometimes be able to held her tongue… best not to risk it.

"Oh, I just remembered," Katarina said brightly. She leaned forward again and whispered, again not as quietly as she thought she did, "Do you know what the unbeatable social-political weapon" Dame Maria is planning is?"

Mili blinked. "An… unbeatable social-political weapon?"

Katarina nodded solemnly. "She said it would give Sorcier an advantage during the International Assembly. Do you know what it is? I didn't see her do anything, but I really wasn't looking. Was it something really cool?"

Lady Maria had something like that planned? Did the king know? He should, but if so, why hadn't they been informed? They might have interfered in ignorance! That was unusually thoughtless of Lady Maria.

"I do not recall any such thing," Mili said slowly, aware that the people around them were listening. Some of them were Marquis and Machionesses, but they were from old families and trusted allies of House Claes. "Did she say anything more about this… weapon?"

Katarina shook her head, sighing. "No. She didn't even really tell me, she was just talking to herself and I heard it. Really, she should be more careful about when she thinks out loud." Behind her, Keith started coughing. It somehow managed to actually sound indignant. "Then she started telling me I should go and make friends, just smile and be my usual self, be nice to everyone…" She sighed again as the door finally opened from the other side for Mili.

Years of familiarity with not letting her reactions show on her face stood her in good stead as she managed to maintain her expression. Behind Katarina, people made strange faces as they came to the same realization. Keith, Lady Mary, and Lady Sophia all looked both indignant and horrified.

"Well, Lady Maria's advice has stood you in good stead so far," she found her mouth saying. "Simply follow her advice at tomorrow's luncheon after the morning's negotiations. You should know soon if you will be asked to translate tomorrow's."

Someone knocked on the door, tapping out the sequence that informed everyone that all was well. One of few trusted servants in the room opened the door, and there was an exchange. The door closed, and the servant made her way towards Mili.

"Your grace," the servant said, presenting a sealed envelope, the black wax marked with the royal darksign.

Gingerly, Mili took the envelope and checked for poison needles and powders—it was a bad habit to fall out of the practice, even when one was supposedly safe—before carefully breaking the seal.

"Oh, hi Jennifer! How's your family?"

"They are well, Lady Katarina, thank you for asking."

Mili resigned herself to Katarina of course knowing the servant by name as she checked the missive. "It appears that the request for you to act as translator during the coming negotiations has finally passed through officials channels. This is the missive requesting your presence, if you are willing."

Katarina blinked. "Well, of course I am. I already said I would."

Mili nodded. "Well, why don't you go with Keith and your cousins and rest for the afternoon? There is nothing planned for dinner save the display of nightflowers. Unless Lady Maria assigned you some lessons."

"No, she didn't…" Katarina brightened. "She didn't! I'm a free! … for this afternoon. Yay!" Despite the words, Katarina did not leap about and cavort as she usually did, remaining in her chair. It was… well, it was an appreciable increase in her dignity and decorum.

As Katarina led Keith and her cousins off, soon followed by all the younger lords and ladies, their elders approached Mili and Henryk, presenting the reports of what had been discovered. Many were probably repetitions, though those compiling them would have tried to prevent that from occurring. Still, it was inevitable. She, her husband, Henryk, and her sisters-in-law would probably need to quickly skim through the reports and mark repeated information before they could submit the reports to the king to prepare him for the dinner he would be having with the representatives of the other nations.

The other nations were doubtlessly compiling their own reports to prepare their own representatives. While the other nations were, of course, allies and friends… No peace lasts forever.

Maria checked the windows, resisting the urge to draw the curtains closed since the king had ordered them opened. Even though there were no parapets or towers of a level or higher than the window, she still worried that some assassin with a bow, greatbow or crossbow would try to use that as an avenue of attack. She had even checked out the window and had been pleasantly surprised to find that there was no ledge that someone might use to access the window. The marks implied most of the ledge that used to be there had been removed by earth magic. Chains full of bells connected together into a net hung from the outside wall to provide warning should anyone try to use earth magic to rebuild the ledge for some nefarious purpose.

The reports from the various dukes of what the other nobles under them had discovered had started pouring in, and the king, queen, princes, Prime Minister and a few trusted staff were in the process of sorting through the reports. General Solcrista had reported there were no problems with the castle's security, and that the Dark Magic checks had turned up nothing. Maria sincerely hoped that meant there was nothing, but she wouldn't bet on it.

"Ah, that hits the spot," Prince Alan sighed as he soaked his feet in a basin of water with ice cubes floating on it.

"Really Alan, that is undignified," Prince Ian commented, quickly reading through the stack of papers in front of him and using a pen to annotate the sheet.

"Dignity can go get kicked over a ledge by the Unbreakable One. Trust me Ian, when you have a chance to soak your feet between concerts, you take it. "

While there were a few hours before the king's dinners with the other delegates, there was no time to rest. Not really. As the others sorted through the incoming reports, the king was already reading through the reports that his sons, the queen, and the Prime Minister had written on their findings. Maria had also submitted her own meager findings, but since she had mostly been in the company of the king, there was really little for her to add.

For a moment, her attentiveness lapsed, and she wondered how her squire had conducted herself. They had received the official request from at least three other nations for Katarina to act as a translator for the undead in tomorrow's proceedings. A part of her was panicked at the thought. Katarina, so close to such serious negotiations? Acting as the mouthpiece for others? It all seemed to be tempting fate to backstab you with some sort of terrible social disaster, some humiliation for Sorcier on the world stage.

The rest of her beat that part for impugning her squire's honor, dueling it to the death and slaughtering it as her prey. It was unworthy of her to assume her squire would fail. While failure was always a possibility, so was any random person going mad and revealing they were the rebirth of the paledrake. Her squire had been learning her lessons diligently, applying them where appropriate more often than not. If she was given simple directions for how she should conduct herself while she acted as a translator, Maria had no doubt that she'd be able to… mostly… follow them.

All right, it was still worrying, but not so worrying as to be worth panicking about!

Really, Maria should probably be more concerned about the presence of the Third Prince. While she had not yet be informed of whether the he had originally been part of tomorrow's negotiations, Maria had no doubt he'd find a way to do so now. While Katarina might accidentally do something scandalous…

No, no, that was also an unworthy thought. The only instance where the Third Prince had deliberately neglected his duties in favor of Katarina had been when she had fallen into a deep slumber because of Dark Magic. The unnatural sleep had, in hindsight, likely been extremely worrying, especially since the prince would, in retrospect, have suspected it was the result of Dark Magic. In all future incidents, who had never neglected his duties in favor of Katarina. Rushed them? certainly. Neglected? No.

Still, Maria couldn't help but worry. She tried to turn her mind towards wondering how Rafael was fairing, but hastily leapt down from that ladder as she felt her throne begin to want for him. It had been over a week since they had been together, and no doubt his lusts needed to be sated…

No, no, stop thinking about it, it's far too distracting! Look at the carpet, check the carpet for footprints of invisible assassins!